I've been facilitating practice groups for IFS-trained therapists for years. And there's a particular kind of moment that keeps showing up — where the therapist is technically doing everything right, and the session still isn't landing the way they hoped. It usually isn'
Losing steam in the 6 F's isn't one problem. It's at least four. And knowing which one you're in changes everything.
When a protector keeps stepping in, the move isn't to push it away — it's to include it.
Protectors aren't blocking. They're narrating. They're the system's historian — carrying the story of what it cost, and running policy off of it ever since. When you can meet them there, something shifts.