On paper, you have it together. Inside, an anxious protector or relentless inner critic is calling the shots. You understand your patterns intellectually but logic alone won’t reset a hypervigilant nervous system. Insight doesn’t heal trauma. You aren’t broken; you’re carrying survival strategies that have outlived their purpose. It’s time they stopped carrying you.
Through IFS therapy in Brentwood, we systematically unburden your protective parts at the root, moving you out of survival mode and back into grounded, decisive inner authority.
*Telehealth is available only in the state of California
Clients with complex trauma often have very strong protective parts that are terrified of revisiting painful material. When therapy moves too quickly, these internal protectors kick into overdrive, which can slow down, delay, or completely disrupt standard EMDR processing
You might notice this in your own life as competing internal impulses. One part of you desperately wants to move forward, while another part pulls back, floods you with anxiety, or causes you to numb out. One part craves connection, while another insists that staying isolated is the only way to stay safe.
By bringing Internal Family Systems into the process, we listen to these protective parts first. Instead of trying to bypass or fight your internal defense mechanisms, we meet them with genuine curiosity and respect, helping the therapeutic journey unfold smoothly and safely.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy works beautifully alongside EMDR to create more ease and regulation in a client’s nervous system. By helping you relate to your inner parts with more curiosity and compassion, IFS supports the EMDR process and deepens trauma healing.
As you begin to understand and honor the different parts of your personality—each with their own needs, feelings, and opinions—internal resistance to change naturally softens. This allows EMDR and IFS together to support more sustainable, integrated change over time, rather than quick shifts that do not fully hold.
Clients with shame issues particularly benefit from IFS because of the compassionate state it creates within them and among their parts. Furthermore, IFS provides a practical framework of how to nurture your parts after treatment and in between sessions, giving you lifelong tools for self-care.
Traditional talk therapy operates primarily in the thinking brain. You might understand your patterns intellectually, yet your body continues to react with sudden panic or sadness. True transformation occurs when mind, memory, and internal parts move together.
My clients often get excited about getting to know their parts in a more intimate way. As you develop this internal relationship, I provide you with clear resources to deepen your practice outside of session.
For clients who want to explore IFS further, I highly recommend the book No Bad Parts by Richard Schwartz.
Therapist Tip: It is especially effective if you listen to the Audible version. The audio format includes soothing guided meditations read directly by the author, which help you experience and understand IFS on a deeper, felt level.
Opening up about your internal world requires genuine clinical safety. You deserve a practitioner who brings both deep clinical expertise and authentic warmth to every session.
I am Susan Quinn, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) serving Brentwood and the broader area of Los Angeles. Licensed since 1991 and EMDRIA-Certified since 2003, I have spent over 30 years helping adults heal complex trauma, anxiety, and relational wounds through an integrative, body-mind approach.
Primary office · 90049
20 min · Telehealth
20 min · In-person
20 min · Telehealth
20 min · Telehealth
20 min · Telehealth
No commitment, no paperwork. A chance to talk through what you are carrying and see whether Internal Family Systems therapy and my practice are the right fit for you.