President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Hci
Search every verified Richard Swartz interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Richard Schwartz, the developer of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model of psychotherapy, has been active in discussing and promoting the model through various interviews and webinars. In a 2021 interview, Schwartz described the IFS model as one that posits the mind is not unitary but contains multiple "parts," and that everyone has an "undamageable, intact self" which, when accessed, possesses qualities like calm, curiosity, compassion, and courage. He stated that the model is "a model of total utter compassion for everything inside of you," and that learning to love one's own parts can change how one interacts with others. Schwartz also discussed the importance of respecting "protective parts" during therapy, noting that he learned this lesson after clients experienced negative reactions when he bypassed these parts to work directly with vulnerable "exiles." In a 2020 webinar, Schwartz applied the IFS framework to societal and global issues, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic. He described the pandemic as a "wake-up call" that could force individuals and societies to reconsider their values, and he compared the "unrestrained growth" driven by "striving parts" in individuals to the economic models of many countries. Schwartz stated that the pandemic has caused immense pain but also offered an opportunity for healing, and he argued that the more "self" people bring to the crisis, the more likely its lessons will be learned. Separately, in a 2019 customer spotlight, Schwartz discussed a successful digital marketing campaign for a retail sale, noting that it brought in 1,200 leads at a cost of about one dollar per lead and that the campaign was being rolled out for future events.
“All of us have no bad parts. When we focus on whatever the part is, say it's a part that makes you addicted or has made you hit somebody, you begin to see how it got forced into this role and how much it doesn't like the role but feels like it's necessary to protect you or other vulnerable parts.”
“The idea that the mind is unitary has a history that I cover to some degree in the book and is also related to the fear of being thought of as a multiple personality, which I alluded to earlier or the fear of hearing voices means you're crazy, which is a totally different phenomenon.”
“When you do this work and realize that parts aren't what they seem, it changes the way you understand yourself and others profoundly. If everybody knew there was this undamageable, intact self inside of themselves and others, connected in a way we were talking about before, it would transform human interaction.”
“Our parts actually are sacred beings and they have bodies. I don't really know how to describe it other than as you ask these questions inside, I'm not talking about literal bodies but about the felt sense of them, like a fireball in the gut or a weight on the shoulders.”
“The self with those qualities is in everybody. It can't be damaged and knows how to heal both inside and in relationships. When parts open space, you become that person, and that person is what people meditate to get to—what in other traditions would be called Buddha nature or Atman.”
“The more you can love your parts that drive you crazy, the more you can love people who resemble those parts in the same way. It helps change many aspects of human interaction and will have a big impact on the culture.”
“If this paradigm were to pan out and go as far as it could, it would change the way people understand themselves and each other in a very profound way. Knowing there is this undamageable, intact self inside of everyone, connected and loving, would transform human interaction.”
“Many people can take some exercises or meditations from the book or online and do an enormous amount of work on their own, but for deep healing, I believe you need someone to guide you because parts can be very scary to face alone.”
“The core of the IFS model is self-leadership, which involves qualities like curiosity, compassion, confidence, courage, clarity, connectedness, creativity, and calmness. When a person is self-led, they can relate to their parts in a healing way.”
“The self is like a field or a wave, not just a particle inside us. When we enter that field, we resonate with the self in everyone, experiencing a profound sense of connectedness and unity, often accessible through meditation or psychedelics.”
“We come into the world with parts either dormant or manifest, and these parts are there to help us in our life; they are not pathologized but valuable.”
“The world has a way of triggering your exiles anyway which is a big crisis, and so another set of parts immediately goes into action to get you higher than those flames of raw emotion or to douse them with some substance or to distract you until they burn themselves out.”
“For coaches, it's safe to work with protectors of clients and maybe not go to these inner children without consultation from a therapist, because some people have severe trauma and therapeutic training is needed.”
“It's a model of total utter compassion for everything inside of you, including parts like critics, saboteurs, and even homicidal parts; once you can do that, everything outside of you changes too.”
“Our country is a massive example of parts: exiles, managers, firefighters, and the self; the self is contagious and if it trickles down from a leader, it can positively affect the atmosphere in the country or company.”
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