Somatic Parts Work: Understanding Your Inner World
Imagine calm and grounded, is at the steering wheel. In the passenger seat and throughout the car sit all of your different parts. Your perfectionist part. Your inner critic. Maybe an anger part, a self-protective part, a hypervigilant part, whatever shows up for you. Right now, everything feels okay. Your core self is driving, listening to all of these parts, and choosing how to respond to the world.
But then something happens. Someone says something that feels critical. Or you make a mistake. Suddenly, that anger part surges forward. You can feel the rage moving through your body. Your heartbeat increases. There's this intense urge to act right now, to say something you might regret. Before you know it, that anger part has completely taken over and is now driving the car. You've moved into reactivity. You say things you don't want to say. You do things that don't align with who you really are.
This is what happens when parts of us take the wheel.
In somatic parts work, we're learning how to keep your core self in the driver's seat. Not by pushing other parts away, but by understanding them, listening to them, and working with them. That's at the core of this work.
What Is Somatic Parts Work?
We actually use parts language naturally all the time. "A part of me wants to go out tonight, but another part of me just wants to stay home." "Part of me is so angry right now." We say these things without thinking because it's true, we are naturally made up of multiple parts.
From childhood to adulthood, as we navigate our environments and experiences, different parts of us step out of their natural roles and become adaptive strategies. These aren't broken pieces of you. They're protective. They developed because they needed to. A part of you learned to be hypervigilant because you grew up in an unpredictable environment and needed to stay alert. A perfectionist part developed because perfectionism kept you safe from criticism or rejection. An inner critic emerged to protect you by being harsh on yourself before anyone else could be.
These parts are adaptive. They're intelligent. They came online to help you survive.
What helped you survive in the past can sometimes become problematic in the present. These protective parts can become maladaptive, leading to anxiety, addiction, destructive self-sabotage, chronic people-pleasing, self-adandonment, etc. These parts haven't changed their function. They're still trying to protect you, but the cost of that protection might be higher than it needs to be now.
In somatic parts work, we're not trying to get rid of these parts if you. We're getting to know them. We're understanding what they're protecting us from, what wounds they're guarding. We're learning to have a different relationship with them so they don't have to work so hard, so they can evolve, so they can eventually trust that your core self can take the wheel and handle what comes.
How Parts Show Up In Your Body
One of the most important things about somatic parts work is that it's not just in your head. Different parts of us show up with their own postures, their own sensations, their own ways of moving. Parts of us literally change the way that we move through the world.
When your perfectionist part is activated, your shoulders might tense up. Your jaw might clench. You might notice a tightness in your chest. Your breathing might become shallow. When your anger part surges, you might feel heat throughout your body, your fists clenching, your legs ready to move. Your inner critic part might bring a sinking feeling in your belly, heaviness in your chest, a collapse in your posture.
Each part carries its own somatic signature, its own way of living in your nervous system and your body.
Let's look at an example. Say you have a perfectionist part that developed because disappointing others (maybe your parent, maybe a sibling) meant you'd get severely criticized or punished. That part learned that if you're perfect, if you never mess up, you won't experience that painful feeling of disappointing someone. So your perfectionist part works overtime. It drives you to meet impossible standards. It keeps you from resting. It won't let you be human.
When we do somatic parts work together, we're noticing all of this. We're getting curious about what these parts feel like in your body. We're asking them questions: What are you trying to protect me from? Why do you believe I need to be perfect or fix everything? What are you afraid will happen if I rest or if things aren't perfect? And as we develop this understanding, something shifts. Your protective parts start to trust that you can handle disappointment. That you're not fragile. That your worth isn't conditional on your performance or your ability to fix things.
The Neurobiology Behind Parts
What's happening when different parts of us show up is actually a neurobiological process. Each part is essentially a state-dependent neural network involving specific cortical and subcortical regions of your brain. When a particular part activates, certain networks in your brain fire together in response to a trigger or cue, creating what's called a neural state configuration.
In a nervous system that hasn't experienced significant trauma, your three main brain networks communicate fluidly with each other. These networks, the default mode network (DMN), the salience network (SN), and the central executive network (CEN), work together through dynamic network integration. Meaning, you can move from internal reflection to external focus to detecting emotional stimuli easily. You can shift smoothly from work mode to home mode to relaxation mode. Your different systems talk to each other without friction. But when trauma happens, when experiences get stuck and unprocessed in your nervous system, this communication breaks down. Unprocessed trauma dysregulates the salience network, impairing the coordination between the DMN and CEN. The networks become rigid or fragmented. They can't coordinate the way they're supposed to. (Solms, 2021; Lanius et al., 2015, 2023, 2025)
What this means practically is that your protective parts, which were created to help you survive, can become locked in place. They can't update based on new information. They can't recognize that you're safe now. Trauma biases your salience network toward threat detection, so you stay hypervigilant, always scanning for danger. The communication between the parts of your brain that detect threat and the parts that assess actual danger has been disrupted.
This is why somatic work is so important. When we work with your body, when we help your nervous system reorganize and regulate, we're actually helping those brain networks communicate with each other again. We're healing that fragmentation at a neurological level, not just a psychological one.
Mapping Your Parts
One of the most eye-opening parts of this work is actually mapping out your inner world. You name your different parts and understand how they interact.
Your anger part. Your inner critic. Your people-pleaser. Your fixer part. Your shut-down part. Your creative part. Your nurturing part. Some of these parts are protective (they're trying to keep you safe), and some are what I call "inner child" parts (they're holding deep wounds or difficult feelings that the protective parts are working to keep hidden).
When you can name your parts and understand how they work together, something profound shifts. You start to realize that you're not just "an angry person" or "someone who can't rest." You're a complex system of different adaptive responses. That angry part? It has a job. It's trying to protect your boundaries. That part that shuts down when things get too intense? It's trying to protect you from being overwhelmed.
The more you understand your parts (where they live in your body, what they're protecting you from, what they're afraid of) the more you can work with them instead of against them. And that's when real change starts to happen.
The Different Frameworks
There are many different models and frameworks for working with parts, and I think it's important to acknowledge something first: this isn't new. This knowledge didn't come from Western psychology.
Indigenous peoples have been working with concepts of internal parts for generations. Scholars like Suzan McVicker, a Cherokee descendant and IFS therapist, have been bridging Indigenous worldviews and Western parts work frameworks, recognizing that these healing approaches align naturally with Indigenous knowledge and wisdom traditions. Parts work has been sacred work in many Indigenous cultures long before it was formalized into psychological models. (McVicker, 2014)
I want to honor that history and approach this work with humility, recognizing that we're drawing on ancient wisdom that Indigenous peoples have held for centuries (McVicker, 2014).
Western psychology has developed several frameworks for understanding and working with parts:
Way back, Freud talked about different ego states and parts of the psyche. This was one of the early Western explorations of the idea that we're not just one unified self.
Jung expanded on this with his concept of archetypes: universal patterns and characters that show up in the human psyche. These are like universal parts that humans experience across cultures.
Developed by Ann Weiser Cornell and Barbara McGavin, IRF integrates Eugene Gendlin's Focusing technique with internal parts work. It's a very gentle, relational approach to working with your inner world.
Richard Schwartz developed IFS (Schwartz, 1999), which has become quite prominent in recent years. IFS views the mind as a system with multiple sub-personalities or "parts." It emphasizes the concept of the "Self," a core, centered, compassionate presence that can lead and heal the system.
Pat Ogden's Sensorimotor Psychotherapy includes a somatic approach to working with parts, integrating body awareness, nervous system regulation, and parts work together. This one aligns most with the work I do.
Susan McConnell has developed an approach that brings somatic awareness more deeply into IFS work.
What's beautiful about all these frameworks is that despite their different origins and approaches, they share some core beliefs:
Compassion and understanding are essential. No part of us is trying to hurt us. Every part has a protective intention, even when the methods have become harmful. We approach all parts with curiosity and kindness.
There is a core self. This is a calm, compassionate, wise, centered presence that is different from our parts. Some frameworks call it Self, some call it core self, some call it your inner wisdom. Whatever we call it, the idea is the same. There's a part of you that is grounded, clear, and capable of holding all of your other parts with compassion.
Integration is the goal. We're not trying to get rid of parts or suppress them. We're bringing them into relationship with your core self so they can evolve, so they can trust, so they can take their appropriate place in your inner system instead of running the show.
Why I Integrate Somatic Parts Work
For me, somatic parts work is about deeply, profoundly understanding yourself. And most importantly, it's about de-identifying with your parts.
So many of us are living as if we are our parts. "I'm just an angry person." "I'm someone who can't relax." "I'm a perfectionist. I don't know what I'd do if I wasn't." "I'm hypervigilant. That's just who I am." "I shut down when things get too intense. I can't help it."
But you're not your parts. You're the one who can observe your parts. You're the one who can choose how to respond to them. When you can make that shift, when you move from "I am angry" to "a part of me is experiencing anger," everything changes. Suddenly, you're not trapped by that anger. You can work with it.
Research shows us that the more we suppress or avoid our emotions, the worse they impact us. Emotional suppression is both a symptom of psychological distress and a predictor of it. It creates a cycle where avoiding difficult feelings actually increases depression and anxiety. (Dawel et al., 2021) When we turn toward our emotions with gentle curiosity and understanding, when we stop running from what we're feeling and instead get curious about it, a great deal of heling happens.
Parts work gives you a way to do that. It gives you a framework for turning toward all of the different feelings and impulses and protective strategies that live inside you, and meeting them with compassion instead of judgment. It gives you permission to understand yourself as a complex, adaptive system instead of as someone who's "broken."
My goal is to help guide you back to yourself and help you integrate all of these different parts so that your core self, your true self, is the one steering the car. Not different parts taking over. Not reactivity running the show. You are driving. Grounded, clear, present, and capable of drawing on different parts when you need them.
Here's what I know: when your core self is in the driver's seat, everything changes. The way you relate to yourself changes. The way you show up in your relationships changes. The way you move through the world changes. You're no longer being unconsciously driven by protective parts. You're making conscious choices. You're living from a place of wholeness.
The work starts with getting curious about all the different parts of you. With compassion, understanding, and the belief that every part of you has something to teach you if you're willing to listen.
If parts work resonates with you, I'd love to explore this with you in therapy. Ready to get to know your inner world?
Sources
Schwartz, R. C. (1999). Internal Family Systems therapy. Guilford Press.
Solms, M. (2021). The hidden spring: A journey to the source of consciousness. W.W. Norton & Company.
Lanius, R. A., et al. (2015, 2023, 2025). Research on neurobiological models of trauma and fragmentation.
Dawel, A., et al. (2021). Cause or symptom? A longitudinal test of bidirectional relationships between emotion regulation strategies and mental health symptoms. Journal of Affective Disorders, 280, 309-317.
McVicker, S. A. M. (2014). Internal Family Systems (IFS) in Indian Country: Perspectives and practice on harmony and balance. Journal of Indigenous Research, 3(1), 1-15.
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