For someone coming to this conversation for the first time and never hearing the term IFS, could you speak about that, please?

Sure.

It's a modality in therapy, and it basically says that each one of us has parts to our mind, to our soul, and it doesn't make you abnormal at all.

So I think when we notice the term parts and personality, often what can happen is we think, oh, you're talking dissociative identity disorder, like someone that has multiple personalities.

That's what the popular media has caricatured it as, but I like to think it more as you just observe the way you carry yourself.

You are a different person when you're with your children and when you're at work and if someone tries to cut you off on the freeway.

That's not the same version of you.

How does your practice look different than before those?

So tell us about that, because I think that's really informed how now you carry out this purpose in life.

Yeah, thanks for the question.

So I am a licensed psychologist in California, and I've been in private practice since 2009, right after I was licensed by the Board of Psychology in California.

And that's my training, right? That's all I know.

And then I'm also a practicing Christian from my mom's side.

I'm a fourth generation believer.

And I have this rosy idea that my parents were going to grow old together, retire together, live happily ever after.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I am curious, and for people that haven't listened to our first episode, I'm wondering if you wanna tell, talk a little bit about your own grief story and what happened for you and kind of what you noticed in your own system, if that feels okay.

Yeah.

So, um, uh, I think it's seven years ago now, my dad suddenly died of a heart attack, and the reason that was really shocking was he was the one person in my little universe, uh, that I would have guessed, uh, would live a long time 'cause he was always a lifelong athlete, you know? He played badminton.

He was actually, uh, pretty good at it.

He, uh, won some championship, you know, in his college days.

Um, he was pretty good, pretty athletic.

So suddenly he died and totally threw our entire family into a disar- disarray.

Yes.