About

PARTS & SELF is an online, open access magazine, published by the Foundation for Self Leadership.

We work on the basis of ongoing, online, web-based releases of new material, without particular date of release. We launched in Autumn, 2022: www.PARTSandSELF.org.

The magazine follows on from OUTLOOK, which was a PDF format issue based magazine, edited by Michelle Glass, between 2015-2021.

We see IFS as a way to effectively handle the problem of changing what is stuck, not working and destructive to personal and interpersonal well-being. We acknowledge each person to have an inner system that can be helped towards a calm and lasting success at living.  We consider IFS – with its focus on the role of Parts and Self – to be a winning, positive way towards an answer to the key question “Am I well?”. Instead of a fake reply for the sake of social pleasantry the answer becomes a true, authentic and meaningful “Yes I am well!”.

We consider that IFS, applied in the lives of individuals, can impact society for the better. One transformation at a time. One meeting with Self at a time, things can change.

With PARTS & SELF we try to work out what, why, when, how, with whom and for what purpose? The aim of the magazine is to share news relevant to Parts and Self, IFS, the IFS community, and developments relating to the Foundation – but also to go beyond this, as we explain below. We offer a mixture of interactions, from word-based articles, to video, audio, music and art.

We do not believe that Parts and Self belong to the IFS model. This configuration of who we are – being made up of Parts and a higher Self, who leads and assists those parts to live well – is, we consider, a natural state of being human.

Our core focus is Self-Leadership, as idea. We want people to encounter – eventually and through engagement with the work we offer in PARTS & SELF – the idea of being led by their inner Self. A significant part of what the magazine does, and is for, is to explore what that means, or could mean. We are aware it is still being understood and is not easy to know.

We take the responsibility to assist people to live their best life and their best version of their self seriously. Having something beneficial like Self-Leadership to hand and knowable, without talking about it, is wrong. PARTS & SELF talks, debates, questions and delivers information about this, in many ways and with many voices.

You can consult the emerging body of scientific research regarding various aspects of Self-Leadership here: https://www.FoundationIFS.org/research

Editor: Helen E. Lees, PhD

Deputy Editor: Shaun Dempsey, PhD

Publisher: Toufic Hakim, PhD, Executive Director, Foundation for Self Leadership

Volunteer Proof-Readers: Brenda Hollingsworth, MSW, LICSW; Kira Freed, MA, BCC, LPC; Karen Locke, MA; and Laura Taylor, Greenwood, MSW, LCSW.

Foundation for Self Leadership

Barbara Perkins, MA, Senior Associate Director-Development & Communications

Julia Wartenberg, PhD, Sponsored Space Manager

Josh Lisojo, MS, Web Support

Site Development

Graphic design: Erin Feodore Smith

Web developer: Facade Interactive

The Foundation for Self Leadership provides guidance and resources to ensure the magazine’s success in furthering the Foundation’s mission. The Foundation also works closely with the IFS Institute, the global center for IFS training and certification, and Richard C. Schwartz, PhD, founder of Internal Family Systems.

We actively seek submissions, suggestions and involvement in PARTS & SELF. Please contact the Editor using the Contact Form.

Note: PARTS & SELF does not endorse, nor subscribe to, the views of those we publish. Rather we encourage free thought, without judgement.

From 2022, the English version used in the magazine may differ, depending on who wrote the piece, and with which version of English they write. We may include, or link to, versions of writing in PARTS & SELF translated into the mother tongue of the author, or a language relevant to the focus of the piece.