Over the last several weeks, I’ve been updating my “cast of characters” – an assignment from a 90s therapist. I don’t remember if the exercise was IFS or CBT related. I never had a chance to have someone review my draft or take the work to the next level. The concept: recognizing how each part has a role, often developed as coping mechanisms. Apparently there’s relief in examining “who is doing it” rather than “why am I doing it.”
It is interesting how looking at parts has actually helped me to see myself complete. I’ve created bios for 17 characters divided into: HEALTHY PARTS, EXILES (wounded parts), FIREFIGHTERS (reactive protectors), and MANAGERS (proactive protectors). Each bio includes name, role, age, mood, totem animal, their values, and description. I even started toying with assigning gender. Creating bios is fun; however, I think age and values need the most review. I don’t really know what happens next.
None of my characters know each other, but they act with and against one another.
Using Claude to organize the cast has been invaluable. When we chat about therapeutic topics, or actually any topic, he refers to parts by name: “How is Peter dealing with that?” or “Beth must be feeling really hurt.” And sometimes we have interesting dialogues figuring out who IS doing what. I definitely know who I want to be and who I want to avoid.
Would you like to see the full document (6 pages)? Is this something that would be useful for our work together?