• FEBRUARY 9, 2025
    From Trauma to Trust: How Training Our Rescue Dog Lucy Taught Me About Healing

    From Trauma to Trust: How Training Our Rescue Dog Lucy Taught Me About Healing

    Max Littman, LCSW February  9, 2025 When my partner and I brought Lucy, our new rescue dog, into our home, we were ready for the usual adjustments: chewed shoes, house training, and finding her favorite spot on the couch. What we weren’t fully prepared for was the depth of her trauma. Lucy had spent fourRead more
    • FEBRUARY 8, 2025
    How Do We Not Lose OurSelves in the Chaos?

    How Do We Not Lose OurSelves in the Chaos?

    Max Littman, LCSW February  8, 2025 I’ve been sitting with the whirlwind of oppressive policies and destructive tactics flooding out of the Trump administration. The pace and intensity feel like a deliberate attempt to shock us into submission, to keep us reactive, disoriented, and divided. And I’ll be honest: it’s working on me in waysRead more
    • FEBRUARY 6, 2025
    Perfect Bodies, Hidden Burdens: How Gay Instagram Influencer Culture Can Contribute to the Burdens of Gay and Queer Men

    Perfect Bodies, Hidden Burdens: How Gay Instagram Influencer Culture Can Contribute to the Burdens of Gay and Queer Men

    Max Littman, LCSW February  6, 2025 In today's digital era, social media has become a powerful force in shaping cultural norms and expectations, individual identities, and beauty standards. For gay and queer men, Instagram influencers can play a significant role in creating and perpetuating ideals around fitness, travel, partying, romance, trauma sharing, mental health, andRead more
    • JANUARY 30, 2025
    Navigating Challenges in IFS Trainings: Compassion for Self, Trainers, Support Staff, Peers, and the Process

    Navigating Challenges in IFS Trainings: Compassion for Self, Trainers, Support Staff, Peers, and the Process

    Max Littman, LCSW January 30, 2025 Internal Family Systems (IFS) trainings can be transformative experiences, offering rich opportunities for personal and professional growth. However, like any immersive learning environment, they also come with challenges. Often, participants find their internal systems fully activated which can include parts carrying perfectionism, self-doubt, unresolved wounds, or burdens of inadequacy.Read more
    • JANUARY 23, 2025
    Healing in the Shadow of Mount Doom: An IFS Perspective on The Lord of the Rings

    Healing in the Shadow of Mount Doom: An IFS Perspective on The Lord of the Rings

    Max Littman, LCSW January 23, 2025 The first time I saw The Lord of the Rings trilogy in theaters, I was in my early teens, and it transported me not just to Middle-earth, but to deep places within my psyche that I continue to frequently visit and find myself in. I remember being wide-eyed withRead more
    • JANUARY 19, 2025
    The Weaponization of Self in the IFS Community: Reconnecting to the Heart of IFS

    The Weaponization of Self in the IFS Community: Reconnecting to the Heart of IFS

    Max Littman, LCSW January 19, 2025 As IFS practitioners, we are deeply familiar with the concept of Self—our core, compassionate, wise, and curious essence. It is the energy within and around us that holds the potential to heal, connect, and lead with clarity and infinite compassion. Simultaneously, in some corners of the IFS community, theRead more
    • JANUARY 10, 2025
    Mastering the Art of Contracting in IFS Therapy and Consultation: A Guide for Therapists and Consultants

    Mastering the Art of Contracting in IFS Therapy and Consultation: A Guide for Therapists and Consultants

    Max Littman, LCSW January 10, 2025 I have parts that sometimes underutilize my position of authority as a therapist and consultant. From a place of worry about potentially misusing my power and causing harm in a therapist-client or consultant-consultee dynamic, some of my parts take over and follow the client's or consultee's lead without question.Read more
    • DECEMBER 29, 2024
    Turning Shame into Joy and Connection: Neuroscience and IFS

    Turning Shame into Joy and Connection: Neuroscience and IFS

    Max Littman, LCSW December 29, 2024 It is my belief that most of the mental health symptoms that cause people to seek me out for therapy are caused by the emotions of shame and powerlessness. Mental health symptoms, in my view, are the consequences of the body’s and mind’s attempts to return home to safety,Read more
    • OCTOBER 26, 2024
    From Sapiens to Self: Unburdening Legacy and Cultural Burdens through IFS and Harari’s Insights

    From Sapiens to Self: Unburdening Legacy and Cultural Burdens through IFS and Harari’s Insights

    Max Littman, LCSW October 26, 2024 In the fields of psychotherapy and historical analysis, the intersection of Internal Family Systems (IFS) concepts with Yuval Noah Harari's ideas provides a powerful framework for understanding human behavior, culture, evolution, healing, and our inner lives. This article explores the overlaps between the IFS concepts of legacy and culturalRead more
    • SEPTEMBER 11, 2024
    Dancing in the Relational Field: When and How to Balance Between Direct Access and Insight

    Dancing in the Relational Field: When and How to Balance Between Direct Access and Insight

    Max Littman, LCSW September 11, 2024 In my experience, the traditional IFS approach alone can sometimes be inadequate for healing in certain clients. These clients often have internal systems with such intense and effective internal protection that accessing insight and Self energy feels nearly impossible. This level of internal protection is always justified by theRead more
    • SEPTEMBER 9, 2024
    Mate Assessor Parts

    Mate Assessor Parts

    Max Littman, LCSW September 9, 2024 A common part that often goes unnoticed unless named in sessions addressing mating issues is a part that evaluates whether a potential mate will fulfill the internal system’s various needs. These needs typically include intellectual, financial, physical, sexual, emotional, social, spiritual, and logistical dimensions. While only a small fractionRead more
    • SEPTEMBER 8, 2024
    Gifts and Losses

    Gifts and Losses

    Max Littman, LCSW September 8, 2024 A neglected aspect of the tragedy of accumulating burdens is the concealment of the innate gifts of our parts and the prevention of their growth. I do not believe we are born into any one calling, but I do believe we are born with certain strengths, tendencies, gifts, andRead more
    • JUNE 30, 2024
    Attunement: A Way of Understanding and Accessing Self Energy

    Attunement: A Way of Understanding and Accessing Self Energy

    Max Littman, LCSW June 30, 2024 In the following article, I focus on attunement as a way of understanding and accessing Self energy. It will address the importance of attunement, how it functions, and how to attune to parts from Self energy. A practical guide for how to attune from Self energy is included. AsRead more
    • JUNE 20, 2024
    Unlocking the Potential of Your Private Practice Through IFS

    Unlocking the Potential of Your Private Practice Through IFS

    How IFS can help you build and sustain your private psychotherapy practice. Max Littman, LCSW June 20, 2024   Introduction The following article is intended to support therapists build, improve, and sustain their private practices through the framework of IFS. It addresses what parts of your internal system you may need to rely upon andRead more
    • JUNE 13, 2024
    A Conversation with My Writer/Editor Part

    A Conversation with My Writer/Editor Part

    Max Littman, LCSW June 13, 2024 The following conversation between myself and my writer/editor part is shared with the intentions of helping others connect with their own and other people’s internal systems and in helping my own parts feel in connection with the IFS and broader communities. Me: Hi. Writer/Editor Part (W/E): Hi there. Me:Read more
    • JUNE 4, 2024
    Trump: America’s Unattached Burden

    Trump: America’s Unattached Burden

    What Bob Falconer’s approach to UBs can teach us about Trump, his supporters, and our American community. Max Littman, LCSW June 4, 2024 Trigger warning: this article discusses Donald Trump. My parts have very strong reactions to Donald Trump. I imagine most people’s parts do too. My parts’ primary reactions are fear and anger. TheRead more
    • MAY 26, 2024
    The Hope of Inner Physics

    The Hope of Inner Physics

    Max Littman, LCSW May 26, 2024 Dick Schwartz mentioned some time ago that he wanted to write a book on the physics of the internal world. I wish I could fully remember where and when he made this statement, but the idea has lingered with me. A part of me is still wishing for thisRead more
    • OCTOBER 29, 2023
    A Method For Identifying, Extracting, and Releasing Burdens

    A Method For Identifying, Extracting, and Releasing Burdens

    Max Littman, LCSW October 29, 2023 Martha Sweezy’s recent book on shame and guilt (in my view a seminal work in the IFS catalog) illustrates the perspective that most, if not all, burdens are rooted in shame. To a certain extent, I agree with this claim. I would add that powerlessness is the core ingredientRead more
    • SEPTEMBER 24, 2023
    Music as a Trailhead: How Parts are Affected by and Use Music

    Music as a Trailhead: How Parts are Affected by and Use Music

    Max Littman, LCSW September 24, 2023 This article covers ideas about how music can be used to understand aspects of the human experience and mind, and ways to think about music when using Internal Family Systems (IFS) as a modality for therapy. I draw from my experiences as a gay man, a therapist, a filmmaker,Read more
    • SEPTEMBER 12, 2023
    Working with Parts Affected by Organic Bipolar and Psychotic Disorders

    Working with Parts Affected by Organic Bipolar and Psychotic Disorders

    Max Littman, LCSW September 12, 2023 If you are interested in learning more about integrating Internal Family Systems (IFS) in therapy with people affected by bipolar and psychotic disorders, please read on. I recommend having a baseline understanding of IFS before proceeding. My intent here is to share what I’ve learned experientially in working with

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