In the first part of this series, I wrote about music, connection, and the ways certain experiences can reshape our implicit memory and nervous system. But, to really understand why those moments mattered so deeply to me, it helps to understand another core idea from Internal Family Systems: we are all made up of different “parts.” IFS suggests that the mind is not singular. Most of us experience this naturally, even if we do not think about it that way. One part of you wants

Music has always been more than background noise for me; it has been a place where something deeper shifts. I vividly remember in the 2010s being just a guy following jam bands up and down the East Coast, standing in crowds with my closest friends and feeling something I could not quite name at the time. Now, as a therapist, I understand those experiences through an Internal Family Systems (IFS)-informed lens and how those experiences shaped my sense of self. What I understan