Friends of the Collective Spotlight: Peter Legård Nielsen, Certified IFS Practitioner, Certified Advanced Rolfer, Writer
We’re excited to introduce you to Friend of the Collective Peter Legård Nielsen. As an IFS therapist, he helps clients get in direct contact with their sub-personalities and free them from incorrect notions, burdens, burdensome emotions, and misplaced roles. Often, these sub-personalities have completely different perceptions of past events than the clients do, leading to the resolution of apparently insoluble mental conflicts in particularly surprising ways through the body. The integration that occurs would be difficult or impossible to achieve without involving both the body and sub-personalities.
Peter Legard Nielsen holds great respect for the client's internal system, welcoming all parts of the client during sessions. IFS is considered a safe method under his guidance because he never works against the client's protective parts but collaborates with them, allowing these parts to have a decisive say in when sensations, traumas, and other psychic materials should be brought to awareness. The result is a feeling of coherence in the body and psyche, along with a great openness, spaciousness, strength, and the right to be exactly as one is, based on the Self.
Tell us briefly about yourself and how you discovered the IFS model.
I published my first book in 1985 and have published a big number of books since then. I started working as a rolfer in 2007. After some years I started to seach for a modality that I could combine with rolfing and that could help me to work in other ways with the protective system in my clients. In 2017 I read about IFS in Van der Kolks book The Body Keeps the Score and was immediately hooked. I finished my Level 1 training in the beginning of 2018 and got certified the next year. I have worked as PA on numerous trainings and also been Lead PA many times. In 2024 the IFS Institute invited me to start organizing trainings for the 5 Nordic countries.
Please describe your work as an IFS therapist/practitioner and how long you have been working in the Model.
I work with individual and couples therapy with a focus on somatics and deep trauma. I have been working with IFS for 6 years.
Is there something in particular about working with the IFS Model that excited you?
I find that it is the only psychotherapeutic modality I have tried that actually heals, both myself and my clients. I love the respect for the protective system and IFS's ability to go very precisely to deep-rooted issues.
Tell us about the IFS-inspired resource you've created that is feature on Friends of the Collective.
I have written a nonfiction book on IFS, where I have tried to include all that I have learned about the modality through the trainings and working as a PA and Lead PA, illustrated with a lot of case stories and views into my personal theraputic journey.The book is both for therapists and practitoners who wants to know more about IFS and experienced IFS therapists and practitoners, who wants to know more about advanced practices. The book also contains a chapter on Unattached Burdens.
What inspired you to create your products/services?
We didn't have a book on IFS in Danish and there was a great need for that.
Who would benefit most from your IFS resources and how can people access your product/service?
Eveyone interested in IFS can benefit from the book. It is aimed both a the newly educated IFS therapist or practitoner and the experienced. The book is for sale in all Danish book stores as paperback and ebook. The ebook can also be bought though international book stores and online shops like Amazon.
Please describe any future plans or next steps for your service/product that you would like to share.
I would like to get the book out to a broad public.
We'd love to hear a success story or positive feedback you've received from someone who has experienced your IFS resource.
I have had a lot of positive feedback from readers who like the way I have chosen to present IFS in my book.
What is your favorite IFS aligned quote, poem, song, book, TV show or movie? Why?
I think it must be Joni Mitchells song “Don Juan's Reckless Daughter,” where she sings about the eagle and the serpent that are at war in her. The lyrics and the music are outstanding.
Anything else you want readers to know?
I'm very grateful for having found IFS and to belong the the IFS community. It is a very special community.
How can people learn more about your offerings and stay in touch?
The best place is probably the Danish IFS Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/943827296365791
My IFS homepage is: www.alle-dele-er-velkomne. Here is also a list of podcasts I have participated in.
We’re so pleased to be able to offer this resource and see our IFS community connected in a new way. Visit the Friends of the Collective page to browse the current profiles or submit your own! For the full step-by-step guide to creating your entry & advertising on our site, start by downloading this PDF.
