loader from loading.io

When Good Moms Feel Bad with Jessica Tomich Sorci

The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast

Release Date: 05/12/2026

Parts and Perimenopause with Melissa Monahan — IFS for the Transition Nobody Warned Us About show art Parts and Perimenopause with Melissa Monahan — IFS for the Transition Nobody Warned Us About

The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast

I didn't know frozen shoulder was a perimenopause symptom. Neither did Melissa Monahan, this week's podcast guest, and she's a therapist living through it herself. This week Melissa joins me on the podcast to talk about the mental health side of perimenopause and menopause, and what IFS can offer women going through it. She's an IFS Level 2 therapist and host of , a podcast and Substack for women in this chapter of life -- and the people who love them. In this episode we talk about the changes happening in our inner worlds during this transition, and how IFS can help us make sense of and...

info_outline When Good Moms Feel Bad with Jessica Tomich Sorci show art When Good Moms Feel Bad with Jessica Tomich Sorci

The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast

On today's episode I welcome Jessica Tomich Sorci to the podcast. She's a therapist, perinatal mental health specialist, and creator of the Mom Parts Method. She's spent 15 years working with moms and noticed the same parts showing up, so she began naming them, then created a methodology and a new book. Her Mom Parts Method is a five-step IFS-based process specifically for mothers. It starts with a meditation to connect with a triggering experience, then moves through naming which parts showed up, speaking truths on their behalf, noticing underlying shame or grief, and identifying what...

info_outline Grieving Wholeheartedly with Audrey Davidheiser show art Grieving Wholeheartedly with Audrey Davidheiser

The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast

Today I welcome Dr. Audrey Davidheiser back to the podcast. Her latest book, Grieving Wholeheartedly: Bringing Healing for Every Part of Your Soul, is an IFS guide to loss that views grief as a collection of parts, each carrying something specific, each needing to be met.   Audrey is a licensed psychologist, certified IFS therapist, and founder of the Los Angeles Dream Center, where she specializes in trauma and religious trauma. She's also someone who lost her father suddenly seven years ago and rebuilt her practice and her inner life from the ground up. Takeaways Grief doesn't...

info_outline Move Toward: IFS Simplified with Jenna Riemersma show art Move Toward: IFS Simplified with Jenna Riemersma

The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast

I'm excited to welcome Jenna Riemersma back on the podcast for the third time to talk about her new book. She's a certified IFS therapist, bestselling author, and someone committed to making IFS accessible to everyone. Her new book, Move Toward: A Simplified IFS Therapy Tool to Welcome All Parts of You, gives you a simple way to work with parts in the real world, in real time. In This Episode The three-step Move Toward tool: Notice, Know, Need How Self Energy can transform a room of people What Self-led action looks like when you're in a toxic relationship or a power-down position Parts-led...

info_outline Hope and Care for Caregivers with Risa Adams, Robin Beardsley, and Elizabeth Parsons show art Hope and Care for Caregivers with Risa Adams, Robin Beardsley, and Elizabeth Parsons

The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast

Today I welcome to the podcast Drs. Risa Adams, Robin Beardsley, and Elizabeth Parsons. They are family physicians turned psychotherapists who came together during the pandemic to write, find community, and speak for their parts. What they found in that process and wrote about in their new book, It Doesn't Have To Be This Way: A Physician's Guide To Radical Self Care (by three physicians who've been there), is something most caregivers, doctors, healthcare workers, therapists, parents, partners, anyone who finds their worth in being needed, will recognize. In This Episode The parts that...

info_outline Externalizing IFS for Neurodivergence and Complex Trauma with Irina Diyankova show art Externalizing IFS for Neurodivergence and Complex Trauma with Irina Diyankova

The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast

Today I welcome Irina Diyankova back to the podcast. Her last episode,  was one of our most popular.  This time we explore what happens when "going inside" during an IFS session becomes hard for clients. She finds this is especially true with neurodivergent and C-PTSD clients.  Irina shares why externalization can be so helpful in these cases. Instead of relying only on what’s happening internally, bringing things outside, like mapping, speaking out loud, connecting visually or relationally, really help. We also talk about how IFS isn’t a cookie-cutter model. We all...

info_outline IFS for Everyday Life with Joanna Curry-Sartori show art IFS for Everyday Life with Joanna Curry-Sartori

The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast

On today’s episode, I talk with Joanna Curry-Sartori, founder of the Self-Leadership Collaborative and author of The Self-Led Educator. We explore this idea of how to bring IFS into everyday life, to invite more Self Energy into our conversations and interactions.  Joanna teaches us her PAUSE model, a five-step process to help you slow things down and notice what’s happening inside before you respond. Sometimes it's in moments where you can feel yourself starting to react, or a conversation begins to shift. Instead of pushing through, you pause, get curious about your parts,...

info_outline An Army of Healers with Nitsan Joy Gordon show art An Army of Healers with Nitsan Joy Gordon

The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast

On today’s episode I welcome Nitsan Joy Gordon, a dance movement therapist, IFS practitioner, and peacebuilder who lives in Israel. Nitsan shares about growing up in Israel, living near the border, and what it’s like to live in a place where war and trauma have been part of daily life for generations. She also tells the story of how Internal Family Systems changed her own life. A powerful experience at Esalen with Dick Schwartz inspired her to use IFS in her work back home. Nitsan leads an organization bringing Israelis and Palestinians together to transform pain through deep listening...

info_outline Are You Mad At Me? with Meg Josephson show art Are You Mad At Me? with Meg Josephson

The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast

On today’s episode I welcome psychotherapist and author Meg Josephson to the podcast. Her book Are You Mad at Me? names something so many of us feel but rarely say out loud: Did I do something wrong? Are you mad at me? Meg and I talk about the fawn response, people-pleasing, and the parts of us that learned early on to stay ahead of conflict. We explore how “being nice” can disconnect us from ourselves, why grief and anger are essential to healing, and how mindfulness helps us slow down enough to notice what’s really happening inside. If you’ve ever swallowed your needs to keep the...

info_outline Integrating IFS and Listening Therapies with Marcella Cox show art Integrating IFS and Listening Therapies with Marcella Cox

The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast

In today’s episode, I welcome my friend Marcella Cox back to the podcast. Marcella is a certified IFS therapist, approved consultant, and somatic IFS assistant trainer. She’s also a certified Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) and Rest and Restore provider, and the lead author of the new guidelines for integrating IFS with these listening therapies. We talk about: The basics of polyvagal theory How our nervous system states impact our parts Why co-regulation is central to healing The difference between SSP (connection to others) and Rest and Restore (connection to Self) How listening...

info_outline
 
More Episodes

On today's episode I welcome Jessica Tomich Sorci to the podcast. She's a therapist, perinatal mental health specialist, and creator of the Mom Parts Method. She's spent 15 years working with moms and noticed the same parts showing up, so she began naming them, then created a methodology and a new book.

Her Mom Parts Method is a five-step IFS-based process specifically for mothers. It starts with a meditation to connect with a triggering experience, then moves through naming which parts showed up, speaking truths on their behalf, noticing underlying shame or grief, and identifying what those parts actually need.

She identified 29 mom parts that kept appearing across 15 years of practice--things like anger, resentment, anxiety, destroyer, blame--and named them so moms could recognize themselves without feeling alone in it. Her Mom Parts cards are a physical tool to support the process.

Takeaways

  • The parts that make us such attuned mothers are the same parts that make it hard to let go as kids grow
  • Grief is a through line in motherhood, from the 12-month clothes replacing the 6-month ones all the way to high school graduation. We don't talk about it enough.
  • The good mom/bad mom flip is parts thinking, not Self. It's black and white, and it's exhausting.
  • Motherhood is as much your developmental journey as your child's.
  • You have every right to grow, struggle, fail, and try again too
  • Twenty percent of moms are diagnosed with a perinatal mood or anxiety disorder. Jessica's take: that's a cultural failure rate
  • "I've never heard anyone say they're screwed up because their mom took such good care of herself"
  • Team Kid and Team What About Mom are both in your system. Both are trying to help.

Catch my extended interview with Jessica over on Substack. And while you're there, be sure to try one of our new Audio Guides meditations.

About Jessica

Jessica Tomich Sorci, LMFT is a Level 3 Certified Internal Family Systems Therapist, Certified Perinatal Mental Health Professional, and creator of the groundbreaking Mothercentered approach. She developed the innovative Mom Parts Method—a revolutionary application of IFS to motherhood that helps moms transform guilt, anxiety, and anger into self-compassion and confidence.

Jessica's book When Good Moms Feel Bad: An Empowering Guide for Transforming Guilt, Anxiety and Anger into Compassion, Confidence and Connectedness presents her paradigm-shifting vision that reframes maternal mental health struggles not as disorders, but as natural responses to the profound transformation of matrescence, in a world that provides insufficient support. Through her training programs, she empowers therapists to understand mothers through a non-pathologizing lens that normalizes the full spectrum of maternal experience while accessing every mom's own Inner Mom wisdom.

Connect with Jessica at momparts.com

She is also a singer-songwriter, and you can listen to her music here.

Episode Sponsor

This episode is sponsored by Souliology.

Souliology offers retreats and immersive learning experiences for IFS professionals, many led by IFS Senior Lead Trainers and eligible for continuing education credits.

Their programs support deep professional and personal growth, offering space to step away from the demands of daily life so you can return to your practice more present and resourced for the clients you serve.

Souliology: Where growth meets depth. Learn more at souliology.com

About The One Inside

I started this podcast to help spread IFS out into the world and make the model more accessible to everyone. Seven years later, that’s still at the heart of all we do. 

I co-create The One Inside with Jeff Schrum, a Level 2 IFS practitioner and coach.

Resources

Sponsorship

Want to sponsor an episode of The One Inside? Email Tammy.