Self-led sessions forproductive introspection.

When practicing with Mindkin, you will be asked questions that help you look inside and understand what you find. Then with new insights choose what to do next.

Begin your first session

A session with Mindkin is a time to uncover what’s below the surface in a safe and productive way. Most of the sessions are structured around Internal Family Systems theory combined with work on your vision and commitment to the actions you want to take.

Internal Family Systems

Working with the parts that look out for you.

Internal Family Systems, or IFS, is a way of understanding the mind and your behavior. It was developed in the 1980s by Richard Schwartz, a family therapist who noticed his clients describing distinct parts of themselves with their own thoughts and feelings.

The basic idea is that your mind is naturally multiple. You have parts inside that have different needs and work hard to satisfy them.

That’s how you can have internal conflicts and hear inner criticism. It’s what pushes you to keep everyone happy or never let go of that habit you so wish you could stop.

Reading this can make some people feel uncomfortable. However, IFS is not saying you have multiple personalities in the clinical sense. Rather, it’s saying that every one of us has parts inside that are trying to look out for us in some way.

Practicing IFS, you will learn to uncover what parts you have inside, what they do to help you and how to help them let go of jobs they no longer need to do. This practice alone can be eye-opening, calming and deeply satisfying.

While IFS is widely used in therapy, its theory and structure can also be used as a self-led practice to reach deep understanding, inner calm and change in your life. That is why we’ve based most of our sessions on it.

The inner system

Your parts and the Self.

In each session, you start with a feeling, thought or habit you notice in your life. Each one can be a doorway to one of your parts. IFS sorts parts into two main groups, protectors and exiles. Beneath them all is the Self, the calm core of who you are.

Protectors

Protectors are parts that try to keep you from getting hurt. Some plan ahead, like your inner critic or the part that wants everything to be perfect. Others step in when you’re already upset and try to make the feeling go away fast, through things like eating, drinking or scrolling.

A core idea of IFS is that protectors are always trying to help you, even when they cause trouble. Working with Mindkin, you will learn to understand your protectors and what they are trying to protect you from.

Exiles

Exiles are young, sensitive parts that carry pain, such as shame, fear or a sense of not being good enough. Your protectors keep them out of sight so you don’t have to feel that pain. In IFS, you get to know the protectors first, and you only move closer to an exile when your protectors are ready.

Exile work is best done in IFS therapy with a trained therapist. You will be able to become aware of exiles using the Mindkin practice. For your safety however, we currently don’t offer full exile sessions.

The Self

The Self is who you are at your core, beneath all your parts. It’s the calm and curious you that shows up when no part is in charge. IFS holds that everyone has a Self, and that it can be hidden but never damaged. When your parts step back, the Self can lead.

From this place you can listen to your protectors, understand them and help them relax. IFS calls this being Self-led, and being in that state is the foundation of the practice. A state you will learn to reach in the second session of the Mindkin introduction.

Vision and action

Inner work followed by action.

Productive introspection is where IFS meets your life’s vision and committed action.

At Mindkin, we believe life gets better when you understand yourself, know what you want to achieve in life and spend every day taking steps toward that vision.

Our mission is to create a practice and a tool that helps you achieve this. We work hard to help find the right balance between inner work and action.

The practice is designed to help you find the confidence and clarity to know you’re doing things for the right reasons so when you notice something standing in your way, you know how to meet it with curiosity and work through it.