Our Vision
Healing, Well-being, and Self Leadership for All
We envision and strive to support a world in which individuals behave and interact using inner resources of Self Leadership, identified by IFS, as a new paradigm for healing and living, bringing acceptance, compassion, and safety to each of us and, by extension, to the communities in which we live, including those with limited financial resources.
As a result of our collective efforts, the IFS treatment protocol will be recognized as an evidenced-based standard commonly used to improve mental health and guide the process of healing and emotional well-being.
Beyond psychotherapy, IFS will evolve into a widely accepted approach for promoting mindfulness, physical health and spiritual well-being among individuals; and for ushering effective governance and organizational well- being in various domains, among them business, law, education, as well as governance within and across neighborhoods and nations.
Our Promise
Embody a Self-Led Organization
The Foundation’s Board, in order to realize our stated goals, aspires to develop an exemplary “Self-Led Organization.” Operating in accordance with the mindfulness-based IFS model, which is an integration of systems thinking and multiplicity -of-mind theory, we embrace our common humanity, openness, and desire to serve the greater good as a framework for deliberation and decision making.
We strive to conduct our board meetings and all our activities alike with a high level of curiosity and a strong desire for collaboration. We will take time to establish a safe space for difficult conversations, gently guide each other to a place of inner calm and clarity when we are emotionally triggered, and treat protective voices and opinions with empathy and no judgment. We believe it is the responsibility of each member of the Board to ensure that our discussions are held in a climate of compassion and care.
We will engage in all activities and practices, mindful of what binds us, welcoming of our differences, open to hearing from and speaking for our individual parts, and determined to uphold high standards of integrity and transparency in decision making.
We will work closely and collaboratively with the Center for Self Leadership, the greater community of IFS practitioners, and other partnering organizations aligned with our vision and values, to make key strategic decisions that validate and expand the role of Self Leadership for all people across the world.
Our Pledge as Board Members
Engaging in Self-led Deliberations
As members of the Board of the Foundation for Self Leadership, we will strive to model in our interactions the workings of a Self-led system, in accordance with the IFS paradigm, and we aspire to develop the Foundation into a Self- led organization.
Embracing our common humanity, openness, and desire to serve the greater good as a framework for deliberation and decision making, we strive to conduct our board meetings and other meetings alike with a high level of curiosity and a strong desire for collaboration. We will take time to establish a safe space for challenging conversations, gently guide each other to a place of inner calm and clarity when we are emotionally triggered, and treat protective voices and opinions with empathy and no judgment.
We believe it is the responsibility of each member of the Board to ensure that our discussions are held in a climate of compassion and care. As such, we will engage in all activities and practices, mindful of what binds us, welcoming of our differences, open to hearing from and speaking for our individual parts.
When through intense conversations, some of us are unable to maintain a calm or open disposition, we agree as a team to manage the situation with kindness and respect. We will attempt to identify, acknowledge and be compassionate with each other’s individual parts—as well as our own. Those among us triggered by the discussion will pledge to accept the team’s gentle intervention. However, all will respect each other’s desires and choices at the moment to either pursue the discussion or take time to reflect quietly and find a calm space within, before the conversation resumes or is deferred until later. The objective is to inspire mindfulness-based teamwork, anchored in Self Leadership. In order to achieve this level of awareness, we believe it is important to create a safe environment in which we allow each other to be vulnerable and accept and welcome each other’s vulnerability with no judgment; this increases access to collective Self Leadership.
We will also be cognizant that the Foundation’s work depends on our partnership and collaboration with the greater IFS community and a number of organizations that share our values and vision, lead among them is the Center for Self Leadership, with which we will endeavor to work closely and congruently to bring Self leadership to the world.