Dr Richard Schwartz

Richard C. Schwartz, PhD, is the creator of Internal Family Systems (IFS), a therapeutic model that de-pathologizes the multi-part personality. He began his career as a systemic family therapist and an academic. Grounded in systems thinking, he developed IFS in response to clients' descriptions of various parts within themselves. He found that when those parts felt safe and were allowed to relax, clients spontaneously experienced qualities such as confidence, openness and compassion, which he came to call the Self.

IFS views every person as a system of protective and wounded inner parts guided by a core Self. It teaches that the mind is naturally multiple, and that this is healthy: like members of a family, inner parts can be pushed into extreme roles but also have valuable qualities of their own. The model helps people reach their undamaged, compassionate Self and, from that inner leadership, understand and transform their parts.

In 2000, Schwartz founded The Center for Self Leadership as a training organization for the model. It was renamed the IFS Institute in 2019, and its mission is to bring more Self leadership to the world. He serves as its president and the Institute primarily offers training for professionals.

He is a Teaching Associate in Psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate. He has authored or co-authored more than ten books on IFS and related topics, including No Bad Parts and Internal Family Systems Therapy, and has published over fifty articles. He is a featured speaker for national professional organizations. He lives near Chicago with his wife Jeanne, close to his three daughters and six grandchildren.