Internal Family Systems and Shamanism: Listening to the Voices of the Ancestors Within.

At first glance, Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy and shamanic traditions seem to arise from entirely different worlds—one grounded in contemporary psychotherapy, the other rooted in ancient spiritual lineages. Yet when examined more closely, a profound resonance emerges. Both understand healing as a relational process involving inner beings, unseen influences, and the ancestral forces that live on within us.

Richard Schwartz, founder of IFS, has increasingly acknowledged that our inner “parts” are not only shaped by personal life experiences, but may also carry burdens inherited from ancestors, family systems, and collective history. This insight places IFS in close alignment with shamanic views of the psyche.

Parts as Inner Beings: A Shamanic Understanding of Multiplicity

Shamanic cultures across the world have long viewed the psyche as plural. Spirits, protectors, wounded soul parts, and helpers are experienced not as metaphors, but as living presences with their own intelligence and needs. Healing, in this context, is not about eliminating these beings, but about restoring right relationship with them.

IFS begins from a strikingly similar premise. Schwartz observed early in his work that the mind is naturally multiple, composed of parts with distinct emotions, beliefs, and roles. Crucially, he emphasized that these parts are not pathological.

As Schwartz writes:

“We are born with parts. This is not a sign of pathology; it’s the way the mind works.”

From a shamanic lens, this sounds familiar. Both systems assume that inner multiplicity is natural—and that suffering arises when certain inner beings are forced into extreme roles.

Legacy Burdens: When Parts Carry Ancestral Trauma

One of the clearest bridges between IFS and shamanism lies in Schwartz’s concept of legacy burdens. These are emotional weights, beliefs, and survival strategies that did not originate in the individual’s own life, but were inherited from ancestors, family lineage, culture, or collective trauma.

Schwartz explains:

“Some parts are burdened with extreme beliefs and emotions that they inherited from ancestors who lived through trauma.”

This becomes vivid in clinical work. For example, a client struggling with chronic hypervigilance and emotional numbness discovered a powerful Protector part whose role was to “stay alert at all times.” As the client accessed Self energy and gently inquired into this part’s history, images arose that clearly did not belong to their own life: bomb shelters, sudden attacks, and the terror of responsibility for others’ survival.

Later, the client learned that their grandfather had survived war and displacement—experiences never spoken about in the family. In IFS terms, this Protector was carrying a legacy burden. In shamanic terms, this would be understood as ancestral trauma seeking resolution through a descendant.

Healing did not come through analysis, but through acknowledgment. During unburdening, the part released its fear into a symbolic fire and returned the burden to the ancestors with respect: “This belongs to you. I honor what you endured.” The client reported a profound softening afterward, as if something ancient had finally been laid down.

Ancestral Grief and the Unseen Exile

Legacy burdens do not only appear as vigilance or fear; they often surface as unexplained grief. Another client came to therapy with deep sadness that felt disconnected from their personal life story. An Exile part emerged holding overwhelming sorrow, yet it could not identify a personal memory that explained its intensity.

As the Self stayed present, the Exile revealed imagery of a young woman losing a child. The client later recognized this as echoing the story of a great-grandmother whose infant had died—a loss never acknowledged due to cultural norms of silence and endurance.

Schwartz has noted that such experiences often involve parts carrying pain that is “clearly not from the client’s own experience.” In shamanic traditions, this would be understood as an unmourned ancestor, whose grief continues to live in the lineage until it is witnessed.

The healing involved a symbolic act of mourning—tears, words of acknowledgment, and an image of mother and child reunited in peace. Afterward, the Exile no longer carried crushing sorrow, but instead a quiet tenderness and sense of connection. This mirrors shamanic rites where grief is finally given a voice so the dead, and the living, may rest.

Unburdening as Ritual, Not Technique

In shamanic healing, ancestral burdens are often released through ritual—ceremony, imagery, and symbolic return to the elements. The healer does not “fix” the problem; they facilitate a relational process that allows balance to be restored.

IFS unburdening unfolds in a remarkably similar way. Schwartz has commented on how naturally clients gravitate toward ritual imagery:

“Clients spontaneously imagine elements like fire, water, wind, or light to release burdens, even when they have no spiritual background.”

This suggests that the psyche itself remembers ancient ways of healing. What shamanic cultures externalized as ceremony, IFS allows to arise internally—guided by Self energy rather than belief.

The Self and the Shamanic State of Consciousness

At the center of IFS is the Self: calm, compassionate, curious, and connected. The Self is not a part, but an innate healing presence that can lead the internal system.

This closely parallels the shamanic healer’s consciousness—grounded, non-judgmental, and capable of engaging with intense inner realities without becoming overwhelmed. In both traditions, healing does not come from effort or control, but from presence.

As Schwartz emphasizes:

“The Self is the healer. I don’t heal clients—Self heals.”

From a shamanic perspective, this reflects the humility of the healer: they do not impose change, but serve as a conduit for a deeper intelligence.

Healing the Individual, the Lineage, and the Collective

IFS also recognizes that some burdens are not only familial, but collective. Clients from historically oppressed groups often discover parts carrying inherited shame, fear, or invisibility. These parts may hold memories not of individual trauma, but of collective ancestral suffering.

Schwartz has explicitly stated that parts can carry burdens from culture, race, and collective history. In shamanic cultures, these would be understood as wounds of the tribe, requiring healing not just for the individual, but for the ancestral field as a whole.

When such burdens are released, clients often report a sense that they are no longer healing only for themselves, but on behalf of those who could not.

Conclusion: A Modern Pathway to Ancient Healing

Internal Family Systems does not present itself as a shamanic practice, yet again and again it arrives at the same truths known by indigenous traditions for millennia:

• The psyche is plural

• Suffering is often inherited

• Healing comes through relationship, not eradication

By acknowledging that parts may be linked to ancestors, Richard Schwartz has opened a bridge between psychotherapy and ancestral wisdom. IFS offers a modern, ethical, and psychologically grounded language for engaging territory that shamans have long navigated.

In this way, IFS becomes more than a therapy. It becomes a contemporary ritual of remembrance, allowing ancestral pain to be seen, honored, and finally released—so that life may flow forward unburdened.