Many people in the somatic world are familiar with the title of Bessel van der Kolk's groundbreaking book The Body Keeps the Score.
And rightly so.
His work helped shift the trauma field by showing that trauma does not only live as stories and memories, but also as patterns held in the body and nervous system. For many of us, he helped place the body firmly on the map as an essential part of healing.
But when I look at trauma through a Somatic IFS lens, I find myself curious about a small nuance.
What if the body is not the only thing keeping the score?
What if our parts do, too?
In Internal Family Systems, we understand that parts of us can come to carry the burdens of what was once too much, too fast, or too overwhelming to face alone.
They remember what did not feel safe to feel.
What was not safe to say.
Who we had to become in order to maintain connection, love, belonging, or acceptance.
And often these memories do not live as clear recollections.
They live as organization.
As a nervous system that still scans the room.
As parts that tighten the body around certain emotions.
As parts that work tirelessly to ensure we never again feel shame, rejection, helplessness, vulnerability, or loss of control.
In one way or another, most of us know this experience.
We may intellectually understand that we are safe now, yet still notice our body responding as though something important is at stake.
Perhaps there is a part of you that still holds its breath during conflict.
A part that quickly feels responsible for other people's emotions.
A part that struggles to fully relax.
Or a part that has become exceptionally good at managing on its own because, at one point, it did not feel safe to need anyone else.
Not because there is something wrong with you.
But because some of our parts became organized around what they had to learn in order to get through.
In traditional trauma theory, we often speak about how the body carries the story.
Through an IFS lens, it becomes clear that the story is also carried relationally within us.
By parts.
Parts that developed extreme roles in an effort to protect something vulnerable.
And perhaps this is where Somatic IFS adds an important dimension.
When we notice a knot in the stomach, pressure in the chest, or tightness in the throat, we can certainly understand it as a physiological or autonomic response.
But we can also become curious:
Which part of me is showing up right now?
In this way, the body becomes more than a place where the past continues to live.
It becomes a doorway to the parts of us that are still trying to protect us based on old experiences.
Perhaps this is why insight alone so rarely creates deep transformation.
Because even when we understand our patterns cognitively, our parts and nervous system may still be organized around old survival beliefs:
"I am too much."
"I am alone."
"I have to do everything myself."
"It is not safe to relax."
"My needs are a problem."
In Somatic IFS, we therefore do not work only with the story of trauma.
We work with the parts that still carry it.
And with the ways those parts continue to express themselves through the body.
If this resonates with you, my one-to-one Somatic IFS sessions offer a space to explore the relationship between body, nervous system, and parts in a gentle and compassionate way.
Because healing is not about fixing what is wrong. It is about reconnecting with the parts of us that have been carrying too much for too long.
You can continue exploring more reflections on Internal Family Systems, self-ccompassion, and relational healing here.
And if you’re curious about the Somatic IFS sessions I offer, you can learn more here.
With care,
Trine