Fool + IFS: A 5-day Lab

Oct 02 2024

Holly Stoppit
Image credit: Saskia Solomons / Holly and the Fool + IFS research lab

This blog is one of a series charting my discoveries in blending Dramatherapy, Fooling and Internal Family Systems (IFS). 

Key Concepts

Fooling is a solo form of  improvisation where the performer embodies their inner voices. I began my Fools training with Master Fool Franki Anderson in 2000. I have integrated Fooling into my performance, teaching and therapy work ever since.

Dramatherapy is a dynamic mode of therapy which uses creative modalities, such as stories, characters, play, movement, embodiment and voice-work to reveal our hidden depths. I qualified with an MA in Dramatherapy in 2014. 

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a form of therapy, based on the notion that we are all made up of multiple sub-personalities or parts. I completed my IFS level 1 training in October 2023.

This year I have been integrating IFS into my toolkit via relentless experimentation. I've been playing with a wonderful research group of IFS-trained clowns and fools and I've been discovering many ways to weave IFS into my workshops and one-to-ones. I've been documenting my discoveries on this here blog, in order to chart my progress and to share with fellow practitioners, therapists and other curious folk. If you want to get a bit more background, you could start with: 

Or feel free to just plunge right in and read this blog! It a whoppa, mind! Feel free to scroll your way to whatever is most useful to you. 

What’s In The Blog?

  • The story of how the 5-day Fooling + IFS research lab came to be

  • An outline of what happened in the lab

  • Little chunks of IFS theory from the morning talks

  • Descriptions of some of the ways we integrated IFS, creativity and the body - you could have a go at some of these if you wish!

  • A brief outline of our Fooling + IFS solo stage experiments 

  • My key learnings

I hope you enjoy a little window into the first ever Fooling + IFS lab or “FLAB” as it was renamed by the participants.

How The 5-day Fooling + IFS Research Lab Came To Be

Holly Stoppit
Image credit: Selfie: Saskia and Holly smiling and pointing at each other at the end of their planning day

I wanted to find out how IFS could be of benefit to Foolish performers, I was interested to explore:

  • Could a working knowledge of IFS bring new dimensions and qualities to our stage work?

  • Could IFS help to free up our performing parts from their binds with our inner protectors, giving us more space and permission to play?

  • Could developing more compassion towards our parts help us get a clearer sense of what we want to put on the public stage and what we want to keep private?

I put a call-out for experienced Fools who had already attended some of my Fools training to join an experimental research lab. I had only just started advertising when Saskia Solomons got in touch with me about coming along to play. 

Saskia (she/they) is a Lecoq-trained clown-idiot, physical theatre performer, deviser, storyteller and facilitator. They are also a level 2 trained Internal Family Systems practitioner. 

I met Saskia at a clowning workshop that I facilitated in Leeds back in 2021 as part of the creation process of Bobak Champion's solo show 'Don't Panik, I'm Muslamic'. At lunchtime, Saskia and I sat in the sun and talked about IFS and Fooling and where the two might meet. 

In 2022, Saskia invited me to create a bespoke 3-day Fooling workshop for them, as part of the creation process of their Edinburgh Fringe solo show, ‘Fool’s Gold.’ Saskia was already exploring the space where clowning and IFS meet and was eager to learn some structures from Fooling to integrate into their process. 

Saskia and I are both members of an IFS / Fool / Clown research group who have been meeting and playing together since 2022.

In early 2024 I got a phone call from Saskia, asking if they'd be a good fit for the 5-day Fooling + IFS lab. Through our conversation, it dawned on me that Saskia was not only much further into their IFS training than me, but they also had experience of making a show using these very techniques AND they'd be a great person to explore co-facilitation with. So by the end of the call I invited Saskia to co-facilitate the Fooling + IFS lab with me.

The Preparation

Because Saskia lives in Italy and we are both ridiculously busy people, we only had one day together in-person to plan the workshop. We chatted, we danced, we wrote and we drew, until the workshop began to reveal itself. Our 5-day research lab would be experimental, experiential, emergent and engaged. The content would arise in relation to what was happening in the room, moment to moment, day by day. 

What Happened?

Holly Stoppit
Image credit: Saskia / One of the lab members giving feedback after a stage performance

In April 2024, eight wonderful Fools gathered together in a beautiful dance space in Bristol for 5 days.

Each morning we sat together in meditation, tuning into our inner worlds before checking-in with each other. Then we dropped the words and asked our bodies how they needed to move. We connected with each other through movement, voice and play, before exploring a different element of IFS each day. 

Saskia offered nuggets of IFS theory in a series of accessible, interactive, illustrated daily talks. We then took these themes into the body, exploring through movement, embodiment, artwork and writing. 

In the afternoons, the participants took what they'd discovered through the IFS explorations onto the Fools stage. Saskia and I offered a menu of stage experiments and each person could choose how they wanted to use their solo stage time.

About This Blog

Here follows a little taste of what happened in the morning sessions. I've paraphrased some of the IFS theory from Saskia's morning talks (there was much, much more, but I want this blog to be concise enough to be readable) and sprinkled in bits of my own understanding. I've also included an outline of some of the ways we explored IFS theory through embodiment and creativity. 

This blog doesn't include a detailed description of what happened in the Fooling stage experiments in the afternoons, as: 1.) The workshop was a confidential space and 2.) The sheer volume of insights feels like this could be a book or a phD! Hmmmmm.... A phD....

Monday - Introducing Parts

We are all made up of many parts

Holly Stoppit
Image credit: Saskia talking

Saskia began by honouring all the other parts-work methodologies, explaining that "this work has a lot of ancestors!" They described IFS as ancient wisdom which has been re-packaged for these times by Dick Swartz and his colleagues. 

The basic theory of IFS is "we are many." Saskia explained that the dominant culture is “we are one,” and anything that deviates from that is mostly seen as illness or bad. But the reality is we are all made up of many parts.

Dick Swartz took the term "parts" from his clients' language while he was developing IFS. It's in our everyday parlance, eg: “Part of me thinks I should go for this job and part of me doesn’t.”

Parts can appear as thoughts, sensations, emotions, images, impulses or memories. Parts might use words or not. They might show up in your body or not. Different people experience parts in different ways. Spending time with our parts, with curiosity, can help us get to know them on a deep level. When parts feel seen and heard, they will begin to offer up their stories and how they came into being.

Exercise 1: Exploring Parts: Parts Mapping

To explore our parts, we invited the participants to create body maps. This is my version of a parts mapping exercise. If you want to try it,  you need a sheet of paper and some coloured pens or pencils or crayons. You could set a timer for 5 or 10 minutes to contain this exercise if you like or just go freestyle.

1.) Draw an outline of your body on a sheet of paper

2.) Take a moment to drop your attention inside your body

3.) Notice what's here - sensations, emotions, thoughts, impulses

4.) Choose one to focus on first and offer it your curious, compassionate attention

5.) If other parts want to get in on the action, you could gently ask them to step back, letting them know they'll get their time in due course. If they can't / won't step back then maybe let them have your attention for now.

6.) Once you've settled on a part, explore its qualities: Can you sense it in or around your body? Is it big or small? Hot or cold? Moving or still? Does it have a colour or a sound? Are there any words associated with this part?

7.) Once you've got a sense of this part, make a mark on your body-outline to represent it.

8.) Once you've captured the part as an image, go back inside and see which part wants to be seen next.

9.) Once you've got a few parts on the page, take a moment to review what you've done and notice any more parts that come up in relation to your body map. Include them on your map if you like.

10.) When you've finished mark-making, go back inside and see how your parts feel now. Is there anything else they need to let you know?

Tuesday - Introducing Protectors 

The parts that try to look after other parts

Holly Stoppit
Image credit: Protectors on the floor

On day 2, Saskia explained how our internal systems are made up of parts and these parts can find themselves taking on roles known as ‘Exiles’ and ‘Protectors.’ 

Our exiles are the vulnerable parts that have been pushed out of our consciousness throughout our lives. They are often quite young and can carry grief, fear, shame, loneliness and unexpressed anger. Exiles hold negative / limiting beliefs, such as: it’s my fault, I’m too much, I’m not good enough, I’m unloveable or I’m bad in some way.

Our protector parts have a huge variety of techniques to help us deal with the difficult emotions and beliefs that are held by the exiles. Protectors are grouped into two camps: Managers and Fire-fighters.

Managers are proactive. They manage the situation around them so that the exile doesn’t get triggered. They take many forms, including: planners, perfectionists, organisers, caretakers, people pleasers and critics.

Firefighters are reactive. They are known as the emergency services of the system. If an exile gets triggered, the firefighters are there to soothe and distract. They have many strategies including: binge watching TV, scrolling, scoffing a bag of maltesers, drink or drugs, just leaving, fatigue or collapse, fainting or dizziness.

Saskia reminded us that there can be other things going on beyond parts! IFS is a framework to understand some of what is happening but there are other forces at play!

Saskia explained that parts are not their roles. In their natural, unburdened states, parts are  just doing their thing. Extreme protectors have been pushed into extreme roles in order to protect extremely vulnerable exiles. If we slowly come into curiosity about a brutal inner critic, we can learn about when and why they took on that role. When met with compassion, we'll discover that all our protectors have a positive intention. As Dick Swartz says, there are “no bad parts”.

Exercise 2: Exploring Protectors: An Embodied Investigation

We prepared for this session by writing the names / titles of lots of common protectors on small pieces of paper (ie Inner Critic, Procrastination, People Pleasing, Scrolling, etc).

We offered a dance warm up to bring awareness into the body.

Then we spread all the pieces of paper on the floor, all around the room.

We invited participants to continue to move in the space, noticing their reactions to the words on the pieces of paper.

We invited them to embody their feelings, thoughts and sensations. 

Afterwards we invited them to reflect on their experience: Which protectors were familiar to them? Which protectors elicited strong reactions? Which parts emerged in response to this exercise?

Wednesday - Introducing SELF 

The YOU that is not a part

Holly Stoppit
Image credit: Parts like clouds obscuring the sun (or Self)
Holly Stoppit
Image credit: Parts making way for more Self to shine

On day three, Saskia unpacked the notion of 'Self,' one of the pillars of IFS. Saskia wanted us to know that Dick Swartz did not invent Self, it exists in lots of other places outside of IFS. But here's the story of how Self got its name…

Back in the 80's, Swartz' was working as a family therapist and it was not going well. He was working with clients with quite extreme parts and their parts were causing harm towards themselves and others. Swartz tried to cajole these parts into stopping their damaging behaviours, but that didn’t work. Eventually, he said to one of his clients' parts, “I give up, I can’t beat you.”

And the client's part replied: “I don’t want to beat you either.”

Swartz’ curiosity was piqued. The more curiosity Swartz brought to the part, the more it seemed to soften. As the part softened, the client’s breath began to soften and deepen and the client was able to access curiosity towards their part. Swartz was curious about this new curiosity he sensed in his client, “What part is that?” he asked.

The client responded, "That doesn’t feel like a part, it feels like my Self."

According to IFS, Self has the following qualities; curiosity, compassion, clarity, courage, calm, creative, connectedness, confidence. These are known as The 8 C’s. Other people describe Self as the seat of consciousness, an internal compass and a core essence that has an inherent wisdom and an inherent healing capacity.

IFS believes that Self is innate and it is in all of us. The work of IFS is to help clients access Self energy through developing a relationship with the parts that obscure it (like clouds obscuring the sun as illustrated above). Once these parts are seen and heard, they invariably step back to allow more Self to shine out like the sun in the second picture above. The first step is noticing and naming parts.

Exercise 3: Exploring Self: Noticing parts that come up in relationship to an audience

For this exercise we'd already led a mindful movement warm up to get the body moving and bring the attention inside.

Part 1: We invited the participants to explore expanding and contracting, using movement and breath. We invited them to notice any parts that were around for them while they moved.

Part 2: We invited them to pair up and take it in turns to continue their expanding and contracting movement exploration, but this time with an audience. One person moved while the other watched. We invited them to notice which parts popped up in relation to being seen by an audience. 

At the end of the experiment, we invited them to reflect on their experience, comparing the two rounds and noticing the different parts that came online when moving alone and moving with an audience.

Thursday - Exploring polarisations 

When two or more parts pull against each other

Holly Stoppit
Image credit: Parts on a boat

To describe a polarization, Saskia offered the image of a little rowing boat (as seen above). At the bottom of the boat is a frightened little exile, holding whatever emotions or beliefs it is holding. 

At either side of the boat are two protectors who are both either trying to protect the exile or trying to protect us from the overwhelming feelings of the exile.

In an effort to resource the exile, one protector leans over the side of the boat and the boat starts to tip. Another protector leans over the other side of the boat to try to balance it out. This is what's known as a polarity - one goes one way and one goes the other.

Saskia explained that the boat is an oversimplification of what it is to be a human, in reality, you might find whole teams of parts working together, colluding or ganging up, all trying to balance each other out. Being human is more like a constellation of parts, all leaning this way and that, all impacting each other as they try to find balance.

The pushes and pulls of a polarization can often feel like stuckness. With two (or more) forces pulling against each other, decision making might be difficult and you might notice a lot of "shoulds" around; ie one part thinks “You should do ... “ and another has a different idea.

Our protectors first take on their protection roles in response to us experiencing trauma - whether that's trauma with a little t or a big T, it has an impact. Especially when we're children. Without adequate holding or support to release the trauma, parts of us can get frozen in time. Other parts then step into protective roles to exile those parts - to push them down or out of our consciousness where they are safe, because that’s what we needed to do to survive.

Often, when you get chatting with a protector part, you'll discover they are quite young and it can often come as a surprise to them that you are a grown up! Protectors are often operating under the assumption that you are still the age you were when you experienced the trauma and they still need to be doing the stuff they were doing in that time to keep you safe.

IFS helps people to come into relationship with these polarizing protectors. With enough time and Self energy, the parts may begin to soften and move back in towards the centre of the boat. This way the system can become more balanced. The protectors can then allow us to go to the exile and offer it healing through developing a direct Self-to-part relationship with it and helping it to unburden the negative beliefs and release those pent up emotions.

Exercise 4: Exploring polarizations through the body

We'd already led a mindful movement warm up to get the body moving and bring the attention inside. Then we invited participants to explore polarizations through movement. 

1.) Imagine yourself being pulled or pushed forwards by a force outside or inside your body. Explore different ways of moving forwards, placing the force in different parts of your body, exploring different amounts of pull and push.

2.) Imagine yourself being pulled or pushed backwards by a force outside or inside your body. Explore different ways of moving backwards, placing the force in different parts of your body, exploring different amounts of pull and push. Notice the parts at play.

3.) Explore alternating between the two directions - forward and back, noticing the emotional tones of each direction. Notice the parts at play.

4.) Notice the transitions between the two directions. How does it feel to switch from forwards to backwards? How does it feel to switch from backwards to forwards? Is it a relief? An effort? Which parts are at play?

Friday - Exploring internal and external systems and how the two intersect 

A system is a network of interconnected entities that have an organised relationship

Holly Stoppit
Image credit: The group creating a piece of artwork together

Saskia explained that our own internal system of parts has an order and a logic to it, it’s not random and chaotic. When one thing changes, everything else responds.

Our inner systems are shaped by the outer systems we have been part of throughout our lives, ie; family, school, friendship groups, our local community, our work, capitalism, global politics, religion, climate, etc, etc. To explore this further, we invited the participants to embody a system.

Exercise 5: Exploring systems through movement and mark making

1.) We invited the group to walk around in the space.

2.) We asked everyone to each secretly choose one person and to keep them in their peripheral vision as they moved through the space.

3.) We then asked them to choose a second person and to keep them in their peripheral vision AS WELL.

4.) Next we asked them to start making equidistant triangles with the two people they had chosen - they would be the third point of the triangle. 

Of course - the group has now become an interconnected mesh and when one person moves, everybody has to move. We invited them to notice:

  • How is it to notice your effect on others? 
  • How is it to notice others’ effect on you? 
  • How is it to be interconnected?

5.) We unrolled a massive sheet of paper on the floor and offered a selection of art materials, asking them to capture their embodied experience of interconnection with colour and shapes.

6.) Saskia then invited the group to reflect on the outer systems that impact our inner systems and begin to add symbols and words to represent those systems.

Afternoon Fooling

Holly Stoppit
Image credit: Saskia / a group member on stage, with others watching

In the afternoons, we offered a series of experiments to explore how the morning's learnings might integrate into solo improvised stage performance. I’m not going to say much about them as this blog is already three miles long, but I’ll just name them here, so you can get a sense of what we got up to.

Stage experiments 

1.) Finding a SELF spot on the stage to come in and out of whenever you need to.

2.) Standing in the SELF spot, feeling the impact the audience is having on your parts and either: 

a.) Being facilitated by Saskia or me to do an insight inquiry - when the performer stays still on the stage and just notices / senses / imagines the parts that pop up in relation to being seen by the audience. 

Or b.) Doing the above inquiry and then embodying the parts as they pop up.

3.) Inviting two or more group members to embody your polarising parts at the same time, so that you can observe them from the outside and get to know more about their relationship.

4.) An open Fool - where you start with nothing and see what emerges.

5.) A mix of the above or another experiment of your choosing.

Each person could then choose

  • What experiment would you like to try?

  • Would you like facilitation?

  • Would you like documentation?

  • Would you like music?

  • Where would you like to play your solo?

Offering all this choice allowed each person to carve their own research path through the week, following their own fascination and investigation. The quality of their stage play was rich, deep, joyful, alive, wild, fragile, tender, full of insights and utterly ridiculous. Together we explored what it is to be human. 

My Key Learnings

Holly Stoppit
Image credit: Holly and Saskia at the end of the Fool + IFS lab

The joy of playing with experienced fools

It was an incredible group made up of deep divers who I knew very well because they have all trained with me over the years. Many of them already knew each other through my courses and through the wider clown/fool/performance community. I think the strength of the existing relationships helped to steady the ship through the week. 

Already having the language of Fooling meant we could hit the ground running, layering the IFS on top of our beloved artform. If we were to offer a version of this course to non-fools, we’d need to adjust the focus of the week and/or perhaps it would need to be longer to cover the fundamentals of Fooling.

It was a delight to come back to these gorgeously familiar faces, after a long break from teaching fooling. What a treat to have such a brave and curious bunch to jump into these experiments with! I’m so grateful to each of them for what they brought.

IFS + The Body

I really enjoyed discovering ways to bring IFS theory into the body. As a predominantly kinaesthetic learner (I learn through my body), I struggled with some of the headiness of the IFS level 1 training, so it felt great to play with ways to integrate the body into IFS and IFS into the body.

As a dramatherapist, I naturally lean towards the belief that healing happens through the body. Fooling is also an embodied form of exploration. As the Fools step into their various parts, they learn about them from the inside, discovering how their parts move, breathe, talk and hold themselves. IFS calls this 'direct access,' when the therapist speaks directly to the part. The normal / preferred mode of IFS is known as 'insight,' where the client sits still on a chair and the therapist guides the client to have a silent internal dialogue with their own parts.

IFS tends to use direct access as a bridge towards insight, as the main aim of IFS is to help people into Self-to-part relationships. I can totally get down this - being able to connect with parts from Self is a very powerful position to be in. It puts all of us in the driving seat of our own lives AND I'm a big fan of the body! For me this is where the wisdom is and where the healing happens. 

The joy of co-facilitation

Co-facilitating with Saskia was a very fruitful experience. I'm still in the early days of opening to co-facilitation, after having been a lone wolf for over a decade. Saskia brought so much knowledge, creativity, compassion and care to the process. It was so supportive to have their presence in the space and I learned shitloads from them. Both of us having a language of IFS meant we were able to speak for our parts - which helped us to navigate potential conflicts and misunderstandings. This made it safe enough for the parts of me who are frightened of collaboration to tentatively step in.

Having two of us facilitating meant we were able to split the group in the afternoons, which gave the players more solo stage time, allowing them to go deeper into their investigations. 

Creating the course as we went along was brilliant and bonkers! We were able to design something to fit the changing needs of the group, which felt great AND was totally exhausting! Each evening Saskia and I stayed up late, reviewing the day and designing the next day's activities, whilst cooking dinner and trying to take care of ourselves. We agreed that if we do this again, we want more time, just us, before the course begins to play together and build trust. In our dream hearts, we'd like to offer this workshop as a residential retreat, so we can totally immerse ourselves in it AND we want more support for us - ie, a chef, a masseur, a hot-tub… well why not dream? 

What next?

I am very glad I got this opportunity to continue to explore how IFS, dramatherapy and Fooling fit together and I want to continue. A couple of weeks after this lab, I got to attend a 3-day Dramatherapy / IFS retreat with DreamWild and was blown away by their synthesis of embodiment, play, ritual, artwork, writing, nature-connection, constellations and visualisations. It was great to connect with other practitioners on the path, I wonder if there are more of us? I've been reading about Somatic IFS and would love to train in that when the time (and money) is right… 

I’m so fired up with this exploration of embodied, creative IFS, I have a hunch I may have found the focus for my phD… There, I said it. Now my parts are having a field day!


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