IFS Health Therapy with Nancy Sowell

Episode Description

This week I welcome Nancy Sowell to the podcast to kick off Season 8. She spearheaded the intervention program behind the landmark study with medical patients that helped establish IFS as a promising treatment, and she wrote a book about what IFS has to offer our physical health.

This one also feels like a full circle moment. Nancy was my lead trainer when The One Inside was just getting started.

In this episode we talk about how chronic stress, childhood adversity, perfectionism, and burdened parts affect our physical health, and what IFS can offer.

Takeaways

• Parentification, taking on adult roles or becoming an emotional support for parents in childhood, shows up again and again in the trauma histories of people with autoimmune disease
• Our health is influenced by our genome and our exposome - the collection of everything we've been exposed to throughout our lives, from gestation forward
• Chronic internal stress from parts carrying burdens, like "I'm not good enough," has a measurable effect on the body
• Nancy realized her body had been her guide all along, she just hadn't been tuning in
• Admitting you're wrong is a relief to your protectors. It's worth considering what it costs them to keep you from doing it
• Parts that don't want to connect to the body often have very good reasons. Start there

About Nancy

Nancy Sowell, LICSW, is a Senior Trainer for the IFS Institute and a Harvard Medical School Teaching Associate. She spearheaded the intervention program behind the landmark study with medical patients that helped establish IFS as a promising treatment. She has spent her career exploring how chronic stress, trauma, and unmet emotional needs--especially during childhood--affect our physical health throughout our lives, and what IFS offers for deep, sustainable well-being. Her new book, IFS Health Therapy, co-authored with Martha Sweezy and Richard Schwartz, is available now.

Episode Sponsor

This episode is sponsored by the IFS Institute.

This October, join the IFS Institute for the 2026 IFS Annual Conference, happening fully online October 15th and 16th.

Over two days, you'll hear from over 45 voices from across the IFS community exploring the theme of Self in Relationship: From Inner Healing to Collective Repair. This year's workshops will cover topics from clinical practice and emerging research to Self-leadership, relationships, culture, and the challenges we're navigating in the world today. Because this year's conference is fully virtual, you can join the IFS community from wherever you are. Early Bird pricing is available through September 30th. Visit ifs-institute.com/conference to learn more and register.

About The One Inside

I started this podcast to help spread IFS out into the world and make the model more accessible to everyone. Eight years later, that's still at the heart of all we do.

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I co-create The One Inside with Jeff Schrum, a Level 2 IFS practitioner, coach, and creativity consultant.

Resources

• New to IFS? My book, The One Inside: Thirty Days to Your Authentic Self, is a great place to start.
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Sponsorship

Want to sponsor an episode of The One Inside? Email Tammy.