How to map your parts: a step-by-step guide

A parts map is a simple drawing of your inner system: which parts are there, what they do, and how they relate. Here's how to make one, on paper or on your phone.

Internal Family Systems (IFS), developed by Richard Schwartz, describes the mind as a family of parts. Some, called managers, try to keep pain from happening. Others, called firefighters, jump in when it does. Exiles carry older hurt. Underneath them all is Self, the calm, curious presence that can listen to every part. If those terms are new, the three IFS parts explained is a good place to start.

Getting to know one part at a time is useful. But parts rarely act alone. A map helps you see the relationships: who teams up with whom, who's pulling in opposite directions, and what all that protecting is for.

What you'll need

A blank sheet of paper and a pen, or an app that lets you place and connect parts. Colored pens help but aren't necessary. Give yourself 20 to 30 quiet minutes.

Step 1: Start with one situation

A blank page invites you to map your whole life, which is overwhelming. Instead, pick one recent moment that stirred you up a little: an argument, a task you keep avoiding, a night you couldn't switch off. Moderate is better than intense for a first map.

Step 2: List every part that showed up

Think back through that moment and write down each thought, feeling, urge, or body sensation as if it belonged to a separate part. Give each one a short name in your own words: "the one who wanted to leave," "the scorekeeper," "the tight chest." Don't sort them yet. Most people find three to six.

Step 3: Leave room for Self in the middle

Self isn't a part, but it helps to mark a spot for it in the center of the page. Self is the one doing the mapping: the you who can look at all these parts with some curiosity. Then place each part around it. Put parts that felt loud or close nearer the center, and quieter ones further out. There's no right layout.

Step 4: Make a gentle guess at each role

Next to each part, jot down your best guess:

• Manager if it plans, controls, criticizes, or works to prevent something bad.
• Firefighter if it reacts fast to make a feeling stop: numbing, bingeing, raging, shutting down.
• "Something tender here" if you sense a younger, hurting place. Mark it with a small circle and leave it there. You don't need to explore it on your own.
• Not sure is a perfectly good label.

Step 5: Draw the relationships

This is where a map earns its keep. Use simple marks:

• A solid line between parts that work together, like a critic and a planner pushing in the same direction.
• A jagged or dashed line between parts pulling in opposite directions. IFS calls these parts "polarized." A classic pair is a part that pushes you to work harder and a part that makes you avoid the work entirely.
• An arrow from a protector toward anything tender it seems to be guarding.

Step 6: Step back and check in

Look at the whole page and ask yourself how you feel toward it. If you feel curious, or even a bit of compassion for how hard these parts are working, that's Self. If you feel embarrassed, frustrated, or want to tear the page up, that reaction is probably another part. Add it to the map. It belongs there too.

Step 7: Date it and come back

Write the date in a corner. Your map is a snapshot, not a verdict. Parts change roles, relationships soften, and new parts appear as you get to know your system. Many people redraw their map every few weeks and are surprised by how different it looks.

An example map

Here's an illustrative map of one situation: putting off a work report for three days. It isn't a real person's map.

Reading the map: the Deadline Driller and the Critic team up to push the report forward. The Couch pulls the opposite way, which is why every push from the Driller seems to make the avoidance stronger. Both the Driller and the Couch seem to be guarding the same tender place, perhaps an old fear of not being good enough. Seeing that they're protecting the same thing often softens the fight between them.

Tips that make mapping easier

• Use the parts' own words for names. "Deadline Driller" will mean more to you later than "manager #1."
• Keep a page per part, too. Our IFS parts worksheet is a one-page profile you can fill in for each part on your map.
• One situation per map at first. Over time you'll notice the same parts appearing across maps. That's when a bigger "whole system" map becomes useful.
• Don't map exiles in detail on your own. Noting that something tender is there is enough. Exploring it is work best done with a licensed IFS therapist.

Paper or app?

Paper is quick, private, and easy to start with. Its downside shows up later: as you learn more, you'll want to move parts around, add connections, and keep notes for each one, and paper maps get crowded fast. That's the problem an app can solve, letting you drag parts as your understanding changes and keep each part's history in one place.

Internal Family Mapping is built for exactly this: place your parts on a canvas, connect them, move them as you learn, and keep a journal for each one.

This guide is for education and self-reflection and isn't a substitute for therapy. If working with a part brings up feelings that are hard to handle, consider reaching out to a licensed IFS therapist. If you're in crisis, contact your local emergency number or a crisis line.