An Analysis of Internal Family Systems Therapeutic Factors From the Perspective of the Catholic Christian Meta-Model of the Person

Abstract

Psychotherapy, in its long-standing tradition, has conceptualized the nature of the human person in a variety of ways, whether implicitly or explicitly. Such worldviews identify how changes within a person’s environment, family system, relationships, or personality structure assist him or her to overcome struggles. In essence, each form of therapy explicitly delineates or at least provides an implicit model of why it works and what it is exactly doing for the client, and each lends additional perspectives to the growing study of therapeutic factors. What is often overlooked within treatment models is a robust analysis of these implied worldviews and understandings of human nature, as well as an examination of the other therapeutic factors present within the therapy but outside of the central theoretical foundations of the model. In short, the vision of the person and therapeutic factors operative within a given therapy may be more extensive than the explicit emphases in the methodology. This dissertation has utilized the recently developed vision of the person outlined in the Catholic Christian Meta-Model of the Person (CCMMP), as well as its view of both flourishing and psychopathology, in order to examine internal family systems (IFS) through a robust Christian lens. This dissertation also has utilized the psychological literature on therapeutic factors to examine IFS. Together, through the use of these two analyses, this dissertation seeks to offer an expanded view of internal family systems’ explicit view of the person and the therapeutic factors operative within this therapeutic method. In addition to an examination of IFS therapeutic factors through a normative Catholic Christian lens, an analysis of implicit anthropology present in the IFS model is conducted. An integrated vision of Catholic anthropology and the IFS model is proposed and discussed.