Mastering Direct Access in IFS with Dave Adamusko
The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast
Release Date: 06/21/2025
Connection After Loss with Liz Brenner
The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast
This episode didn't go as planned, and I'm grateful it didn't. I invited Liz Brenner on the podcast to talk about the Family Process article on the family systems roots of IFS she co-authored with Dick Schwartz and Carol Becker in 2023. Instead, we found ourselves talking about grief. A month before we recorded, my dad died unexpectedly. Liz lost her partner, Dan, in 2018, just six weeks after his cancer diagnosis. We both came into the conversation still processing our losses, and grief was the conversation we needed to have. Takeaways Grief can break you, and it can also heal...
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Trauma Coaching and Addiction Recovery with Achara Tarfa
The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast
My guest on today's episode is Achara Tarfa. She is a certified IFS practitioner, co-founder of the Global Trauma Institute, and director of the PATH program. We talk about finding IFS, what trauma coaching offers that therapy often doesn't, and why she and her co-founders built GTI to create the spaces they needed but couldn't find. Takeaways IFS gave Achara language for her own anger for the first time When the people you turn to for help fail you, the harm compounds. Achara experienced this firsthand and it shaped everything she built Trauma coaching isn't replacing therapy. It's...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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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_outlineOn this week's episode I'm thrilled to have my friend and colleague, Dave Adamusko, join me to demystify "direct access"—a powerful technique that allows IFS practitioners to speak directly to a client's parts.
Dave and I dive deep into why direct access is so essential, especially for clients with trauma histories or deeply blended parts who might struggle with more traditional "insight" methods. Dave leads me in a brief session to demonstrate explicit direct access, engaging with a part of me that was feeling annoyed and ignored, and we trace its origins back to a childhood experience. It was such a profound experience!
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- What "direct access" truly means, both for clinicians and for those of us simply navigating our inner worlds.
- How direct access facilitates quick unblending, befriending, and the gathering of powerful insights.
- Why practicing direct access, even with "easier" clients, is crucial for mastery (and something I'm always working on myself!).
- The fascinating connection between direct access and other experiential techniques like Gestalt empty chair and psychodrama.
- The important distinction between explicit and implicit direct access.
And be sure to check out my extended interview with Dave exclusively on Substack.
About Dave Adamusko: Dave Adamusko, LMFT is a Certified Internal Family Systems Therapist, and approved IFS Consultant with a private practice in Mesa, AZ. He has been involved in the IFS community since 2015 and has had the privilege of being a Program Assistant for numerous Level 1 trainings as well as a frequent PA for Frank Anderson's L2 Trauma and Neuroscience training. In addition to his therapy private practice he also works as a Guide for Onsite Workshops where he combines his passion for IFS with experiential techniques to create dynamic personal growth workshops. Dave's variety of interests and ADHD have led him to create several passion projects that include (but not limited to): IFS leadership consulting, Experiential Couples Intensives, and recently added, IFS Based Post-Psychedelic Integration Groups.
Episode Sponsor: Life Architect
✨ Get access to 3 IFS webinars organized by Life Architect (featuring Einat Bronstein, Kay Gardner & Robert Falconer, and Ann Sinko) and receive a 30% discount on selected IFS workshops: https://lifearchitect.com/tammy/ ✨
About The One Inside:
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Jeff Schrum co-produces The One Inside. He’s a writer and IFS Level 2 practitioner who specializes in helping therapists create with clarity and confidence.
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