Parts Work Therapy
Parts Work Therapy | Columbia, Maryland
Let’s meet the parts of you that need attention, compassion, and healing. Together, we can end the cycle of self sabotage.
Are you tired of being stuck in old patterns, despite knowing exactly what you’d like to do differently? Parts work can help you get clarity on what is stopping you from creating the change you crave.
Perhaps you are very giving to others, but intensely critical of yourself. Despite others reassuring you of your goodness, you just can’t believe it. Parts work gives clients the power to achieve genuine self esteem and reduce shame.
In my Columbia, Maryland practice, I offer Parts Work as an effective way to build self-understanding, emotional balance, and long-term healing. This approach that helps you understand and work with inner voices, feelings, and conflicting emotions that live inside all of us.
My counseling methods are specifically designed to help clients identify changes that will actually work in their lives.
What Is Parts Work in Therapy?
Parts Work refers to any therapeutic approach that acknowledges and works with different “parts” or perspectives of your mind. Whether it’s an anxious or perfectionistic part, an angry protective part, a relentless inner critic, or the younger, wounded part, each one shows up for a reason.
While you might be familiar with Internal Family Systems (IFS), which is a structured form of parts work, I incorporate creative and expressive techniques that help clients identify, appreciate, and change their relationship with all inner parts.
Think of it as building a relationship with your inner world, not to control it, but to listen, understand, and heal.
Why I Use Parts Work in Therapy
When people experienced trauma, stress, or long-standing emotional pain, it’s common to compartmentalize.
Different parts of us learn to:
Protect us from getting hurt again
Avoid discomfort or pain
Perform in ways that feel acceptable or safe
Hold unprocessed grief, fear, or shame
In parts work therapy, I bring compassion and curiosity to each part, not to get rid of them, but to understand what they need. It’s a powerful process of integration and inner healing.
These parts can get stuck in old patterns that keep you from living fully.
Who Benefits from Parts Work Therapy?
Parts work is incredibly helpful for:
Trauma survivors
People with complex PTSD or childhood wounds
Those with inner conflict or decision paralysis
Clients exploring identity, shame, or self-worth
People who struggle to control their anxiety
Many clients tell me that talk therapy alone only goes so far. They understand what’s happening, but can’t seem to change it. That’s because different parts of us can carry old beliefs, fears, and roles that don’t respond to logic.
People who notice this experience may suffer from a wide range of clinical concerns, such as generalized anxiety, trauma, poor body image, low self esteem, depression, addictive behaviors, people pleasing, self hatred, and more.
If you feel like different parts of you are in conflict, one part wants to move forward while another is holding you back, parts work can help you understand those inner voices and bring them into balance.
It’s a powerful method for anyone seeking greater clarity, compassion, and integration in their healing journey.
What Does a Parts Work Session Look Like?
We’ll start by identifying what is important to you, what gets in the way of your goals, and which parts of you are showing up.
Explore a dialogue between different parts of you
Use puppets, creative expression, or imagery to represent parts
Identify body sensations tied to certain emotions
Clarify important experiences that have shaped the way you live
Discover you, the grounded Self beneath the noise
From there, we might:
You’re not alone in this. I’ll help you stay connected, safe, and curious as we navigate your inner world.
Why I Use Parts Work in My Practice
Systemic inequity impacts every person’s wellbeing and all healing journeys. I recognize that capitalism promotes sickness, disconnection, and overwhelm, which leaves us feeling alone, hopeless, and misunderstood.
Despite this reality, many people bravely work to achieve joy, harmony, and freedom in their lives, only to be thwarted by their subconscious patterns. Parts Work can help clients become a safe harbor for themselves, so they have one less barrier to creating a better life.
And as someone who blends expressive therapy, brainspotting, and creative tools, I often integrate parts work into other modalities to help deepen insight and increase emotion regulation, and identify coping skills that will actually work for you.
Parts work therapy helps you heal not just with your mind, but with your full self.
Ready to Begin?
Parts work offers a compassionate path toward self-awareness by helping you connect with the different inner voices, emotions, and beliefs that shape how you move through life. Whether you're struggling with inner conflict, people-pleasing, or patterns you can't quite explain, this approach can help you better understand and heal the parts of you that need care.