Six Basic Child Needs

In exploring why therapeutic change may not happen fully in IFS, I have discovered that there are six basic child needs: Safety, Belonging, Self-esteem, Autonomy, Stability, and Understanding.

 When one of them is not met during childhood, then an exile will have this need. For that exile to be fully healed, all of its needs must be met. This happens especially during the Do-Over step, but also during the other steps of healing an exile. When the therapeutic change you were hoping for doesn’t fully happen, you can explore to see which needs weren’t met, and then do another session with that exile in which you make sure that its needs are met.