Stop Fixing Yourself & Your Clients: An IFS Meditation
➡️ Free IFS Training for Therapists: From Burnout to Balance: https://go.johnclarketherapy.com/ifs-webinar-podcast
✨ Want to respond to this episode or ask a question? Send me a message: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2289748/fan_mail/new
In this guided IFS meditation, John Clarke invites you to slow down and shift out of the habit of trying to fix yourself. Instead, you’ll practice simply being with what’s present—your thoughts, sensations, and parts—without judgment or urgency to change anything.
This is the same process you’re inviting your clients into.
Through gentle awareness, body-based attention, and pendulation between discomfort and ease, this meditation offers a direct experience of what it means to relate differently to your internal world—something you can begin to model and bring into your clinical work.
Whether you're a therapist or on your own healing journey, this short practice is a powerful reminder: transformation doesn’t come from fixing—it comes from being with.
Key Takeaways
What happens when you stop trying to change anything at all?
This is the same shift you’re inviting your clients into—moving from fixing to being with what’s present.You can help clients relate differently to discomfort—not eliminate it
Practices like gently noticing sensations and pendulating between ease and tension can support nervous system regulation.Not all parts will like slowing down—and that’s part of the work
The judgment, urgency, or resistance you (or your clients) notice isn’t a problem—it’s something to be with, too.
Resources & Offerings:
➡️ Free IFS Training for Therapists: From Burnout to Balance: https://go.johnclarketherapy.com/ifs-webinar-podcast
➡️ 1-Month Grace Period with Jane – Use code JOHN or visit: https://meet.jane.app/john-clarke-ambassador
➡️ 10% Off at Grounding Well – Use code GWJOHNCLARKE or visit: https://www.groundingwell.com/GWJOHNCLARKE
➡️ 10% Off at Dharma Dr. – Use code JOHN or visit: https://dharmadr.com/JOHN
Transcript:
Meditation 3.24.26
[00:00:00]
John Clarke: Okay, let's get started.
So I would invite you just to notice what's here now.
Just maybe doing a brief inventory of how you're doing and what you're carrying.
You might notice any parts that are active right now via sensations in your body
feelings. You might notice certain [00:01:00] thoughts going through your mind.
You might notice images.
See if whatever it is, you can just practice being with it without trying to change it.
And in general, just practicing. This idea of being with your parts over trying to fix or change them,[00:02:00]
just being with.
If you notice tension, discomfort, or pain in your body somewhere, you might also focus on. Being with that as much as you're able, what happens when you just practice being with it while noticing parts that are maybe not so sure about that?
You might also gently alternate your focus between areas of your body [00:03:00] that feel tense. Or uncomfortable and areas of your body that feel good or neutral, and just noticing what happens when you gently pendulate in between the two.
Just about another minute just to be with whatever you're with.[00:04:00]
Just notice what it's like to slow down parts that perhaps appreciate it. Parts that are not so sure. Parts that judge your ability to do this or do it consistently or do it well.[00:05:00]
What are you trying to help your clients do?
What do you believe needs to happen? In order for them to get to where they're going. And what is your part in that?[00:06:00]
Slowly starting to just reorient back to the room despite any hesitation maybe to do so if this is feeling good. And you might just make a, a mental or actual note about what you noticed here. Parts that need a follow up realizations you had items to add to your grocery list, you name it.