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# A do-it-yourself introduction to your inner family
- URL: https://www.chudgar.com/self-therapy/
- Published: 2023-04-03T18:16:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-01-02T19:04:17.000Z
- Description: 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.
- Author: Ash Chudgar
- Tags: Resources, Partswork, Ways to Get Started, Coaching

### I first encountered my own internal family in the summer of 2020 by reading this book, by Jay Earley. If you’re curious about your own inner world, it’s a good book to learn [partswork](https://www.chudgar.com/tag/partswork) from.

The grandiose subtitle of this book nearly kept me from reading it — “Creating Wholeness and Healing Your Inner Child Using IFS, A New, Cutting-Edge Psychotherapy,” yeesh — but at the time I was so very unhappy that I was willing to take a chance. What I discovered in this book changed my life. Dr. Earley explains the Internal Family Systems model simply and clearly, with vivid anecdotes and sweet hand-drawn illustrations. But the real magic of this book is the simple, practical exercises he provides throughout:

> You can learn much about yourself just by reading the book, even if you don’t choose to do the exercises. … However, if you do the exercises as you read the book, this will ground the concepts in your direct experience of your inner family. (15)

That’s exactly what happened for me. Once I started trying to identify the various parts of my inner world, they turned out to have *a lot* to say to me — so much, in fact, that I later decided to [**seek out an IFS practitioner**](https://ifs-institute.com/practitioners/all?country=All&us%5Fstate=All&availability=yes&ref=chudgar.com) to help me sort through all of it. My therapist guided me in very much the way I guide my coaching clients now. 

Although I don’t agree with *all* the ways the book describes the model, I don’t hesitate to recommend it. Without reading *Self-Therapy*, I would never have started the journey that’s led me here.

### Places to get *Self-Therapy*

You can find *Self-Therapy* on paper, as an ebook, or as an audiobook wherever you usually get books. (There’s also a companion workbook you can get, by Bonnie Weiss, which I didn’t use myself.) Here are some ways:

- [**Find *Self-Therapy* in a library near you**](https://www.worldcat.org/title/502450986?ref=chudgar.com)
- [**Find a used copy of *Self-Therapy***](https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?isbn=9780984392773&ref=chudgar.com)or the [workbook](https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=32042418814&ref=chudgar.com)
- [**Buy a new copy of Self-Therapy**](https://bookshop.org/p/books/self-therapy-jay-earley/7035439?ean=9780984392773&ref=chudgar.com) or the [workbook](https://bookshop.org/p/books/self-therapy-workbook-an-exercise-book-for-the-ifs-process-bonnie-j-weiss-lcsw/7035441?ean=9780984392742&ref=chudgar.com)

If you decide to work with the book, I’d love to hear how it goes for you! Just [**get in touch**](https://www.chudgar.com/contact).