The Spirit-Led Life: Christianity and the Internal Family System

by Mary K. Steege, Richard C. Schwartz

The Spirit-led Life is the story of one woman kicking and screaming her way to grace and spiritual maturity, particularly as it comes through the psycho-spiritual model of therapy known as Internal Family Systems. In the company of such characters as the Coyote Christ and Holy Canary, Mary Steege offers a theologically astute and spiritually sound look at the parallels between Christianity and the Internal Family Systems model. Humorous and poignant, this book points us toward our own experience of divine presence and the possibility of healing. It includes interviews on spirituality with Richard C. Schwartz, developer of the model.

Genres: Mental Health, Spirituality

364 pages, Paperback

First published September 8, 2010

Reviews

[Piper Doherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Been a long time coming! Internal family systems therapy is so wonderful and has such a gentle way of capturing how humans collect experiences inside of themselves for comfort or protection. After noticing something inherently spiritual in IFS therapy, Steege studied under Schwartz (the father of IFS) and wrote this here book. Steege is a sarcastic, episcopal pastor who made me laugh. She writes bluntly about being a human and a believer “kicking and screaming her way to spiritual maturity.” She writes about the parallels between the Self (in IFS) and the Spirit indwelling in the Self (in Christianity).

The last 100 pages are a conversation between her and Schwartz which is very interesting. He isn’t a believer but believes that the therapy modality he fathered does have something inherently spiritual about it. Really interesting.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think I would have read this if not for it being suggested reading for a recent retreat I was going to. I was doing IFS, I didn't think I needed to read a book about someone else's journey with it. But I was wrong. This was not only full of spiritual wisdom, theological insight, and helpful guidance on the IFS path, it was also a fun, quick moving read. I'm glad I read it and recommend it for anyone interested in IFS, deepening their spiritual walk, or personal growth. You don't even necessarily need to read it in chapter order, if that kind of freedom appeals to you.

[Amy Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Steege did a great job bringing IFS and the Christian together in the same room, or Self. Inspiring, informative, intelligent, introspective, inviting, and illuminating (the 6 I's). The only criticism is in the middle when she tried to talk about her experience with evil, when she attended the IFS conference. Where she was clear and open before, now she was vague and elusive and I never understood what she was trying to say, rather never really did.

[Liz]

I may have finished this if I had more time and energy for it. It’s not the kind of thing you read on maternity leave with a toddler running around. But I did really appreciate and relate to the perspective and the subject matter is interesting to me. I think it could have done with a lot of slimming down, I made it about halfway thru and still didn’t feel like I’d got to the meat of it yet. My therapist recommended it but I don’t know that I will go back and finish it.

[Lawrence “Larry” · Rating 2 out of 5]

From pages 1-252, this is a memoir of sometimes interesting pastoral counseling situations, but it does little to guide a pastor in how to counsel using IFS. The remainder of the book is an interview with Richard Schwartz, the founder of IFS.