Welcoming Every Part

“This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival...Welcome and entertain them all.”

— Rumi

There’s something timeless and disarming about Rumi’s poem The Guest House. It names a deep truth that often goes unspoken: that being human means contending with an ever-changing flow of emotions, memories, and inner responses. Joy, fear, grief, shame, hope — each one shows up like a visitor at the door. Some are easy to greet. Others, we’d rather pretend aren't there. But what if, as Rumi suggests, we welcomed them all?

This is exactly what we do in Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy: welcome every part.

We recognize that our inner world is made up of many parts — each with its own voice, history, and role. Some parts protect, some carry pain, and some long to be seen and heard. None of them are bad. In fact, all of them are trying to help in the best way they know how.

IFS invites us to meet each of these parts not with judgment, but with curiosity and compassion. Just like the poem says: “Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.”

Whether you are in the depths of something hard, or simply curious about your own internal landscape, I invite you — and every part of you — to come as you are. This work is about integration, healing, and wholeness.

“The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.”

Let’s begin this process together.