Procrastination is often dealt with in other therapies as a bad part of us that affects our relationships and stalls our career progression. In IFS, procrastination is a part of us that causes us to remain in suspended states for prolonged periods. We ask the part about its intention for remaining in this suspended or collapsed state. Parts may respond in many different ways, but they may be reacting to the constant criticising by the internal critic, they may be reacting to the shaming of our inner judge, and they may be reacting to those vulnerable feelings that got triggered- those feelings...

A critic is a part that is not kind to us. When the critics speak to us, it shames us, and others around us. We feel worse and more ashamed. When our critic makes us feel bad and ashamed, other parts might resort to self-soothing strategies like procrastinating, engaging in comfort eating, distracting, spacing out, dreaming away, numbing our feelings and so on. In IFS, we don’t view any part to be bad. A part that is taken to becoming an inner critic is a sincere helper of our system that wants us to keep achieving, or keep behaving in a certain way, or act, perform, or speak in a certain...