Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal, and today I’m speaking with Shira Fruchter, a social worker and Internal Family Systems certified psychotherapist who holds a private practice in Jerusalem. 

Shira counsels couples and individual women specializing in relational trauma and interpersonal conflict. She also runs IFS mini workshops for personal development and growth.

Shira also released a book at the end of last year all about IFS, speaking about the therapy through the lens of Torah and helping others in the observant world connect more deeply to the modality.

In our conversation, we speak about:

-What IFS is and how it works

-Why Shira wanted to write a book for the Jewish community about it and how it makes the modality more accessible

-What parts we are all made up of and how to use those to better understand yourself and how to heal

-How this all connects to Judaism and Torah...and more!

To demonstrate the work of IFS, we actually go through a real simulation where I am the patient and share a little bit about one of my parts and she walks us through how I can understand that in a different way and not feel threatened by it. Instead, she taught me how certain questions you can ask yourself can change the way you look at it and treat both yourself and certain situations with more compassion, ultimately approaching life in a healthier way.

Full disclosure, I have really felt a change in myself since our conversation. It sounds crazy but I have begun to question my insecurities or overthinking tendencies since going through the modality with her a little bit more in the simulation and it’s changed the way I think about certain situations. Instead of ruminating. I’m really amazed by what just a little bit of IFS work can do and so grateful that I have this tool now in my back pocket.

Shira can be contacted through email at [email protected] or WhatsApp at 347-255-3514.

You can get her book on Amazon here.

Thanks for listening, see you next week!