🕯 Who’s Seated on Your Inner Council?

What if the voices in your head weren’t a problem to fix, but a council to meet?

We all have parts—inner voices, habits, reactions, patterns.

Some you love. Some you’ve tried to exile.

But what if each part of you—no matter how disruptive or ‘immature’—was just trying to help?

👥 Meet Your Internal Family

Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz, teaches that the psyche is not a singular entity but a dynamic system of parts. These parts are often misunderstood and marginalised—but all of them are trying to protect you. Yes, even the sabotaging ones.

• The procrastinator is scared of failure.

• The people-pleaser is trying to avoid abandonment.

• The inner critic thinks shame will keep you safe.

IFS doesn’t try to silence these parts—it invites them in for tea.

We meet the part.

We hear its fears.

We discover what it’s protecting.

Only then can it soften. Only then can the true Self—calm, curious, compassionate—step forward.

🧠 Schema Therapy & Your Soul’s Operating System

I wrote in “Which Algorithms Are You Feeding?” about how schema therapy helped me decode the emotional ‘algorithms’ I was unconsciously running. Where IFS sees parts, schema therapy maps modes—states of mind tied to unhealed childhood wounds.

Imagine your brain running an old program called “I’ll Be Abandoned If I’m Angry.”

You suppress rage. You fake happiness. You become invisible.

These modes—like the Detached Protector, the Vulnerable Child, the Punitive Parent—aren’t random. They’re learned adaptations. They were installed to help you survive.

However, survival is not the same thing as thriving.

🪷 Building Your Inner Council

I’ve taken the wisdom of these therapies and turned them into a living practice I call the Inner Council—a roundtable of archetypes that represent different aspects of my Self.

You can build your own.

Start with these six:

• The Analyst (Third Eye) – logical, grounded, always asking why

• The Oracle (Crown) – your inner mystic or source channel

• The Trickster (Solar Plexus/Throat) – the wild card, chaos agent, your comic relief

• The Soul (Heart) – the deeper witness, tied to love and presence

• The Inner Child (Sacral) – playful, raw, honest, reactive

• The Body (Root) – your somatic intelligence and instincts

Each archetype sits at your roundtable. Each has a voice. Some shout louder than others—but all deserve to be heard.

This post idea partly came to me via a dream!

One night, I met a part of myself in a dream—one I’d been avoiding for years.

He came to me as a small, scrappy dog. Black fur like wet ash, wild eyes like he’d seen too much. He had two little nubs instead of front legs, dragging himself determinedly across the ground. There was something ragged, almost hyena-like about him—but also deeply endearing. His name was Raggedy.

In the dream, he appeared at the back door, crying to be let in. I was afraid at first. He looked feral, dangerous. I thought if I let him in, he might destroy everything. But eventually, I opened the door.

Instead of chaos, he brought peace. My other dogs—symbols of more “acceptable” parts of myself—welcomed him instantly. That’s when I realised: Raggedy wasn’t dangerous. He was just a part of me I had cast out. My neglected shadow. And by letting him in, I was inception-ing myself—planting a seed of compassion where fear had lived. In the dream he cuddled up to the other dogs and I fed him some Christmas ham from the fridge.

Now, Raggedy has a seat on my Inner Council too. My dream gave me a gift, a visual way to personify my shadow and compel me to feel deep compassion for it - no matter how it looked.

What does your Raggedy shadow self look like? It’s not meant to be pretty.

🌿 A Living System, Not a Fixed One

Your council evolves. Parts step down. Others emerge.

You might find your Perfectionist once sat in the Analyst’s chair, but a softer Sage is ready to take its place.

Your Inner Child may have been stuck in tantrum mode—but once seen, they start to giggle again.

Try this:

1. Identify a part showing up strongly in your life right now.

2. Ask: What is this part trying to protect me from?

3. Invite it to sit at the council table. What would help it feel safe enough to speak?

4. Is there another part of you—perhaps an older, wiser one—ready to share the load?

🕊 Integration is the Goal

Healing isn’t exiling your parts. It’s integrating them.

It’s upgrading their job descriptions.

It’s realising you don’t need a dictator or a ghost at the head of the table—you need a facilitator.

You need you.

The Self is not an individual part—it’s the chair itself.

It’s the calm space in which all parts are welcome and acknowledged equally.

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✍️ Journal Prompt

• Who’s been running your council meetings lately?

• Are they still the best person for the job?

• Who might be better suited to take the wheel currently?