My Therapist Gets Real With Me! Internal Family Systems, And Live Therapy Session with Matt Defina

Why do so many of us go in circles after years of talk therapy? I sat down with my therapist, organisational psychologist Matt Defina, to explain Internal Family Systems (IFS), the parts work that did more for me in six sessions than years of regular therapy.

Matt shares how he quit PwC after six months, spent five years at The Man Cave running rites of passage for teenage boys, then hit the burnout and panic attacks that led him to start Another Way. We get into how Pixar's Inside Out maps your inner parts, why Matt believes the body stores emotions, why some psychologists push back on IFS, and whether AI could work as a therapist.

Then we run a live session, where I meet Mr Anxiety, the part of me stressing about life in New York, and learn he wants me to do less and choose with intention.