Book · 2007
Parts Work: An Illustrated Guide to Your Inner Life
by Tom Holmes
An illustrated IFS guide that r/InternalFamilySystems hands to newcomers who want to start working with their parts before their next therapy session.
What does Reddit think of Parts Work: An Illustrated Guide to Your Inner Life?
That's a small footprint, but the distribution is telling: r/InternalFamilySystems accounts for six of those mentions and drives every substantive recommendation. The book shows up consistently as the visual-first companion to Jay Earley's Self-Therapy — paired in the same breath in multiple threads, as in the ↑11 comment that names both for readers asking about solo IFS practice. r/CPTSD adds three mentions, including a ↑5 post that links directly to the ASIN for readers trying to identify child parts. r/therapists weighs in once, listing it alongside Yalom and Schwartz as current reading. The consistent framing is practical: commenters treat it as something you pick up and work through, not something you argue about. Nine unique commenters across the full window, with activity every year from 2020 through 2025.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Internal Family Systems (IFS) as a self-directed practice
- · Visual and illustrated approach to parts work
- · Solo therapy and working between sessions
- · Trauma and inner child identification
- · Companion reading alongside other IFS texts
Common praise
- + Commenters in r/InternalFamilySystems recommend it specifically to people who want to start IFS on their own without a therapist present.
- + The visual and sensory format gets called out as what makes it accessible alongside more text-heavy IFS books.
- + A r/CPTSD commenter links it directly to readers trying to identify child parts, treating it as a practical tool rather than theory.
- + It holds steady mention counts every year from 2020 to 2025, suggesting it keeps getting discovered rather than burning out after a spike.
Common criticism
- − No commenter singles out a specific chapter or exercise as the reason to read it, which makes it harder to assess what the book delivers versus what IFS delivers.
- − It rarely appears without Self-Therapy by Jay Earley in the same sentence, raising the question of whether it stands alone or only as a pairing.
Who it's for
If you're already in IFS therapy and want something to work through between sessions, this is what r/InternalFamilySystems points to. Visual learners who bounced off Schwartz's denser prose tend to land here. Readers coming from r/CPTSD looking to identify and name child parts find it more immediately usable than a clinical text. It's not the book for someone who wants theoretical grounding in how IFS was developed — pair it with Self-Therapy if you want both.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for Parts Work: An Illustrated Guide to Your Inner Life?
The most relevant excerpts across the subreddits where this book is mentioned — opinionated, argued takes first, then top-upvoted mentions. Click through to read the full thread.
“This article seems to fail to recognize that inside out was very influenced by the Internal Family System (IFS) therapy model developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz. It basically details, in depth and supported by research, the same practices this article’s author is suggesting. For anyone dealing with m…
“Self-Therapy: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Wholeness and Healing Your Inner Child Using IFS, A New, Cutting-Edge Psychotherapy, 2nd Edition book is usually a good starting point. Another book would be thi…
“Context: I’ve been in therapy 15 years and have CPTSD and BPD I verbally age regress during therapy. Specifically if I feel attacked or like I’m reliving a memory we’re talking about. For me I didn’t realize it. My therapist did. And she asked about what I was feeling in that moment. She was rea…
“One of the goals of therapy is to teach you coping skills that you can use on your own to work through things that come up. So in a way she is right to not want you to become dependent on her. But that doesn't mean you can never go back. IFS is great because it's a very easy modality to work with …
“You can engage in IFS on your own at whatever level feels comfortable for you. Parts work: an illustrated guide to your inner life by Tom Holmes and Self-Therapy by Jay Earley are helpful resources.
“Omg YESS! Its really just about learning the whole picture of goals To accomplish with IFS in general, then you can literally just start doing it with yourself. I would start reading through a few quick books (they are all very visual and sensory based and easy) and maybe even watch some vids in you…
“Polysecure (Fern). The Gift of Therapy (Yalom), What My Bones Know (Foo). I’m starting to read You Are the One You’ve Been Waiting For (Schwartz) and Parts Work Book (Holmes, Holmes, and Eckstein).
“For most of us, our parts sort of cover up Self. Although all parts have Self within, they have split off, taking on different protective jobs based on conditioning and trauma burdens. So if our usual state is an anxious or blah mood (for example) then that is part with a certain emotional burden. …
“Parts Work: An Illustrated Guide to Your Inner Life by Tom Holmes (2011) Paperback This book helped me a lot, with the help of therapy and journaling, I learned how to approach my shame from a non judgemental place. Once I could ask myself what was making me feel this way, a…
Convinced? Pick up Parts Work: An Illustrated Guide to Your Inner Life
What else does r/internalfamilysystems read?
Other books mentioned in the same sub, ranked. Shared-sub overlap with this title breaks ties.
Parts Work: An Illustrated Guide to Your Inner Life — frequently asked
What does Reddit think of Parts Work by Tom Holmes?+
Nobody argues against it; nobody calls it transformative. The consistent use is as a visual companion for people starting solo IFS practice, handed off in the same comment as Self-Therapy by Jay Earley.
Is Parts Work good for beginners to IFS?+
Yes, based on how r/InternalFamilySystems actually deploys it. It shows up in threads where people ask how to start IFS without a therapist, typically alongside Self-Therapy. A ↑11 comment recommends both as resources for solo practice. The illustrated format is mentioned explicitly as what makes it approachable compared to more clinical IFS texts.
Should I read Parts Work or Self-Therapy by Jay Earley first?+
Depends on how you learn. Multiple r/InternalFamilySystems threads name both in the same breath, treating them as companions rather than alternatives. Parts Work is flagged as more visual and sensory; Self-Therapy is the more structured step-by-step guide. A ↑8 comment recommends reading a few quick books together and watching videos — Parts Work fits that kind of parallel intake.
Is Parts Work mentioned in r/CPTSD?+
The most direct mention is a ↑5 post linking the ASIN to someone asking about identifying child parts. It's not a r/CPTSD staple the way some trauma books are, but it gets passed around when the specific topic of parts identification comes up.