# Ash Chudgar
> I’m Ash Chudgar, an IFS coach, communications consultant, and writer in Minneapolis. I help people communicate more skillfully — out in the world, in groups and teams, and within themselves.
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## Pages
- [About Ash](https://www.chudgar.com/about.md) - Hi there! I’m Neil Ashvin Chudgar, Ph.D., but you can call me Ash. Here’s a bit about how I got into the work I do and how I think about who I am.
- [Coaching contract](https://www.chudgar.com/coaching-contract.md) - If you choose coaching with me, you’ll sign an agreement just like this one. Give it a thorough read, please, and don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions at all about any of it.
- [Coaching FAQ](https://www.chudgar.com/coaching-faq.md) - Working with me is quite different from other forms of one-on-one support you might have tried, like life coaching or traditional therapy. This page has answers to the questions folks ask most.
- [Coaching (old)](https://www.chudgar.com/coaching-old.md) - As a coach, I support complicated people as they learn to recognize, understand, and love every single part of who they are.
- [Coaching](https://www.chudgar.com/coaching.md) - As a trained Internal Family Systems practitioner, I support other thoughtful grown-ups with kind hearts and complicated brains as they learn to communicate skillfully with every part of who they are.
- [Communications audit](https://www.chudgar.com/communications-audit.md) - When you need to understand what you’re really saying in the world, I can help. You might be amazed at the insights a thorough review of your communications can reveal.
- [Concept kit](https://www.chudgar.com/concept-kit.md) - The concepts you use to think and talk about your work set the boundaries of what’s possible. Here are some examples of the way building a new set of concepts can be transformative, and a simple outline of the process and price.
- [Consulting](https://www.chudgar.com/consulting.md) - As a communications consultant, I help people who do good communicate skillfully with the diverse communities they care about.
- [Get in touch](https://www.chudgar.com/contact.md) - My love language is language. Talking with other people is my very favorite thing to do — and I am looking forward to talking with you!
- [FAQ: How is coaching different from therapy?](https://www.chudgar.com/differences-from-therapy.md) - Traditional therapists diagnose and treat mental illness. As an IFS coach, I don’t diagnose or treat anything. Instead, I help my clients find healing within themselves. Because they are so different, therapy and this kind of coaching can work together very well.
- [FAQ: Do I need professional to explore my inner world?](https://www.chudgar.com/do-it-yourself.md) - Internal Family Systems, the coaching method I use, is a model of human beings that you can learn quickly, practice safely, and use successfully all by yourself.
- [FAQ: What kinds of clients do you like to work with?](https://www.chudgar.com/folks-i-love.md) - Because of who I am and what I care about, I love working with certain kinds of folks in particular.
- [Try an hour of coaching for free](https://www.chudgar.com/free-first-session.md) - Trusting someone to help with your personal growth and healing is a big deal. That’s why I offer a free, hour-long first session for every potential client. Find a convenient time for yours right here.
- [Options for coaching with Ash](https://www.chudgar.com/options-for-coaching.md) - If you’re looking for support as you navigate your inner world, here are all the ways I can help. We’ll meet by secure video call, unless you would prefer to meet at my home office in Northeast Minneapolis—just ask.
- [Welcome to coaching!](https://www.chudgar.com/welcome-to-coaching.md) - You are about to explore your own inner world in a profoundly rewarding way, and I’m overjoyed to imagine the journey ahead of you. Here are some things to know as we get started.
- [Welcome!](https://www.chudgar.com/welcome.md) - I’m Neil Ashvin Chudgar, Ph.D., but you can call me Ash. It’s my job to help people communicate more skillfully with their communities — out in the world, in groups and teams, and (most of all) within themselves.
- [FAQ: How will coaching care for my wellbeing?](https://www.chudgar.com/wellbeing.md) - My coaching practice is based on continuous mutual consent, a promise of confidentiality, and maintaining a felt sense of safety. That’s how I care for your wellbeing and my own.
- [FAQ: What is “partswork”?](https://www.chudgar.com/what-is-partswork.md) - My coaching practice is a form of partswork based on a therapeutic model called Internal Family Systems (IFS for short), a simple and powerful way of understanding human psychology as naturally multiple. Here’s what that means in a nutshell.
- [FAQ: What is coaching going to be like?](https://www.chudgar.com/what-to-expect.md) - I’m glad you’re considering coaching with me! Here’s what to expect, starting now.
- [FAQ: Who can benefit from coaching?](https://www.chudgar.com/who-can-benefit.md) - I believe the Internal Family Systems model has something to offer pretty much every human being, and I think coaching can be the simplest, most direct way to put IFS to work in your own life. But it’s not for everybody in every situation. Here are the pros and cons.

## Posts
- [Consultation](https://www.chudgar.com/consultation.md) - Talking about the theory and practice of Internal Family Systems is one of my favorite things to do! Schedule an hour of confidential consultation time to talk over a case, nerd out on theory, or whatever else will be helpful. Always free for students; professionals, pay what you want.
- [Group: IFS for Liberation](https://www.chudgar.com/ifs-for-liberation-group.md) - Does your inner world feel oppressive? Do you struggle with harsh and hostile self-talk? You’re not alone. This fall, bring the “cops in your head” to a supportive facilitated group, where we’ll all work towards liberation and healing together. Wednesday evenings, online, starting October 1.
- [Worldbuilding for Nonprofits](https://www.chudgar.com/worldbuilding-for-nonprofits.md) - When it’s your mission to solve problems that haven’t yet been solved, you have to help other people imagine a better world that doesn’t yet exist. To do that, social justice communicators can learn to use the powerful conceptual tools of science fiction and fantasy. Here’s a workshop about how.
- [Rice and khadi](https://www.chudgar.com/rice-and-khadi.md) - My father Ashvin had this comforting soup-type thing for lunch at least once a week when I was growing up. It came up in a course I’m taking about partswork and ancestry, and one of my fellow students asked for the recipe. Here is how I make it, based on my recollection.
- [Beyond IFS: Inner Work that Works for Plural Systems](https://www.chudgar.com/ppwc25.md) - At this year’s Plural Positivity World Conference, we offered a Plural take on Internal Family Systems model — what it says, what it doesn’t say, how it fails Plural systems, and how we can adapt it to work better. Resources from that workshop are all here.
- [The Partsworker No. 4](https://www.chudgar.com/the-partsworker-no-4.md) - In this edition: 🎉 Virtual celebration for DID Awareness Day this Saturday, Mar. 8 | 🎟️ A new free Parts Work Unconference Sat. Apr. 5 | ✍️ Invitation: Write for The Partsworker!
- [#NoKingsDay in Minnesota](https://www.chudgar.com/no-kings-day-demonstration-in-minnesota.md) - On President’s Day 2025, it was -10°F and windy at the state capitol in Saint Paul. Hundreds and hundreds of Minnesotans came out to protest the fascist takeover of our national government. Our rage and solidarity kept us warm. Here are a few photos from the day.
- [A brief story for times when you are shattered by ongoing suffering](https://www.chudgar.com/the-story-of-avalokiteshvaras-tears.md) - Many people I know are feeling overwhelmed by the intensifying harm the new American government is inflicting on people here and around the world. The vastness of the suffering, now and to come, is shattering. If you are feeling overwhelmed by it, this brief story might comfort and sustain you.
- [The future of IFS in Minnesota: Ideas and an invitation](https://www.chudgar.com/minnesota-ifs-report-and-invitation.md) - On Sunday, January 12, our colleagues Makai Dorfman and Zayla Asquith-Heinz gathered 18 other local IFS practitioners in South Minneapolis to talk and think together about our future as a community. This is a report about it was like, the ideas we dreamt up for our future, and an invitation for you.
- [A call for help from the California wildfires](https://www.chudgar.com/a-call-for-help-from-the-california-wildfires.md) - A partswork colleague in southern California is putting together list of professional healers who can offer trauma support to the survivors of the L.A.-area wildfires. Please email her if you can help, and spread the word if you can’t.
- [Partswork working group: Updates, winding down, + 2 invitations for you](https://www.chudgar.com/2024-12-23-working-group-report.md) - Ash and Risa here, writing from the wintry northern hemisphere to our partswork friends around the world. We come to share what we’ve been doing, to bring this working group to a gentle close, and to invite you into two different ways to share the healing power of partswork in year ahead.
- [The wisdom of Trauma and Recovery](https://www.chudgar.com/the-wisdom-of-trauma-and-recovery.md) - I read a lot of psychoanalytic writing about suffering in college and grad school, even took a course on trauma theory. But it wasn’t until a few years ago that I encountered the most important modern work on the subject. Here are some of my favorite passages from Judith Herman’s masterpiece.
- [Guest post: on letting God be small enough to keep us company](https://www.chudgar.com/can-god-be-small-enough.md) - The day after the election I called up an old friend, a Jesuit priest. I’m no longer Catholic or even Christian myself, but I found myself asking if he had any pastoral guidance to offer. I found his response deeply consoling, and I asked him to let me share it with you.
- [Hurrah, you found me!](https://www.chudgar.com/eiq.md) - I’m so happy you found me through Everywhere Is Queer! As an inner communication coach, I help my fellow LGBTQ+ people find healing and liberation within themselves. Read on to learn about how coaching works, schedule your free hour-long coaching session, and get your EIQ discount.
- [The 2024 Minnesota IFS community survey: what we learned](https://www.chudgar.com/2024-minnesota-ifs-community-survey.md) - As the admin of the Minnesota IFS email list, I wanted to learn more about our statewide community — not only to improve the list, but also to explore other ways we might want to connect with each other statewide. Here’s what a community survey revealed, and what’s next for the model in our state.
- [Ash and Erin](https://www.chudgar.com/ash-and-erin.md) - Erin and Ash love working together to help caring people tell meaningful stories about big ideas. Here’s some of our work!
- [Free and low-cost support for exploring your inner world](https://www.chudgar.com/free-and-low-cost-support.md) - You don’t need a lot of money, or any at all, to get some help navigating your internal community or learning more about human multiplicity. Here are some resources to try.
- [The Partsworker No. 3](https://www.chudgar.com/the-partsworker-no-3.md) - In this edition: 🪷 IFS for Collective Liberation training Oct. 23–27 in Maine, USA | 🎟️ Free tickets to Oct. 12 Parts Work Unconference still available | ⏭️ Project updates from global working group
- [Report from Sept. 9 working group meeting: projects & next steps](https://www.chudgar.com/2024-09-09-working-group-report.md) - Ten partsworkers dialed in from seven countries (!), including the founder of the new Parts Work Directory. In a very speedy hour, the working group identified four specific projects to help make partswork more available, inclusive, and safe. Here’s a quick recap, list of projects, and next steps.
- [The Partsworker No. 2](https://www.chudgar.com/the-partsworker-no-2.md) - In this edition: 🆕 Partsworkdirectory.com is now online | 🎟️ Next global Parts Work Unconference this Oct. 12 | 🔮 Reimagining partswork beyond IFSI
- [Beyond “Self-Leadership”](https://www.chudgar.com/beyond-self-leadership.md) - Despite the centrality of “Self-leadership” in IFS theory, people actually experience their sense of self in a vast diversity of forms. This workshop, proposed for the October 12 Parts Work Unconference, is a place to explore alternative conceptions of Self.
- [Two weird tricks for getting by in overwhelming times](https://www.chudgar.com/two-weird-tricks-for-overwhelming-times.md) - Well hello again! 👋 It is lovely to be back in your inbox after all these absurdly eventful months. Since unprecedented times seem likely to continue for the foreseeable future, I’d like to offer two practical ideas about how living more plurally can help us stay sane as history whirls us along.
- [The Partsworker No. 1](https://www.chudgar.com/partsworker-1.md) - Welcome to The Partsworker, a newsletter for all who explore human multiplicity for healing and liberation. In this edition: A report from the Unconference | Building a directory of partsworkers | Free peer-to-peer partswork + other resources
- [Schwartz and Sweezy, “Individuals as Systems” (2020)](https://www.chudgar.com/schwartz-and-sweezy-individuals-as-systems-2020.md) - The second chapter from the second edition of Richard Schwartz and Martha Sweezy’s Internal Family Systems textbook, which gives an overview of the fundamental principles of the IFS model.
- [Partsworkers of the World, Unite!](https://www.chudgar.com/partsworkers-unite.md) - This workshop, proposed for the June 1 Parts Work Unconference, is a place to imagine new forms of community among IFS and allied practitioners.
- [Partsworkers of the World, Unite!](https://www.chudgar.com/partsworkers-unite-2.md) - This workshop, proposed for the June 1 Parts Work Unconference, is a place to imagine new forms of community among IFS and allied practitioners.
- [Why the IFS Institute™ probably won’t budge](https://www.chudgar.com/why-the-ifs-institute-probably-wont-budge.md) - Many colleagues are hoping that, with enough persuasion, the leaders of the IFS Institute will realize the error of their hard pivot toward clinical mental healthcare. But the training I got from the IFS Institute makes me skeptical.
- [A role-playing game for IFS practitioners](https://www.chudgar.com/rpg-consulting-group.md) - In this private online consulting group for IFS practitioners, we’ll use the conventions of role-playing games to explore our systems and practices. (This page is just for invited participants, so please don’t share it.)
- [Ashvin Chudgar’s Tomato Soup Recipe](https://www.chudgar.com/tomato-soup.md) - This recipe, never before written down, is one of my father’s “third culture” recipes. It is easy to do, cheap and warming, and nice for children and grown-ups alike.
- [The Joys of Being Yourselves](https://www.chudgar.com/the-joys-of-being-yourselves.md) - My inner family and I spent last Saturday afternoon hanging out with hundreds of diverse conceptual people and their human-bodied spokesbeings. The joy I felt in that community inspired today’s newsletter: fun with grammar, including 3 easy ways you can give plural pronouns a try.
- [About meeting in person](https://www.chudgar.com/meeting-in-person.md) - Thank you for coming to visit! Here’s everything you might need to know about working with me in person.
- [Coaching FAQ](https://www.chudgar.com/coaching-faq-post.md) - Working with me is quite different from other forms of one-on-one support you might have tried, like life coaching or traditional therapy. This page has answers to the questions folks ask most.
- [Some belated valentine ideas 💌 for our dear departed 🪦](https://www.chudgar.com/plural-valentines-for-the-dead.md) - Imagine the late Toby Keith in heaven, singing a Bollywood song to the tune of his guitar, while my late father (grinning from ear to ear) accompanies him on the tabla. Adorable! 🥰 The week after Valentine’s Day, here are some plural ways to stay in love with our dear departed.
- [Telling the “big stories” of the City of Saint Paul](https://www.chudgar.com/saint-paul-big-stories.md) - Under the leadership of Mayor Melvin Carter, Minnesota’s capital city has become a national hub of inclusive, liberating civic innovation — but without a central communications office, Saint Paul had nobody to tell the “big stories” of their work. That’s when they called me.
- [Who’s afraid of a goblin’s butt?](https://www.chudgar.com/whop.md) - If you can believe it, a tiny part of a tiny part of me actually admires Moms for Liberty for censoring naked pictures, which it finds truly terrifying. This week, some plural reflections on the grown-up effects of childhood fears.
- [Some new bodies to try this week](https://www.chudgar.com/some-new-bodies-to-try-this-week.md) - I’d been feeling crappy for weeks — not sick enough to take off work, but just sick enough to work slowly and badly. Thursday I finally decided to do something about it, and what happened was a remarkable development in this Year of Living Plurally: I ended up in a new and better body.
- [A poem about hands](https://www.chudgar.com/something-specific.md) - In this vividly tactile poem, Meg Ferge contemplates the diversity of sensations, ideas, relationships, histories and desires she finds in her own two hands.
- [That tinkling you hear is the sound of breaking streaks](https://www.chudgar.com/that-tinkling-you-hear-is-the-sound-of-breaking-streaks.md) - Last week I broke a long streak of daily meditation, a small bummer that got me thinking about how and why we track our own evolution over time. This week’s theme is streaks: how they work, how to choose them, and how to diversify your timescales to understand how you are growing in more ways.
- [Hello Lavender reader!](https://www.chudgar.com/lavender.md) - I’m Ash, and I am so happy you found me! Read on to learn about my coaching practice — and be sure to mention LAVENDER during your free first coaching call for a queer-to-queer discount.
- [New year, same you! 🎉 Some plural anti-resolutions for a mellower start to so-called 2024](https://www.chudgar.com/new-year-same-you-some-plural-anti-resolutions-for-a-mellower-start-to-so-called-2024.md) - The beginning of a new year can be an exhausting period of anxious urgency that ends, predictably, in failure and remorse. How unpleasant! Here are some ways that living more plurally can help you feel more comfy at the beginning of the arbitrary slice of time we call “2024.”
- [From Shame to Liberation](https://www.chudgar.com/from-shame-to-liberation.md) - If you’re troubled by deep feelings of shame, you’re not alone — and together, we can heal and get free. This spring, bring your shame to a warm and supportive facilitated group, where we’ll all work towards liberation and healing together. Friday evenings, online, starting April 5.
- [Join me in a Year of Living Plurally](https://www.chudgar.com/invitation-to-a-year-of-living-plurally.md) - In 2024, some friends and I are trying an experiment in bucking American individualism: a “Year of Living Plurally.” Every week or so, I’m going to share some reflections about how multiplicity, diversity, and community show up in our daily lives and the culture around us. Want to come along?
- [Happy 2024! ✨🪩✨ Welcome to a Year of Living Plurally](https://www.chudgar.com/ringing-in-a-year-of-living-plurally.md) - In 2024, Ash's newsletter is an experiment: a “Year of Living Plurally.” Every week or so, I’m going to share some reflections about how multiplicity, diversity, and community show up in our daily lives and the culture around us.
- [Using Internal Family Systems in nonprofit work — or, DEI from the inside out](https://www.chudgar.com/ifs-for-nonprofits.md) - The Internal Family Systems model can bring deeper understanding, more compassionate communication, and greater harmony to bigger human systems — like nonprofits and the communities they serve. This workshop uses IFS to explore diversity, equity, and inclusion “from the inside out.”
- [How one school district meets harm with repair](https://www.chudgar.com/osseo-harm-repair.md) - As our national life becomes more polarized, educators need new ways to respond to acts of hatred in their school communities. Leaders at Osseo Area Schools created a clear, just, and replicable process for responding to such incidents with healing and repair. Here’s how.
- [Fall 2023 Inner Community Writing Workshops](https://www.chudgar.com/fall-2023-icww.md) - The first-ever Inner Community Writing Workshops are meeting in November and December of 2023. Here’s what participants need to know.
- [An 8-week Intro to IFS Self-Therapy in Minneapolis, starting this month](https://www.chudgar.com/robertas-mpls-intro-to-ifs.md) - Spread the word, Minneapolis: on Wednesday evenings this fall, experienced therapist and teacher Roberta Cullen is teaching an 8-week in-person Intro to IFS Self-Therapy. It’s open to anyone 18 or older, and offered very affordably through Minneapolis Community Education.
- [How I got consent to write about consent](https://www.chudgar.com/how-i-got-consent-to-write-about-consent.md) - Back in January, I got the opportunity to write an article about consent, and a hardworking writer part of me eagerly agreed — without consulting the rest of my inner family. Here’s a brief transcript from the internal debate that ensued, plus a link to the published article.
- [Four questions from the Inclusive Therapists community](https://www.chudgar.com/four-questions-from-the-inclusive-therapists-commmunity.md) - Inclusive Therapists is a liberation movement in the form of an online coaching and therapy directory. To join, I had to answer four very deep questions about liberation, justice, and embodiment in my coaching practice. Here are my answers.
- [How I am learning to be embodied](https://www.chudgar.com/some-things-ive-learned-about-embodiment.md) - The radical political insights of disability justice are changing everything for me — not just how I see the world, but how I understand myself as an embodied person and as a coach to my clients, who are all embodied too.
- [Queerness and liberation](https://www.chudgar.com/queerness-and-liberation.md) - My own ongoing liberation from traumatized sexual shame to queer joy feels like the central fact of my life these days, and it’s the story of ongoing healing I share with coaching clients the most.
- [What I’ve been learning about racism](https://www.chudgar.com/what-ive-been-learning-about-racism.md) - What does it mean for a coach like me to put anti-racism into practice in my work? Thinking through that question has led me to understand my own cultural identities differently.
- [Community safety from the inside out](https://www.chudgar.com/community-safety-from-the-inside-out.md) - What I learned from the 2020 uprising for justice in Minneapolis led me to discover oppressive policing where I least expected it: in my own mind. That discovery led me to the liberating model of community healing I use in my coaching today.
- [“Systems fight death”: A conversation about culture, faith, and endings with deathcare worker Kelly Butler](https://www.chudgar.com/kelly-butler-deathcare-conversation.md) - A few weeks ago, I heard a Canadian stranger mention that she was in the business of “deathcare.” I’d never heard the word before, but I instantly knew what it meant, and it fascinated me. That’s why I tracked down Ottawa deathcare worker Kelly Butler for this conversation about careful ending.
- [Join an Inner Community Writing Workshop](https://www.chudgar.com/join-the-internal-community-writing-workshop.md) - Inner Community Writing Workshops are for folks who want to explore our internal multiplicity in writing. In weekly online meetings, Workshop members support each other’s practice, develop our craft, and pursue healing and liberation in community. Learn more and sign up for the next Workshop here.
- [How IFS coaching works: an introduction in video clips](https://www.chudgar.com/an-introduction-in-video-clips.md) - These quick video clips from a demo session show what IFS coaching can be like. Clear, easy-to-read explanations of the concepts in each clip show why the session goes the way it does.
- [Demo session 8: Planning for the week to come](https://www.chudgar.com/demo-session-8.md) - A coach or therapist can help you make sense of your own inner world, but you’re the only person who can make the choice to pay attention. In this final moment in our demonstration, “Michelle” and I negotiate a daily practice of internal inquiry that feels doable for her. Do you think she’ll do it?
- [Demo session 7: Paying attention to inner wisdom](https://www.chudgar.com/demo-session-7.md) - When we’re trying to heal hurting parts of ourselves, “slow is fast.” If we rush toward our pain too quickly, protective parts of us will redouble their efforts to keep the pain at bay. That’s why we insist on honoring every protective impulse as it appears — just as we do in this clip.
- [Demo session 6: Learning about positive intentions](https://www.chudgar.com/demo-session-6.md) - In Internal Family Systems practice, we take it as given that every part of who you are is doing its very best to keep you alive and safe — but when parts of you are causing you pain, it’s hard to believe they mean well. Listen to how “Michelle” is wary of some of her parts.
- [Demo session 5: Explaining the theory](https://www.chudgar.com/demo-session-5.md) - The idea that you can heal just by making friends with various parts of your inner life — how can that possibly be true? The skeptical parts of us are wise to demand an answer. Here I explain exactly how the IFS model is supposed to work by explaining how it’s similar to my client’s line of work.
- [Demo session 4: Honoring protective responses](https://www.chudgar.com/demo-session-4.md) - The part of “Michelle” who’s giving her intense nausea clearly has a lot of information for her — but before she can inquire, another part of her intervenes to put “shields up” against the bad feeling. Rather than persisting, we honor its protective wisdom and back off. See what happens when we do.
- [Kindness in Space](https://www.chudgar.com/kindness-in-space.md) - My husband recently told me about a memory-care facility in the Netherlands that’s made to look like a tiny town, so it feels more familiar to the people who live there. That got me thinking about my mother-in-law, dementia, and the ways our physical environments can make us seem foolish or wise.
- [Demo session 3: Meeting a part who feels anxious](https://www.chudgar.com/demo-session-3.md) - When you start paying attention to your inner world, parts of you may use strong sensations to get your attention. Here, a part of “Michelle” floods her with nausea — uncomfortable, but bearable. This illustrates a crucial point: as long as you can observe a feeling, it can’t overwhelm you.
- [Demo session 2: Why turning inward requires consent](https://www.chudgar.com/demo-session-2.md) - When you’re experiencing emotional suffering, deliberately turning your attention inward can be daunting. Before I invite my client to start paying attention to her inner world, I explain why, and reassure her that she can stop at any time. Can you catch three requests for consent in this clip?
- [Demo session 1: “A lot of feelings at one time”](https://www.chudgar.com/demo-session-1.md) - Having mixed feelings is a common experience — and it’s the easiest, most direct way to begin exploring the complexity of our inner communities. During the first few minutes of this demonstration session, see if you can track all the different ways “Michelle” is feeling.
- [What a first coaching session might be like](https://www.chudgar.com/demo-first-sessions.md) - What is a coaching session like? My colleague Alysa Haas and I teamed up to show you how a new client’s first session might go, from start to finish. Here are the videos we made.
- [July is BIPOC Mental Health Month, and you’re invited](https://www.chudgar.com/support-bipoc-mental-health.md) - This month, I’m inviting you to join me in supporting Mental Health Liberation. Our donations will help connect people of color with high-quality mental healthcare from BIPOC providers, at no cost — and support BIPOC clinicians during their training and early careers.
- [Embodied IFS in the Twin Cities](https://www.chudgar.com/robyns-embodied-ifs-group.md) - This fall, certified IFS therapist and consultant Robyn Lending Halsten will offer an in-person consultation group in Embodied IFS right here in the twin cities. I’ll be there — read more about the group here.
- [Avoiding the construction on 37th](https://www.chudgar.com/avoiding-the-construction-on-37th.md) - Minneapolis is reconstructing 37th Avenue during the summer and fall of 2023. If you’re coming to visit, here’s a map to avoid the construction.
- [Book review: Healing, embodiment, and IFS in Palestine](https://www.chudgar.com/review-of-gordon-together-beyond-words.md) - In a touching new memoir, Nitsan Joy Gordon tells the story of how growing up amid violence gave birth to a new form of peacebuilding — one that incorporates dance and movement, healing touch, and IFS. Here’s my review of the book.
- [Compassion from Self and Buddha](https://www.chudgar.com/compassion-from-self-and-buddha.md) - Today I learned about a Buddhist way of thinking about Self from Satya Robyn, a Buddhist teacher, author, and IFS therapist.
- [Guided introductions to your inner world](https://www.chudgar.com/guided-introductions-to-your-inner-world.md) - I use an app called Insight Timer to listen to guided meditations, including many versions of Internal Family Systems practice. If you’re ready to get to know your inner system a bit, here are some guided meditations you can use to get started, all by yourself, for free.
- [My sliding scale](https://www.chudgar.com/sliding-scale.md) - I charge for coaching on a sliding scale, based on Alexis J. Cunningfolk’s “green bottles.” Learn how it works here.
- [Ways to find a therapist](https://www.chudgar.com/find-a-therapist.md) - If you want help managing a specific mental-health diagnosis (as I do), or if you need to pay for support using health insurance, then you need a clinical mental-health practitioner — not a coach like me. Here are some suggestions for finding a clinician that works for you.
- [A do-it-yourself introduction to your inner family](https://www.chudgar.com/self-therapy.md) - You don’t need a coach or a therapist to start getting to know your own internal family. If you’re curious about the different parts of yourself, you can start exploring your inner world using this easy-to-read book. That’s what I did myself.
- [Crisis resources](https://www.chudgar.com/crisis-resources.md) - These free, confidential resources are just right when you need a trained person to talk to right away.
- [Making meaning visible](https://www.chudgar.com/making-meaning-visible.md) - Making lucid sense of a big mess of information is one of my favorite things to do. Here are some of the ways I help my consulting clients make the meaning of their work visible.
- [Book review: The 3 things only leaders can do](https://www.chudgar.com/olson-real-flow-book-review.md) - Although its stated ambitions are more modest, Real Flow amounts to a quiet manifesto for a new model of work — one that begins by putting human wellbeing first, not only as an ethical principle but as a simple fact about how organizations operate.
- [“Bound together by the love of the game”](https://www.chudgar.com/bo-han-on-the-future-of-sports.md) - As our media landscape fractures into countless paywalled gardens of proprietary “content,” is there a future for live sports at all? An upstart tech CEO says yes — but only if sports and media leaders return to the values of real-world belonging that turn fans into communities.
- [An elegy for Highly](https://www.chudgar.com/an-elegy-for-highly.md) - When I found out that my favorite web-annotation app was being shut down by its corporate acquirer, I found the news surprisingly heartbreaking. In between meetings, I wrote this little appreciation for it. It’s about attention, metaphors, and memory.
- [What concept kits can do](https://www.chudgar.com/concept-kits.md) - The concepts you use to think and talk about your work set the boundaries of what’s possible. Here are some examples of the way building a new set of concepts can be transformative.
- [36 Minneapolis Small Businesses Endorse #Yes4Minneapolis](https://www.chudgar.com/small-businesses-say-yes4mpls.md) - Today I was proud to joined 35 other Minneapolis small business owners in public support of #Yes4Minneapolis, the ballot measure designed to expand true public safety for all in the city we love.
- [What justice for Daunte Wright requires](https://www.chudgar.com/what-justice-for-daunte-wright-requires.md) - Minnesotans have kind hearts and good intentions. But if kind hearts and good intentions were enough, Daunte Wright would be alive today.
- [What is trauma?](https://www.chudgar.com/what-is-trauma.md) - To heal from trauma, you have to understand what it is. My colleagues and I created this simple one-minute video to explain the concept to Christian leaders all over the world — so they can offer hope.
- [Nonprofit fundraising, reimagined](https://www.chudgar.com/reimagining-nonprofit-fundraising.md) - As we start to imagine what our world might look like in the future — in the wake of the pandemic, the uprising, and the wounds of the last administration — our state’s chapter of the Association of Professional Fundraisers recognized a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reimagine the role they play.
- [How I learned I am white](https://www.chudgar.com/how-i-learned-i-am-white.md) - Over the past couple years, several folks have given me professional opportunities that turn out — often quite a ways into discussion — to be premised on their belief that I am a person of color. This is how a rabbi taught me to respond.
- [Why systems change takes patience](https://www.chudgar.com/why-systems-change-takes-patience.md) - “Systems change is like planting a forest,” says veteran Minnesota policy leader Antonia Apolinario-Wilcoxon. “Someday, children will be able to play in the shelter of the trees. Today, your job is to dig holes and plant seeds.”
- [Mattering without measuring](https://www.chudgar.com/mattering-without-measuring.md) - “Measure what matters,” business folks like to say. But what if what matters most can’t be measured at all? I gave this training to help nonprofits escape from the tyranny of “metrics” to communicate the deeper meanings of their work.
- [A global poem for healing](https://www.chudgar.com/trauma-healing-institute.md) - Trauma is a deep source of human suffering. One faith-based nonprofit developed a method that was proven to help people heal. But how could they talk about trauma all over the world, across faiths and cultures?
- [Why I’m not a centrist](https://www.chudgar.com/why-im-not-a-centrist.md) - Back in 2017, I finally realized I had to pick a side. This is the story of how it happened.
- [On “consumership” in healthcare](https://www.chudgar.com/on-consumership-in-healthcare.md) - The healthcare system tells people they should be good “healthcare consumers,” and they believe it. This delusion is heartbreaking. In reality, there is no such thing as a “heath care consumer.” There are only people with bodies, who love other people with bodies.
- [Minnesota, we’re on our own](https://www.chudgar.com/minnesota-were-on-our-own.md) - It was a hot summer for health care policy in 2017. In Washington, Republicans were hell-bent on “repealing and replacing” the Affordable Care Act — and it looked as though they just might. In this unpublished warning, I helped Minnesota healthcare leaders warn our state’s people about the danger.
- [How to avoid a healthcare disaster](https://www.chudgar.com/how-to-avoid-a-healthcare-disaster.md) - The American Health Care Act of 2017 would have been a disaster for human health. A nonprofit health care group in Minnesota needed to articulate unequivocal opposition to the AHCA, while advancing a positive vision for good reform. This editorial, never published, attempted to do just that.
- [Concepts for healthcare communication](https://www.chudgar.com/concepts-for-healthcare-communication.md) - A group of nonprofit health insurers hired me back in 2015, when the changes of the Affordable Care Act were sweeping across the country. In collaboration, we developed a powerful set of concepts they could use to communicate more clearly and honestly.
- [In memory of Ashvin Jayantilal Chudgar](https://www.chudgar.com/in-memory-of-ashvin-jayantilal-chudgar.md) - Ashvin Jayantilal Chudgar, 72, of Spring Twp., died Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012, at the Reading Hospital. His death followed a six-week struggle to recover from a ruptured aortic aneurysm. His passing was sudden and peaceful, and the prayers of many helped him on his way.

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