In IFS (Internal Family Systems) Therapy we use the word protector to identify those parts of ourselves that have the task to protect us from danger of any kind.
There are two strategies of protection against danger (and please note that this danger can be either real or perceived to be real):
prevention of danger (proactive strategy)
response to danger (reactive strategy)
Let’s use an example in the physical world. There are two ways to prevent fire in a building. The first strategy is to build the building with materials and other features that minimise the risk of fire before the fire actually sparks. The other strategy is to take the fire out once the fire has sparked despite the prevention strategies. One of the actions we perform when something is on fire is calling the firefighters, and this is why we call these protectors “firefighters”.
When we are in danger because something dangerous is happening, our survival become top priority, and all our energies are invested in automatic, quick and strong reactions to keep us alive.
Imagine what happens is you find yourself alone in the jungle and you see a predator approaching you? Your entire physiology changes in an instant. Your heart starts pumping faster, your blood goes into your arms and legs so that you are ready to run away or to fight for your life. Your appetite disappears and you might feel a huge sense of fear. Did you consciously activate any of this? Did you tell your heart to beat faster? No! It was all done automatically for you because, if you stop and think of all the things you need to activate in your body to survive and you take too long, you get eaten!
Firefighters work in the same way. They are parts of us that we do not consciously ask to activate and perform their protective tasks. They have a priority route in our system and, once activated, they have access to a large amount of our energy and they can control bodily functions, thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
Firefighters in action
Firefighters are a wonder of nature because they allow us to go on with life without having to worry about survival all the time. They are, though, expensive resources to use and they can put a strain on our system if they are activated too long or too often. We are not built to be in a state of constant danger. Firefighters provide a boost in energy that lasts only as long as it’s needed.
When we are stressed, we react with firefighters. If the stress comes from work (for example daily deadlines or difficult relationships), our system is exposed to a constant “danger”. It is common knowledge that prolonged period of stress generate all sorts of symptoms including sleep disturbances, difficulties in digestion, accelerated heart beats, etc.
Please notice that firefighters can activate as soon as something dangerous is around, and this is a really subjective matter. What we consider dangerous is very personal and, if we have gone through traumatic events in the past, any situation in the present that resembles the traumatic event is considered “danger”.
The strongest firefighters are those ones that activate to protect parts of us that have been traumatised and that have been triggered by current events. If we keep on using the example of work stress, imagine that you have a deadline that you cannot meet for reasons beyond your control. While it might not be a big deal to miss a deadline for good reasons, your response seems out of control. You feel guilty and you keep on thinking of ways to meet this deadline to the point of not sleeping at night.
Why is it that you have such a strong response even if, rationally, you know nothing bad is going to happen?
This is because in the past you have gone through some experience that has traumatised you. For example, when going to school, your parents would be extremely angry at you if you did not meet the homework deadlines. The current job situation is, therefore, triggering a young part of you that was scared of your parents’ reactions. Your brain and body are literally hijacked by the fears that you felt back then, and the firefighters come up strongly to “help” you face this situation.
How do we heal a firefighter in IFS?
A firefighter will not change its behaviour as long as the part of us that the firefighter is protecting is hurting. In other words, we cannot heal the firefighter or ask it to behave differently if we do not intervene on the trauma that originated the wounding.
It is only after the trauma is dealt with and healed that the firefighters will start considering changing their behaviour.
Some of the hardest firefighters to deal with are those ones that lead to addictive behaviours like
substance abuse
binge eating
self-harming
sex addictions
Sometimes the firefighters are triggered so much and for so long that they start behaving of their own accord and the person loses consciousness of how they started behaving that way. In extreme cases, it is necessary to go through a process of detox before any healing work can be done.
Are firefighters all so strong?
Not all firefighters lead to addictive behaviour that is out of control. Some mild form of firefighters are the following categories
soothers
distractors
numbers
An example of distractor is the use of social media. Do you ever find yourself automatically taking your phone and check all the social media apps? It is likely that a firefighter activated to distract your from some other activity that you found boring.
Other types of firefighters are soothers that take the form, for example, of watching one episode of a series after another after a stressful day at work. These firefighters help calm down and relax.
Numbers are firefighters that protect us against feeling certain difficult emotions. For example, during this Covid pandemic, we have all numbed ourselves to the growing count of deaths and of restrictive measures… we do it otherwise life would be rather unbearable.
Learning to love our firefighters
I want to end this article by stating clearly that the aim of IFS Therapy is not to eliminate any part or to force parts to change unless they are ready to do so spontaneously, usually as a result of healing some underlying trauma.
The key to healing is the ability to love, appreciate and get to know our firefighters, from soothers to extreme ones. It is only through this loving relationship that extreme behaviours will spontaneously and permanently change. It is important to keep in mind that there is no set time frame for change to happen.
One final note…
I hope this article has given you some insight into the IFS method. I personally write these articles and they are freely available on my website. I kindly ask that you reference them by quoting this webpage if you use them for personal, professional or educational purposes.
If there are topics you would like to know more about, please let me know.