Latest / Beyond the Facade with Choose Recovery Services and Blueprint Institute / 43: Unlock Deep Healing with Parts Work
Transcript
- 0:00Hey everybody, I've got Alana with me today and I am very
- 0:02excited to talk to you about this question I have for you is
- 0:05how many times have you demonized a part of yourself or
- 0:08you're like, I hate this part of me.
- 0:10I just needed to die, just go away.
- 0:12And you recognize I can't get it to go away.
- 0:15I I want it to go away, but I don't know how to.
- 0:19A lot of people consider call it like their attic self or their
- 0:21attic brain. We're going to talk about that
- 0:24today. Welcome to Beyond the Facade
- 0:29podcast. I'm your host, Luke Gordon, and
- 0:32I'm thrilled to have you join me in the space today.
- 0:34What we're going to be doing is diving deep into the trials and
- 0:36triumphs and truths of seeking authenticity.
- 0:40Becoming your true self isn't about a single action or a
- 0:42moment. It's a relentless pursuit, a
- 0:45commitment to self that reveals the rich connection and meaning
- 0:48that our life has to offer. So whether?
- 0:50This is your first time tuning in or you're a regular listener.
- 0:53Know this, what you're building here goes beyond a conversation.
- 0:57You're here to challenge, to change, and to celebrate the
- 0:59incredible journey of becoming your authentic self.
- 1:03Because when you dare to show up fully, the rewards are
- 1:05immeasurable. So welcome to Beyond the Facade.
- 1:08Let's get started. I'm really excited to talk about
- 1:13this topic because Luke, as I've watched you and your journey,
- 1:18you've done a lot of healing work and all of that healing
- 1:20work has been good and each one has offer different elements.
- 1:25But from an outsider's perspective, it really seems
- 1:29like the parts work as you've dived in and found a therapist
- 1:33who specialized in IFS and also who understand sexual addiction.
- 1:38I've just seen such a, for lack of better word, just a deeper
- 1:44healing that seems to be happening as you're doing this
- 1:47type of work. Yeah, thanks for saying that.
- 1:50I'm a little bit, frankly, there's been times after I did
- 1:55this parts work stuff where I've been mad because I've been mad
- 1:59that I didn't have this earlier in my journey.
- 2:01Like I'm like, how many years am I in my journey?
- 2:03And and then getting this later is very, very interesting.
- 2:08Can I ask you, like when you say mad, what do you mean by that?
- 2:11Yeah, thanks for saying that. Just like why didn't somebody
- 2:14share this with me earlier? What the hell?
- 2:16Like how did I go through this much of my journey and not have
- 2:19this part, not have this information?
- 2:22That's my story, that's my experience, that's what I've
- 2:25done. But I didn't get this
- 2:27information like 2 weeks in or three months in.
- 2:31It took a while before I discovered parts work.
- 2:33So, and the parts work can be so foundational because what it
- 2:39really does is it helps you learn how to love yourself and
- 2:42all the parts of you. And I have yet to work with an
- 2:45individual who has had a pattern of sexual, sexual acting out.
- 2:50I cannot talk today who doesn't at some level have some self
- 2:54loathing or some self hatred. And so really healing comes
- 3:01through loving ourselves, not hating ourselves.
- 3:03So it's so foundational. And sometimes we really miss
- 3:07this piece in the recovery work. Yeah, absolutely.
- 3:11It's so easy. It doesn't make a lot of sense
- 3:13when you first heard about it. OK.
- 3:14So you want me to jump into it? Sure.
- 3:16Yeah. Actually, no.
- 3:17Can I just validate one thing for about partners?
- 3:20Yeah, Please. Would you?
- 3:22OK. Sometimes when you're in your
- 3:24healing journey and you're in the beginning, and I'll say
- 3:27like, I was so there as a betrayed partner.
- 3:29I wanted somebody to come slap you on the wrist.
- 3:32Actually, no. I wanted someone to hate you,
- 3:33too. I wanted you to have that
- 3:36accountability and it scared the crap out of me that somebody
- 3:40would come and tell you, you need to learn how to love
- 3:43yourself. You need to learn how to take
- 3:45care of yourself. Because that felt really
- 3:47threatening of like he already is so focused on his self.
- 3:51You're telling me he's going to be more selfish.
- 3:54And so I just want to clarify or just speak to that can bring up
- 4:00some fear. And this does not take away like
- 4:02as we talk about this and loving our parts doesn't take away any
- 4:06of the accountability. What it does is it allows the
- 4:10person who has acted outside of their values and has been in
- 4:14hiding, it allows them to learn how to love themselves at that
- 4:19whole complete level. Which means looking at it and
- 4:24seeing what reality is, being accountable to it and learning
- 4:28how to still love yourself so you can heal and move forward.
- 4:31Yeah. And I'm going to say this in a
- 4:32really black and white way. And it's, no, it's not this
- 4:34black and white. If you're the, if you're the
- 4:37partner in healing the betrayed partner and you're listening to
- 4:39this and you're like, I'd why can't he have empathy for me?
- 4:44Let's maybe oversimplify it a little bit.
- 4:46It's because he doesn't have empathy for himself.
- 4:48He can't give you something he doesn't have for himself.
- 4:51So if this feels like unfair, what we're about to go through
- 4:55or in just, I'm not going to push back on that.
- 4:58We're not going to push back on that today.
- 5:00And if you hate it like it's OK, like that makes all the sense in
- 5:04the world. And you don't have to hold this
- 5:07for your partner. You don't have to be there with
- 5:09them in this. You don't have to be some person
- 5:11that's supportive through this part of their journey.
- 5:14If that's something you choose to do, great.
- 5:16But it's not. That's something you have to do
- 5:19that. Thank you for saying that.
- 5:21Yeah. You really have to learn how to
- 5:24have empathy for yourself and understand what empathy for
- 5:28yourself looks like and feels like to be able to give that as
- 5:31a gift to somebody else. Absolutely.
- 5:33OK, so here's how it looked for me.
- 5:35I'm just going to give you the just the scenario so you can go
- 5:38through every little emotion you maybe that I went through and
- 5:43then I'll hold on to please share with us how it would have
- 5:45impacted you. OK, there was this I went to
- 5:48therapy and kind of newer with this therapist and so I was
- 5:54filling him out a little bit and made a transition and it was
- 5:57new. I was just trying to get some
- 5:59trust for him and he almost got himself fired over it.
- 6:02And that sounds a little weird, but here's how it went down.
- 6:05I went to him and I said, hey, I want to share this to you.
- 6:09Drives me crazy because I'm not brand new in my journey and I'm
- 6:12starting to feel like Alana is leaving for the weekend and she
- 6:18going to go do a girl's trip for girls experience there with her
- 6:21friends. And I am thinking about
- 6:26different types of acting out behaviour.
- 6:27I'm thinking of these things coming to my mind and I'm like,
- 6:31and I'm just like, I'm not OK with it.
- 6:33I hate it. And I feel like it's just like
- 6:35residual and it's hanging around and I don't want it.
- 6:38So could you like help me get rid of this?
- 6:41And he said this to me and I'm like, never forget.
- 6:43And he's like, well, that that part of you that wants to go act
- 6:48outside of your values, Can you acknowledge that part?
- 6:52I'm like, what? Excuse me, You want me to
- 6:55acknowledge that part that wants to act out that would destroy my
- 6:58family. And he worked with me through
- 7:01it. But here's how it went down.
- 7:03He said that I was turned off to it and I said no, I don't want
- 7:06to acknowledge that part. And I don't know why you're
- 7:09saying that. And the next thing is that
- 7:12happened is we started to go down this path of what is that
- 7:18part feel like inside of your body?
- 7:21What are you experiencing that wanting to, you know, wanting to
- 7:24act out? And he took me down this journey
- 7:27of like, where do I notice it and what does it feel like?
- 7:31And then he got to a part where he's like, what is it trying to
- 7:35do? What is it trying to help you
- 7:36with? I'm like, yeah, it'll just run
- 7:38my family. And I said, and he said, yeah,
- 7:42but what is it trying to ultimately accomplish?
- 7:45And what I recognize because of the acting out behavior that it
- 7:51wanted me to do was it viewed something as a problem.
- 7:55OK. It didn't want the behavior, but
- 7:58it wanted to solve a problem that I had.
- 8:01So he started taking me down this road.
- 8:02What's the problem? And I don't like all.
- 8:05At the end of this session, I'm like, oh, Alana's leaving.
- 8:10OK. Alana's.
- 8:12She's headed out of town, who she had out of town with out of
- 8:15town with his girlfriends. She is rejecting you, Luke.
- 8:19She doesn't want to be around you, which is totally not even
- 8:22close to true. But I felt levels of rejection
- 8:26and that part wanted to protect me from filling that rejection.
- 8:31So what it is, it stepped in and provided a solution, which is an
- 8:35opportunity to fill chemicals that are involved in what
- 8:39connection feels like, which is certain types of behavior.
- 8:43And I didn't like that more. I'm like, yeah, OK, that's
- 8:45interesting. But that part is helping me fill
- 8:49not rejected through this behavior.
- 8:52But I'm still not OK with it. Like, I'd still hate it.
- 8:54Let's kill it off. And then he said, well, when is
- 8:59the first time that you remember feeling like this experience of
- 9:04somebody leaving and feeling rejected?
- 9:06We went on this journey of, yeah, I remember this often when
- 9:11somebody would do something that I would feel very alone, but it
- 9:15didn't have to do with rejection.
- 9:16And they said, OK, so it started showing up.
- 9:18How old were you? And I was like, first remember
- 9:20when I was like 8, OK, so how did I want you to handle that?
- 9:25And it said really just anything to not feel that that fear with
- 9:29being alone. OK, So was that helpful back
- 9:33then? I said yeah, because I felt
- 9:36really alone back then. So that part started to be born
- 9:40out of protecting that 8 year old part of me.
- 9:43OK. But the things that would offer
- 9:46me, I started to draw the conclusion over a period of time
- 9:50that that being alone was embarrassing and bad.
- 9:56So the way I would go about being alone started to get some
- 10:00really dark sides of old. And it evolved into something
- 10:05that we call maladaptive coping mechanism.
- 10:07But it was born out of this sense of protecting you and
- 10:12never allowing you to feel something again that you felt
- 10:14that was bad and horrible. So as I sat there and all of a
- 10:19sudden there was a value that kicked in that had never, ever,
- 10:22ever kicked in before. And I said, Oh my gosh, this
- 10:26part of me that I hate, it's trying to take care of an 8 year
- 10:32old. He's trying to take care of a
- 10:35part that got hurt a long time ago.
- 10:38And it's it's not going out. It doesn't want this behavior.
- 10:43It wants to make sure I never feel this again.
- 10:46And it doesn't have a very good way to do it.
- 10:49So they asked me the question again, can you acknowledge that
- 10:51part? And I said, oh, I know what
- 10:53you're asking. You're asking me, can I
- 10:56acknowledge how it's trying to help and what it's trying to do?
- 11:01Not accept that part of me and value how it's going about it as
- 11:06much as can you see that part doing its job and how important
- 11:11it sees this job as. And I'm like, yeah, because I
- 11:14know what this is like and that part taking their job really,
- 11:17really seriously matters. And as I said that all of a
- 11:21sudden it started to shift for me and I'm like, whoa, whoa,
- 11:26what's this shift about? And it was like, I don't view
- 11:29that as heinous and as evil as I used to.
- 11:33And then I felt like this other things start to happen, which is
- 11:38now I have a different type of energy around this of instead of
- 11:43fighting something off, now I'm like, now I'm like being
- 11:47proactive about how I feel about myself rather than reactive.
- 11:51Instead of trying to hide, Now I'm like more in this energy of
- 11:55taking care of me. And what that is about when it
- 11:58comes to parts work is you say, hey, part that you're just
- 12:01trying to take care of a limited part of you.
- 12:03Thank you. I acknowledge you.
- 12:05I appreciate you for making sure that that other part of me
- 12:08doesn't feel abandoned. But guess what?
- 12:11I've got this, I've got it, I've got you, and I've got that other
- 12:16parts wounded and I'm here. You're not alone in your job
- 12:20anymore, OK? You don't have to protect that
- 12:23part of you. I can do that.
- 12:25And that energy, I was not going to be able to find that way
- 12:29until I learned to see what was actually happening.
- 12:32So anyway, that's my story with the part of parts work of seeing
- 12:37why what was going on inside of me, acknowledging it, showing
- 12:41appreciation for the protection side who's trying to protect
- 12:44that. And then allowing a shift of
- 12:46energy to happen to more adult side of adult part of me that
- 12:50could take care instead of a maladaptive part.
- 12:53That that fear you talked about around validating that part,
- 12:59seeing that part, acknowledging that part, validating that part
- 13:02and being like, no, this part is what's destroying my family.
- 13:07I see that. I see that with clients.
- 13:10It is a real visceral fear that if I give this part any room or
- 13:16any space, then it will burn the house down.
- 13:20It will ruin everything. But what you just highlighted
- 13:24there was so like the exact opposite that when you actually,
- 13:29and you can't just do this cognitively, it actually like
- 13:34doing it with the safety of somebody else.
- 13:37Their nervous system is grounded and regulated and they can
- 13:41gently create that safety and walk you through that.
- 13:43So you can feel all of the feelings as you're exploring
- 13:46this. I it's just so beautiful.
- 13:49It allowed you then to explore that part and actually see how
- 13:54it's helping because every part of us is trying to help in some
- 13:58ways. So it's figuring out,
- 14:01understanding and seeing the way it's trying to help.
- 14:04And I love that when you actually gave it that attention,
- 14:07that's what diffuses it. That's what allows for the
- 14:11healing to happen. So often the things that we are
- 14:14most scared to face is the key to the healing.
- 14:19It is the key to the moving forward.
- 14:21So I love that you slowed that down and just walked us through
- 14:24that journey. Yeah.
- 14:26And I love that you'd said this part of what a therapist job
- 14:29does. You can say a therapist, but you
- 14:31have somebody step in that acts as in parts work, acts as the
- 14:35role of self, which and I get thoughts and feelings intact and
- 14:41then is able to get curious and ask like those questions.
- 14:44And what that professional does is they hand that off to you and
- 14:48they go, OK, can you acknowledge?
- 14:50Can you validate that part of you that feels abandoned and
- 14:54alone and that has a job you, which is to fix that in any way
- 14:58possible? Can you valid?
- 14:59And then all you do is says, OK, all right, I see what you're
- 15:01doing. OK, I'm going to attempt to do
- 15:03the same thing. And but it's, it's hard work,
- 15:06but it is not done alone. To your point.
- 15:09And I, I don't believe as long as you're hating parts of
- 15:16yourself, you truly can heal. And that I know some of you will
- 15:21hear that and have a feelings around that because of some
- 15:25really deep hatred towards parts.
- 15:29But I'm telling you again, like the key to healing is learning
- 15:33to understand those parts, to see them, to understand them, to
- 15:37love them and to heal them so you can have that whole complete
- 15:42healing. OK, so that's beautiful.
- 15:45So let's talk about specific examples around that.
- 15:48So I wanted that part to die. Let's say I could, which is not
- 15:51possible. I could kill that part, but we
- 15:53don't recognize is that part on a good day has another job that
- 15:58is actually super helpful. So I've understood that part of
- 16:01me that is very worried about that part that feels abandoned
- 16:06is actually really, on a good day, really empathetic towards
- 16:11other people, very aware of what other people experience.
- 16:16And what would have been like if I could kill that part of me
- 16:19off, The other part that's aware of other people's experience,
- 16:22which is weird because of what it wanted me to do, was totally
- 16:24not aware of other people's experience, but it's it was
- 16:28aware of that part. I can't kill it no matter what.
- 16:31But if I did, what would be lost if I did?
- 16:34So that part needs a job, just another job in a different way.
- 16:38Yeah. Yeah.
- 16:39In IFS, that's called unburdening.
- 16:41It's like finding out what the part is doing.
- 16:44And often you find that part doesn't want to be doing it the
- 16:48way they're doing it. They just don't know how else to
- 16:50do it. And so when you unburden that
- 16:53part, you figure out healthier, different ways of still
- 16:57achieving the taking care of you.
- 17:00Alana, can you speak more to watching somebody like me go
- 17:04through it and what you noticed? Because I would love to say
- 17:08like, as soon as you do it, you like it's all rainbows and
- 17:10puppies, the work of oh, wow, I got a part because I shared like
- 17:14the awareness. But what do you notice when
- 17:16people start to do parts work? What happens, it's not rainbows
- 17:19and puppies, though I love puppies and kittens.
- 17:22No, it's it's like all healing. Like it's up and down and messy
- 17:29and beautiful and hard and good and all of the above.
- 17:33But I think what I've seen in it often, like the end result is a
- 17:38relief. I think that's the end result.
- 17:43The process is uncomfortable when we're looking at those
- 17:48places that we typically have been trying to block out and not
- 17:51see. So there is discomfort in that
- 17:55and in the discomfort is where the growth zone is.
- 18:01And so I think about even being at a personal level, watching
- 18:05somebody I care about who's doing their parts work.
- 18:09It's, it's interesting because there's times like today, not
- 18:14literally today, but today in general today where you get
- 18:18activated around something and until you check in with your
- 18:22parts and actually tend to your parts, the activation persists.
- 18:28So you have the activation happens and you have like you
- 18:32have lots of choices, but I'm going to narrow it down to like
- 18:34you have one of two choices. One is to numb out and try to
- 18:40ignore the feelings. 2 is that you now do the parts work and
- 18:48you go check in with those parts and you tend to those parts.
- 18:51And I was talking to a client one time and he was talking
- 18:56about really wanting to show up for his wife.
- 18:59And he was saying, I'm not going to give any details, but he was
- 19:04very, very activated. And he's like, I got to shove
- 19:07this down. I got to shove all this down so
- 19:09I can show up for her because that's what he was taught.
- 19:13He's taught don't worry about you.
- 19:15You're going to hold her pain. The problem with that message
- 19:19and you do need to learn hold the pain.
- 19:20But the problem with that message is he was shoving his
- 19:24parts down, saying shut up parts, shut up, shoving them
- 19:27down, never tending to them. And guess what?
- 19:30His wife didn't feel at all connected with him.
- 19:33He's like trying to connect with her and trying to connect with
- 19:35her and he's trying to like do what he's been told and she's
- 19:39not feeling it because his own nervous system is so
- 19:43dysregulated. Her body is reading danger,
- 19:46danger, danger. So guess what?
- 19:50And this is what he and I talked about is if you can even take a
- 19:53couple minutes and tend to your parts and see what they need,
- 19:59see why they're being activated, validate some of those deeper
- 20:03feelings or. Tend to the parts in a way of I
- 20:07notice you and we're going to spend some time tonight working
- 20:11through this and I see you, I'm coming back and I'm going to go
- 20:16tend to my wife or I see you. I validate you.
- 20:20I'm going to spend time to figure out here.
- 20:21I'm going to validate that part that's feeling rejected.
- 20:24I'm going to validate that part that's feeling unseen.
- 20:28And then when I'm regulated, I can go back.
- 20:31And now with your tended parts in your regulated nervous
- 20:35system, guess what? Your ability to hold her pain
- 20:37went from A1 or two to like an 8 or 90.
- 20:42It's everything. It's night and day.
- 20:44It goes from it goes from I want to run away from her or I'm just
- 20:50I can't do this to I actually want to be here and in this
- 20:56moment. Now I know we're about it time
- 20:59and we like what the concept we just brought up is a really big
- 21:05in depth concept. So if you hear that and you're
- 21:08like, Oh my gosh, how did the hell do I even get there?
- 21:11You're not alone in that. A couple of books that I might
- 21:15just throw on the table. Anything you want to learn about
- 21:18parts work, but no bad parts all together You all together us are
- 21:24a couple of parts books that can get you started in your
- 21:27learning. But if you are an individual who
- 21:32has had sexual acting out outside of your values and you
- 21:35want to do an intensive specifically around this parts
- 21:38work again, we have one spot coming up next week.
- 21:42Trying to think of what the dates are next week, March 11, I
- 21:46believe I'm looking at my calendar.
- 21:51Yeah, the elev, yeah, the 12th, 13th and 14th, but we do a
- 21:56little bit on the 11th, Yeah, in the evening of the 11th, kicking
- 22:00it off. So we would love to have you
- 22:02join us and hopefully this episode at least got your brain
- 22:05thinking and you found it helpful today.
- 22:08I think we're probably going to do a Part 2 also.
- 22:11Yeah. So y'all, if you're the person
- 22:14that got that, got hurt, was betrayed and this is painful, or
- 22:17if it's validating and just respect that.
- 22:20And if you're the person that's has not done parts work and
- 22:24hasn't leaned into it, don't wait.
- 22:25Jump into it. Invest in yourself.
- 22:27But anyway, it's good to hang out with you all.
- 22:30Hey guys, I am. Super excited to talk to you
- 22:33about. Our latest intensive that we
- 22:34have coming up, it's called men's journey to wholeness.
- 22:37Prior to this many of you. Attended Unmasked and.
- 22:41Men's journey to. Wholeness is the next.
- 22:43Level of recovery. It's more.
- 22:44Of phase two recovery, it's a relationship with self so we can
- 22:48have a relationship with others. You're welcome to join us in the
- 22:50beautiful Spanish Fork area and we are going to be having this
- 22:54on March 12th through the 14th. But let me tell you a little bit
- 22:57about it. What's a three day intensive?
- 22:58They're going to be a lot of transformational connection
- 23:02going on. That's going to be the focus.
- 23:04We're going to dive into the work.
- 23:07We're open to all men. The focus is we're going to be
- 23:09building deeper relationship with yourself.
- 23:12A lot of times men are trying to kill that part of them that made
- 23:17these horrible choices. They don't like that part of
- 23:20them. We're going to identify that
- 23:23part of us and we're going to allow us to see something that
- 23:27we haven't seen before. We're going to learn about how
- 23:30your protective parts protect and how they've shielded you
- 23:33from things and how they're still shielding you from these
- 23:35things. And we're going to release some
- 23:38of those burdens. There's going to be activities,
- 23:40there's going to be experiential workshops, there's going to be
- 23:42hands on exercises. There's going to be a lot of
- 23:45guided support. There'll be a couple surprises.
- 23:48You won't be sworn to secrecy, but it's going to be pretty fun
- 23:51to see everybody engage in the type of activities we have
- 23:54coming up for you. And let me tell you what a fair
- 23:57outcome might be if you decide to do something like this.
- 24:00By the end of the intensive, you're going to be able to
- 24:03embrace a part of yourself that maybe you haven't before and
- 24:08have some awareness around it. Much deeper connection with
- 24:11yourself and removing some of those barriers to keep you
- 24:15isolated. Also, unburden yourself from the
- 24:19heaviness of the secrets. The secrets might be out there,
- 24:22but the burden of sharing parts of you that you just don't feel
- 24:24like you can share with other people.
- 24:26We'll give you some direction on how to sign up.
- 24:28Space is limited, I hate saying that.
- 24:31Definitely want you to hurry to registration.
- 24:34Reach out to us if you have questions.
- 24:35We will give you more information about how to sign up
- 24:39in the notes of this podcast and on our website.
- 24:42Hopefully we can see you there. Hey, thanks for joining us
- 24:48today. If this is something.
- 24:49That you connected with. I'd love to meet with you more
- 24:52and talk. About it.
- 24:53So what you can do is go to choose.
- 24:54Recoveryservices.com or check the show notes.
- 24:57And there what we can do is set up a quick conversation we need.
- 25:00Thanks so much for listening to Beyond the Facade where we
- 25:03unmask the authentic self.