Clinician Spotlight: Kristina Shimokawa
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.
We are delighted to welcome Kristina, a Licensed Therapist with a passion for Internal Family Systems (IFS), to our team. Kristina’s approach is warm, open, and collaborative, providing clients with a structured, secure space to explore their inner and outer systems. She specializes in helping clients who struggle with anxiety, over-achievement, and attachment injuries, particularly those impacted by parentification and adultification. Kristina is dedicated to helping individuals reparent themselves, manage burnout, and establish healthy boundaries.
How would you describe your approach to working with clients?
I would describe my IFS approach as warm, open, and collaborative while providing a secure structure and framework from which to work from. I work to establish boundaries, trust, and safety in the beginning and throughout. I believe it is a pretty crucial and ongoing approach to have. More clinically, I try to look at the systems not just internally, but also externally, providing a bigger framework of how external structures impact us and how we operate in them.
What is your professional background? Are there any areas of interest you specialize in?
I specialize in working with anxiety and those who struggle with over-achieving. I am really interested in helping people who are healing from attachment injury, specifically parentification and adultification. I am really interested in the process of reparenting ourselves.
I also enjoy working with reducing burnout - whether that be professionally or relationally. And setting healthy boundaries is a part of that. Boundaries around time, energy, as well as our professional and personal roles.
What are some internal conflicts you notice in a lot of your clients? How do you help them?
There is usually a judgment and shame conflict I see in clients; a voice they hear in their head that is criticizing them and the feeling of shame for "not doing enough". I also notice a “should I stay or should I go” conflict. This could look like a part that feels stuck and one that wants to move forward. The way that I help all these parts is pretty similar to how we interact with any other part. We recognize that there is a polarization/conflict and then gain understanding of how that conflict is impacting the client. From there, we spend time with the conflicting parts until we learn how they’re intending to help. When the polarization is between protectors, we help them unblend so we can be with a more exiled part.
Finish this sentence: "Therapy is for you when...
it’s time to start or try something new because what you have been doing isn't working.
What is it about IFS that speaks to you?
What speaks to me about IFS is it is the missing piece in the self-discovery journey that is always there but we don't always know it or we've been talked out of trusting that healing resource within ourselves. I really love the concept/idea that the Self - or even our internal system in general - is really our own medicine and that we are our own resource for healing, growth, and presence.
What Personal experiences drew you to this field? How did you know this is the career path you wanted to pursue?
It started in college when I was feeling pretty lost, and I found myself on academic probation for not going to class, totally disconnected from what I needed to do to get on any directional path. One day, I was watching some trash reality show on MTV, and I was like, “what am I doing?!” I was tired of watching people live their lives and not live my own. I got up, went to the internet to look up possibilities of what I could do, knowing that I wanted to help people. I started looking for volunteer opportunities, and there was this A-Z list of millions of things I could do. It struck me that there were a lot of people that needed help in the world.
I really started to narrow my focus after my undergrad, when I was working in a group home for youth. It was a high level security group home and each child had this huge support team of people - social workers, residential care team, guardians. I noticed the one person they seemed to really feel connected to or impacted by was their therapist. That’s when I realized it's not just these external supports that can help someone, it's helping someone help themselves. After witnessing the internal support that they discovered, I decided to go to grad school and become a therapist.
How do you stay grounded in Self energy?
I try to practice “blending to unblend.” Really being with my parts and hearing them helps me stay grounded. I try to take care of my parts and my whole Self from the basics of sleeping, eating well (things my body finds nutritious and fulfilling), moving my body with hiking, walking, running, lifting heavy things. And I also really love any opportunity to structure my day so it doesn't feel overwhelming. The word that comes to mind is perspective. When my parts are really caught up in the day-to-day, I find taking steps back and really putting on that macro lens. That helps me get grounded in Self energy.
How do you explain IFS to clients?
I can really geek out when I explain this to clients! It's a somatic therapy that is very different from “regular talk therapy” where we are speaking from an experience that our body or our emotions and thoughts or even memories are having, instead of about them. Sometimes when we are able to hear from those parts of us, we can gain a better understanding of why we do what we do- even the things we do not like about ourselves or that we want to work on. When we have an understanding for those parts of us, there is an opportunity to try something different, instead of the usual patterns that we get stuck in. There is an opportunity to heal parts of us that didn't get a chance to before.
Finish this sentence: When therapy is working…
Your needs are getting met and you start to see how everything else in life falls into place.
Does Kristina sound like the right therapist for your path to healing? If you are based in California, contact our Client Care Coordinator or call 503-447-3244 to schedule a consultation.
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