Clinician Spotlight: Nancy Edenfield
Internal Family Systems SM (IFS) therapy, developed by Richard Schwartz Ph.D., is more than just a method — it is a paradigm-shifting approach for deeply understanding and appreciating every part of ourselves. The IFS framework encourages a gentle inquiry that allows us to understand ourselves, our families, and our world in a new and holistic way.
The IFS Telehealth Collective is delighted to introduce you to Nancy Edenfield who is now accepting clients in California, Florida, and Michigan. We had the opportunity to sit down with Nancy for a chat about the "playfully magic" healing available to us through IFS.
Q: What is it about IFS that speaks to you?
NE: IFS trusts that everyone’s system is innately wise and honors each system’s pace. There is utter confidence and clarity that no one is damaged or broken. Each of us is loved and lovable. IFS therapists and clients appreciate IFS’ knowing that we all have the capacity for compassion and safety in connection—internally and with one another.
For client and therapist, IFS is playfully magical—mysterious even—with its subtle gentleness and deeply powerful, profound ways. IFS has a tenacious heart and hope for us all – from the micro, macro, and meta perspectives. The IFS community cares about the healing of the individual, our collective, our institutions, our nations – our planet.
Q: Describe your approach to working with clients.
NE: I meet clients where they are. My approach is naturally curious, earnest, and intuitive. I maintain awareness of where an individual is in relationship to themselves and in relationship to the world around them. Underlying my approach is heartfelt compassion. My job is to collaborate with clients in realizing a sense of balance and connectedness. I trust that each client has all the answers inside of them, and my role is to guide and facilitate their connection to their inherent wisdom. It knows.
Q: What are some internal conflicts you notice in a lot of your clients? If so, how do you help them?
NE: Frequently I hear, “The fear of being emotionally overwhelmed stops me from engaging in therapy.”
I reassure clients that we cannot do anything without their permission. IFS is an exquisitely self-correcting model. As clients get to know their internal system, they can make space for unburdening beliefs and behaviors that have led them to experience dissatisfaction with life.
If you ask for a part not to overwhelm and it agrees, the laws of inner physics will not allow you to become overwhelmed. There is a design, a process unique to IFS, that maintains internal safety. IFS honors each individual’s system and pace – slower is faster.
Q: Finish this sentence: "Therapy is for you when…
NE: When a part of you, or a loved one, gives you the nudge. When you are curious about yourself. When you want to experience more internal balance. When you have even an ounce of hope to reach out. Then, you just need to show up.
Q: What is your favorite analogy that you use with your clients that seems to be helpful to them?
NE: “There’s a whole lot of drag on the engine.” As someone who has been fortunate to know many mechanics and tinkerers, I gained a greater appreciation for this analogy when I heard it used in the therapeutic context by IFS Institute Lead Trainer, Sue Richmond, LCSW.
Q: What personal experiences drew you to this field? How did you know this is the career path you wanted to pursue? How did you get started? What made you interested in being a mental health professional?
NE: My journey to becoming a psychotherapist began at a young age observing people and responding to queries about my observations. I grew up in an environment where I witnessed a lot of folks being marginalized, oppressed, and othered – I did not get it. My lifelong commitment to understanding and, hopefully, improving the human condition, began with simple curiosity in adolescence and expanded well beyond my immediate surroundings and Southern roots.
In 1989, I ventured to the former Soviet Union as a student ambassador with a cultural exchange program whose motto was “promoting peace through understanding.” I learned that my Soviet peers were also burdened with similar concerns about the human condition. That same year, I began working in HIV/AIDS prevention with a local county health department’s pilot program, CHAT (Care and Help from Advocate Teens). CHAT gave me the opportunity to connect with teenagers across the county – regardless of the dominant culture’s messages.
After earning an undergraduate degree in English Literature with minors in History and African American Studies, I volunteered as a crisis counselor with Southern Africa’s largest community AIDS center and with a safe house for homeless girls in the street’s sex industry. During that year, a desire to become better equipped to serve people converged with an existential crisis. That convergence awakened me to the importance of taking care of myself, too. A part of that was discovering my own need for therapy.
Early on in my therapy journey, I told the psychotherapist, who eventually became my mentor, that I knew she had all the answers and I wanted them. She calmly and clearly replied, “That’s right, I do, and they are mine. I am going to help you find yours.” The tenacity of Lillie M. Harris, LCSW’s ways of being, her defiance of the dominant culture’s ways of othering, and her compassion for her clients inspired me. I wanted to do that, too.
Q: What social issues, population, or diagnoses are you passionate about?
NE: People who were not valued as individuals in their own right. Folks who had to hide parts of themselves to survive. People who hold an intersection of their identity that experiences oppression, marginalization, and erasure. The disenfranchised unicorns in their families and communities. Many of those folks happen to be trauma survivors. I get that now.
Q: Finish this sentence: When therapy is working…
NE: When therapy is working, time becomes less relevant – both in session and out in the world. Our relationship to time, past and future, shifts as our relationships to ourselves and to one another become increasingly present centered – without the weight of burdens from the past and fears of the future shaping how and who we are.
Q: How do you stay grounded in Self energy?
NE: Taking in the natural beauty all around me, sitting, gardening, stretching, walking, connecting with friends and family, reading and writing, music and movement, eating nourishing foods (including chocolate), and enjoying a good night’s sleep.
Q: Favorite Quote?
NE: “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there.” ~Rumi
Does Nancy Edenfield sound like the right therapist to guide you on your journey? If you are based in California, Florida, or Michigan, contact our Client Care Coordinator or call 503-447-3244 to schedule a consultation.
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