IFS in Executive Coaching: A Field Report

In early March I spent a week in Balderschwang in the Allgäu region. Not for skiing, but for an IFS meditation week with Thomas Schneider of Wege zum Sein. What I experienced there has been changing my work as a coach ever since.

What is IFS?

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is an approach that assumes our psyche consists of several inner parts, parts that have taken on different roles, often as far back as childhood. There are parts that want to protect us, parts that carry pain, and parts that make sure we keep functioning. Behind all these parts lies what IFS calls the Self: an inner core that embodies clarity, calm, compassion, and connection.

IFS was developed by the American family therapist Richard C. Schwartz, who applied the principles of systemic family therapy to the inner world of the individual. In the United States, the approach has been recognised as evidence-based by the Department of Health since 2015. In Germany, the IFS community has grown strongly in recent years, through three institutes (Munich, Berlin, Heidelberg) offering training certified by the chambers of psychotherapists.

What is special about IFS: the approach leads you into dialogue with your own parts. You enter into mindful, curious contact with these parts, asking what they need.

The Week in Balderschwang

The seminar took place at the Bio-Berghotel Ifenblick, a small village of 300 inhabitants in the Upper Allgäu. Thomas Schneider, the founder of Wege zum Sein, led the week. The combination of meditation, guided IFS work, self-experience, and silence in the mountain landscape was exactly the right setting to truly engage with this inner work.

What impressed me about Thomas Schneider: he combines a depth of experience that is rare. Since 2003 he has been guiding people through mindfulness seminars and retreats full-time. He is a trained IFS therapist (IIFS Institut Berlin), MBSR teacher, MSC Trained Teacher, and has studied and taught for over four years at universities and monasteries in Asia and Europe. He carries the Buddhist teacher title Nyinche Dorje. But what truly distinguishes his work is not the sum of his qualifications, it is his ability to create a space in which people feel safe enough to look honestly inward.

In that week I experienced what IFS means beyond theory. When you witness an inner part that has been on duty for decades being truly heard for the first time, you understand the power of this method. It is not intellectual understanding. It is experience.

What This Means for My Coaching

I have already been working with IFS elements in my coaching for some time. The week in Balderschwang has deepened this approach and given me new tools that I have since been integrating into my work with leaders.

In my coaching sessions I regularly encounter situations in which the classical toolkit reaches its limits. A leader knows rationally that she should delegate, and still doesn't. A C-level manager recognises that his perfectionism is slowing him down, and still cannot let it go. A founder understands that she needs support, and still asks no one for help.

In such moments the solution rarely lies on the behavioural level. There are inner parts with good reasons to hold on to the existing pattern. They are often protective strategies that emerged in an earlier phase of life and have been doing their loyal duty ever since. Simply overriding them by willpower does not work sustainably.

IFS offers a path that is both respectful and effective: you enter into dialogue with the part, understand its function, honour its work, and negotiate a new role together. This sounds simple. In practice it is an art.

The Next Step: IFS Training

To bring IFS even more rigorously into my coaching, in June 2026 I will begin the formal IFS training with Regina Wagener at the IFS-Institut München. Regina Wagener is a graduate psychologist, systemic therapist, and has completed IFS Training up to Level 3 in Germany and the US. As a trainer at the IFS Institute Munich she is among the most experienced IFS trainers in the German-speaking world.

The training comprises a basic and an advanced training, with the goal of certification as an IFS coach. It is recognised by the chambers of psychotherapists and meets international standards.

Who Is IFS in Coaching Relevant For?

In my experience IFS is particularly effective for people in demanding leadership roles:

• Leaders who remain stuck in recurring patterns despite clear insight
• Managers under sustained pressure who notice their resilience strategies no longer work
• Founders making the transition from operational doer to strategic leader
• Experienced leaders seeking their finer calibration, the nuances that make the difference between good and outstanding

IFS complements classical coaching methods with a dimension I had been missing: systematic, mindful access to a person's inner landscape.

Further Information

• Wege zum Sein, IFS meditation week (seminars in Balderschwang)
• Thomas Schneider, profile
• IFS-Institut München, training
• IFS Europe e.V., network and therapist directory
• Richard C. Schwartz: No Bad Parts