When coaching you as an individual, I attune to you and gear my approach to the needs of your system in the moment. Whether you wish to use an exploratory approach, a goal-oriented approach, or somewhere in between, I can help guide you toward healing. I have experience with facilitating healing around common issues such as codependency, procrastination, and addictive processes. I particularly enjoy working with clients who are exploring a spiritual approach. I bring presence, curiosity, and compassion in every session, always with the aim of helping you grow in Self-leadership to meet the needs of your own system.
But don’t take it just from me — read testimonials offered by my clients.
Services and Availability
I am not currently taking on new long-term 1-on-1 clients.
I have several openings per month for those who desire more short-term or occasional support for the more specialized services I offer (see below for more detail):
- Nurturing connection with beneficial external beings: guides, helpers, allies, spirit animals, ancestors, and elements.
- Healing and releasing around external energies, such as unattached burdens (UBs), legacy burdens, past life burdens, and collective/societal burdens.
- Healing issues through applied shamanic work, such as power retrieval and soul retrieval.
- Receiving IFS-based guidance through divination with oracle cards, stones, and pendulums.
- Preparing for and integrating psychedelic journeys with IFS.
If you are interested in any of these services, contact me to receive info on scheduling a session. I am located in the Eastern time zone and see clients during standard business hours. I welcome your regular practitioner and/or therapist to attend and observe the session if you desire. You may also record the session to assist you with integrating the work.
Exploratory Approach
We can begin by sending a gentle invitation into your inner world and then communicating with any thoughts, feelings, or sensations that appear. I trust that your system has its own wisdom and its own pace regarding what needs to show up first.
Goal-Oriented Approach
If you’re coming to an IFS session for a specific goal, I can help you stay attuned to that goal. I assume that some parts of you are driven to succeed and other parts may be engaged in blocking behaviors. I also assume that all parts of you are trying their best, and that even the most problematic behaviors will turn out to be based in a positive intention. In my own journey of healing, I have found this Marcus Aurelius quote to be true: “what’s in the way becomes the way.”
Specializations
Common Issues
Through IFS, I help clients navigate and heal a range of challenges, including codependency, procrastination, and addictive processes. Many struggles—whether in relationships, careers, or personal habits—stem from multiple parts with different strategies and perspectives, all working toward a sense of safety. By getting to know these parts and supporting them in releasing the burdens of core wounds, lasting transformation becomes possible.
While every system is unique, here are some common patterns I’ve observed in my own system and in those of my clients:
Codependency
Codependency often involves a set of parts that work to maintain relationships by ensuring others are okay. Their strategies may include caretaking, compliance, or control. These parts are often counterbalanced by others that rely on avoidance, resentment, or fantasy as protective measures. Beneath these dynamics, exiled parts may carry wounds of abandonment, loneliness, or feeling unappreciated.
Procrastination
Procrastination is frequently a result of polarization between task-driven parts and parts that resist tasks. Strategies used by these parts can include perfectionism, inner criticism, avoidance, or escapism. At the core, exiled parts may carry beliefs of being not good enough or unworthy, making it difficult to engage with tasks without triggering deeper emotional wounds.
Addictive Processes
Addiction is a complex issue that often requires multiple forms of support. In IFS, addictive behaviors are seen as protective strategies used by parts seeking soothing and relief. These strategies may include overeating, drinking, smoking, shopping, binge-watching, or doomscrolling. At the same time, other parts may express concerns about these behaviors and attempt to stop them, creating an internal tug-of-war.
The first step in IFS work is building relationships with the parts that want to stop the behavior—approaching them with curiosity and compassion. After those parts are able to settle a bit, we can connect with the parts that rely on the soothing behavior, allowing them to be seen and heard without an agenda for change. When parts feel safe and understood, they naturally begin to shift on their own.
Spirituality
Spiritual exploration aligns naturally with an IFS approach. I welcome all forms of spirituality and will use the language that resonates with you to help you navigate your inner experience.
In spiritual IFS work, we often discover parts that long to believe and others that hold skepticism or fear. All perspectives are valid, and we begin wherever your system needs to start.
Spiritual Energies in IFS
I am open to exploring connections that extend beyond ordinary awareness. If you encounter parts or energies you experience as spiritual, transpersonal, divine, or something else, I can hold space for them with confidence and curiosity. Some of the spiritual energies I regularly work with in IFS include:
Ancestors
Your ancestors—whether biological, adoptive, cultural, or spiritual—can play an active role in your inner system. Healed ancestors may offer guidance and support, while burdened ancestors sometimes appear, seeking their own resolution. In IFS, we can invite healed ancestors to assist with inner work and help burdened ones find their own healing.
Past Lives & Soul Parts
Some people experience past lives as part of their soul’s lineage, connected through a continuous “soul line.” Parts from these past lives may surface in IFS sessions, either offering guidance or needing healing, much like ancestral connections.
Outside Energies
Sometimes, external energies can attach to wounded parts of our system. Historically referred to in IFS as “unattached burdens” (UBs) or “critters,” these beings are not native to us but can still exert influence and drain our internal resources. With IFS, they can be compassionately released so that we and they can all find healing.
Guides, Allies, Helpers
Guides, allies, and helpers are divine, enlightened, natural, and/or universal forces who assist in healing work with spiritual energies that belong outside our systems. They might appear as elements, animals, archetypal figures, religious icons, or other forms. In spiritual IFS work, guides are often the ones facilitating healing, helping to clear external burdens, and providing protection and support for your system.
Divination, Channelling, Akashic Records
I maintain relationships with guides who allow me to access information or answer questions that my human mind does not know. I work with these guides to maintain ethical practices by only allowing information to come through if there is consent from all parties, and does not predict the future. The guidance I focus on is related to healing work and life paths.
In a divination session, we begin by refining the question you would like to ask. Then, I draw oracle cards, cast stones, and relay messages from guides. It helps me to know in advance whether you’ll want a divination so that I can have time to set up my second camera before we begin. I like for you to be able to see my desktop with the cards and stones as well as my face at the same time.
I can often also channel a message through my divination guides in the moment without cards or stones, as well as receive yes/no answers through a pendulum. If you are looking for information on past lives, we can visit the Akashic Records, an infinite spiritual library containing records of all experiences.
Alongside all of this, I provide IFS support to help your system process and integrate the insights offered. Beginning a session with messages from guides always brings up at least a few trailheads that can be explored immediately.
All Parts Are Welcome
Many of the descriptions above are just generalizations—your system is unique, and you may not resonate with some of the language or categories. I work with many different clients, whether or not their experiences align with what I’ve written here.
When we work together, I meet you where you are in the moment. My role isn’t to confirm a pre-existing parts list, apply a diagnosis, or push you to connect with Spirit, but to be present with whatever arises in your system. No matter what you’re bringing to the table, I’m here to explore it with curiosity and care.
See what my clients have to say about working with me on the testimonials page.
Laurie Chancey Coaching 