28: Demonstration of IFS for Sexuality and Gender Healing, with Chelsea Odhner

Disclaimer: This episode includes explicit personal conversations about sexuality, gender identity, and religious trauma. Listener discretion is advised.

In this episode Patty talks with Chelsea Rose Odhner (they/them), Level 2 IFS Practitioner, ICF Certified Coach, and an assistant in Patty’s course, Introduction to IFS through the Lens of Sexuality. This episode is specifically designed to explain core IFS concepts through Chelsea’s lived experience ontheir sexuality and gender healing journey. We walk through key ideas such as trailheads, protectors, exiles, unblending and unburdening.

This episode includes a live demo where listeners can witness the flow of an IFS session and how the tools of IFS continue to support Chelsea internally and externally, including a tender unburdening moment around a memory involving discomfort with male sexual energy. I am grateful for their generous sharing of their system where they are building ongoing relationships with parts in the complex territory of sexuality, gender, religious trauma, and authenticity.

This episode is both deeply personal and highly educational — an invitation to see IFS concepts come alive in real time around sexuality and identity.

About Chelsea

Chelsea Rose Odhner is a trained Internal Family Systems (IFS) practitioner, certified coach, and co-author of Opening the Inner World: Spiritual Healing, Internal Family Systems and Emanuel Swedenborg. With a background as a licensed massage therapist and a student of yoga philosophy, Chelsea’s work connects spirituality with embodied experience.

As the Vice President of Publishing at the Swedenborg Foundation, they are dedicated to translating complex spiritual and philosophical concepts into practical tools for personal development. Chelsea coordinates the Foundation’s in-person retreat programs, where they weave together parts-work, somatic practice, and a spiritual lens to help seekers bridge the gap between the head and the heart.

About Self-Led in Bed

Self-Led in Bed is a podcast where we explore our fascinating internal sexual landscapes and discover our authentic sexual Self through the lens of Internal Family Systems (IFS).

Hosted by Patricia Rich — Certified IFS Therapist, AASECT-Certified Sex Therapist, coach, and creator of the Self-Led Sexuality and The Six S’s models — each episode brings warm, smart, and often juicy conversations.

Resources

Get the free The Six S's of Sexual Self-Energy Infographic.

Check out our Intro to IFS Through the Lens of Sexuality Course at www.patriciarich.com.

Opening the Inner World: Spiritual Healing, Internal Family Systems, and Emanuel Swedenborg - https://www.amazon.com/Opening-Inner-World-Spiritual-Swedenborg/dp/0877853673