Publications
The Sense of Direction Within: Navigating Your Inner Map
Max Littman, LCSW May 8, 2025 Some people just seem to have a knack for direction. They can glance at a map once and then confidently walk or drive through a city they’ve never been to. They know where the sun is at all times, can recall the angle of a turn they took anRead more
Interrupting the Great Man Theory in Mental Health
Max Littman, LCSW May 3, 2025 The mental health field, like many domains of knowledge and innovation, has long been shaped by the Great Man Theory: the idea that a handful of brilliant, singular figures are responsible for groundbreaking discoveries. These figures are overwhelmingly white, male, and Western. While many have contributed meaningful insights, theirRead more
Custody of the Mind: The Bitter Divorce Between the Masculine and Feminine, Control and Surrender
Max Littman, LCSW April 28, 2025 Over the past year, I’ve come into clearer awareness of a polarization that’s been with me for a long time, likely since I was around 10 or 12 years old. It lives between two distinct groups of protectors within me. One group holds things together tightly, manages. The otherRead more
Highly Sensitive Parts: Exploring Highly Sensitive Persons (HSP) Through an IFS Lens
Max Littman, LCSW April 23, 2025 The language of “Highly Sensitive Persons” (HSP), coined and researched by Dr. Elaine Aron, has offered for many long-overdue visibility and clarity: a way to understand why they might process the world more deeply, feel things more intensely, or struggle with environments that seem to roll off others’ backs.Read more
Our Body is Hardware, Our Parts Are Software: A Somatic IFS Take on Our Inner Operating System
Max Littman, LCSW April 20, 2025 Imagine your body as a beautifully complex piece of hardware. Something like a supercomputer crossed with an ancient instrument. It holds memory, rhythm, responsiveness, and resilience. Now imagine your parts as the software installed on that hardware. Each part has its own code, written over time by life experiences,Read more
Like Smoke in a Pensieve: What Morning Meditation with Parts Feels Like
Max Littman, LCSW April 14, 2025 Each morning, I move through a small but cherished ritual: I make myself a cup of coffee and brew tea for my husband. Then I grab my notebook and pen, settle into my favorite recliner in the natural-light-filled common room, and intentionally bring my attention inward. That’s when IRead more
If the U.S. Were an Internal System: Understanding Trump, Our Collective Parts, and the Fractured Psyche of a Nation
Max Littman, LCSW April 10, 2025 Imagine, for a moment, that the United States isn’t a country, but an internal system, like a single person, made up of many distinct parts. Some are loud and self-assured. Some are frightened. Some are calculating. Some are grieving. Some are trying to hold it all together. All ofRead more
When Healing Is Marketed and Wholeness Is Bought
Max Littman, LCSW April 9, 2025 A Shared Struggle: When Wellness Becomes a Transaction In today’s wellness and mental health culture, the line between healing and selling is increasingly blurred. Inner peace is packaged, and wholeness is marketed. Some of us have parts that think the next thing we buy, whether it's a training, aRead more
Attuned Consultation: Cultivating Self Leadership in IFS Supervision
Max Littman, LCSW April 1, 2025 When offering consultation and practice supervision to emerging IFS practitioners and therapists, there’s an inherent challenge in balancing guidance with Self-led support. The temptation to overhelp, correct, or impose a rigid sense of right and wrong can creep in, even with the best of intentions. When consultees are inRead more
The Tension Between Process and Interruption
Max Littman, LCSW April 1, 2025 One of the fundamental challenges in therapy is knowing when to intervene and when to allow a client to remain in their process without interruption. As therapists, we hold a powerful tension between being fully attuned and present, resisting the impulse to direct, reflect, question, or analyze, and toRead more
The Intersection of AI and IFS: A Human-Intelligence Partnership or a Risky Overdependence?
Max Littman, LCSW March 22, 2025 The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has sparked many conversations about its potential to transform various fields, including psychotherapy. In the context of Internal Family Systems (IFS), AI holds both promise and limitations. It can be a helpful tool for supplementing human intelligence, supporting IFS practitioners in research, practice,Read more
The Integrity Debate within the IFS Community
Max Littman, LCSW March 19, 2025 The IFS community continues to wrestle with complex questions about how best to practice the model with fidelity. Some practitioners call for a purist approach, aiming to preserve the model’s essence as Richard Schwartz developed it. Others advocate for greater openness, believing that adaptation based on the needs ofRead more
A Shared Legacy: The Collective Burden of Survival Across Time
Max Littman, LCSW March 11, 2025 Humans, despite our vast diversity and unique experiences, share a deeper legacy; one that extends beyond individual families, cultures, or nations. Every person alive today is part of an unbroken lineage stretching back to the earliest humans. Our ancestors endured famine, disease, war, and the constant fight for survival.Read more
The Porous Mind, Ancestral Protection, and Schizophrenia Through an IFS Lens
Max Littman, LCSW March 6, 2025 Bob Falconer’s concept of the "porous mind" in The Others Within Us (2023) offers a compelling framework for understanding how certain systems, especially those affected by schizophrenia, struggle with the boundaries between internal and external energies. From an Internal Family Systems (IFS) perspective, a well-functioning system maintains a balanceRead more
Living Beings Within: A Mind-Body-Spiritual Approach to Parts Work
Max Littman, LCSW March 4, 2025 One of the most profound shifts that can occur in IFS therapy happens when we stop treating our parts as mere thoughts, emotions, or concepts and start recognizing them as living beings within us. This shift is not just theoretical: it is a mind-body-spiritual transformation that deepens healing, self-compassion,Read more
The Cultural Burden of Extraction and Its Influence on Discernment in IFS Therapy
Max Littman, LCSW March 1, 2025 The Cultural Burden of Extraction Since the Industrial Revolution, we have been taught to see the world through a lens of extraction. The earth is mined for resources, labor is extracted for productivity, and even human relationships are often reduced to transactional exchanges. Capitalism thrives on the idea thatRead more
When I’m Not Self-Led in Meditation (And How I Relate to That)
Max Littman, LCSW February 28, 2025 I’ve been noticing lately how my morning IFS meditations aren’t always led from Self. Or rather, how often parts of me take over the purpose of meditating altogether. What starts as a way to attune to my system and be with myself can easily become another way to pursueRead more
Understanding DSM Diagnoses Through an IFS Lens
Max Littman, LCSW February 21, 2025 For those of us who practice IFS, the DSM, which is treated as the cornerstone of traditional mental health diagnostics, can feel mechanistic and reductionist. But when we step back and view its diagnoses through an IFS framework, a rich, multidimensional picture emerges: one of systems, burdens, and partsRead more
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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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