There have been moments when you’ve felt disconnected from yourself—as if parts of you were scattered along the path of your life, lost in relationships, responsibilities, and the quiet ways you learned to shrink.
Maybe you feel it now. That sense that something is missing. That longing to come home to yourself.
This is where parts work and movement come in. These practices offer a profound way to reconnect with the lost, silenced, and forgotten aspects of yourself, integrating psychological insight with somatic healing. By combining parts work with Gestalt therapy, dance movement therapy, expressive arts, and ritual, we create a holistic path to healing—one that allows you to not just think about healing, but to feel it, move it, and embody it.
What is Parts Work? A Psychological and Somatic Perspective
Parts work is a therapeutic approach that recognizes that within each of us exists a multitude of inner voices, identities, or subpersonalities. These parts can include the pleaser, the protector, the inner critic, or the wounded child. Some of them we develop as coping mechanisms, while others are inherited from family, culture, and society’s expectations. When we feel fragmented or disconnected from ourselves, it is often because certain parts have been pushed aside, ignored, or repressed.
From a psychological perspective, parts work is deeply rooted in Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy, which views the self as composed of multiple subpersonalities, all of which have a role and a purpose. The goal is not to eliminate or silence these parts but to befriend, understand, and integrate them so they can work in harmony.
Somatically, these parts manifest in the body. The pleaser may show up as a tight chest and an over-eager forward lean. The protector may create rigidity in posture, crossed arms, or a clenched jaw. By working with movement, we don’t just identify these parts—we physically explore and express them, allowing the body to become a space of dialogue and transformation.
Dialogue Between Parts
Gestalt therapy is one of the foundational approaches to parts work. Developed by Fritz Perls, Gestalt therapy emphasizes the importance of embodied awareness and present-moment experience. One of its most well-known techniques, the empty chair exercise, invites clients to engage in a dialogue between their different inner parts.
In my own journey, Gestalt work was a turning point. Sitting across from an empty chair, I spoke to my protector—the part of me that kept me safe by avoiding risk, vulnerability, and deep emotional expression. And then, I switched seats and became the protector, speaking back to myself. Through this process, I saw my parts not as obstacles, but as messengers, each holding an essential truth.
This method becomes even more powerful when combined with movement. Instead of just speaking as the protector, what if I let it move? What if I allowed my body to show me how this part carries itself in the world? This is where dance movement therapy comes in.
Moving the Inner Parts
Unlike traditional talk therapy, dance movement therapy (DMT) recognizes that the body holds the very stories we have forgotten. When we engage in movement, we bypass the analytical mind and access deeper layers of knowing.
Two key techniques in dance movement therapy help facilitate this process:
1. Laban’s Movement Analysis: Understanding the Language of the Body
Rudolf Laban’s movement analysis is a tool for understanding how psychological states manifest in posture, gesture, and movement tendencies. By analyzing effort, shape, and space, we can see patterns that reveal our inner world.
By recognizing these movement tendencies, we create an opportunity to consciously shift them. If a part of you always hunches forward to minimize presence, what happens when you open your chest, take up space, and move with boldness? These small shifts create profound inner transformations.
2. Authentic Movement: Listening to the Body’s Wisdom
Authentic Movement is a practice where a person moves with their eyes closed, guided by their internal impulses rather than external choreography. A witness holds space, observing without judgment.
In this practice, hidden emotions, memories, and parts of the self emerge organically. You don’t think about what to move—you allow your body to speak. It is a profound way to tap into the unconscious, inviting deep self-trust and integration.
Giving Your Parts a Voice
Sometimes movement is not enough. Some parts of us need to be seen, be heard, and be given a tangible expression outside of ourselves. This is where expressive arts come in.
Through expressive arts, we invite different parts of ourselves to communicate in images, words, and symbols:
- Painting the protector to better understand its presence.
- Writing letters to the wounded child within.
- Sculpting the inner critic to externalize and dialogue with it.
These creative acts allow us to witness our inner world with compassion and curiosity, fostering deeper integration and healing.
The Act of Coming Home
Ritual is the final step—the moment where all of these elements come together in a sacred promise to yourself. Ritual is the embodied declaration that you will continue to listen, honor, and trust yourself.
This can take many forms:
- A candle-lit moment of reflection after a movement practice.
- A written commitment to honor your needs.
- A physical act, like burying old fears in the earth or releasing limiting beliefs into the wind.
Ritual creates a bridge between the unconscious and conscious mind, allowing deep change to be anchored into daily life.
Why This Work Matters
These practices—parts work, Gestalt therapy, dance movement therapy, expressive arts, and ritual—are not just therapeutic techniques. They are maps back to yourself.
They remind you that your body knows, your intuition knows, and that everything you need is already within you.
This is why I hold these circles. This is why I offer 1:1 Embodied Knowing sessions—to guide you through this work, so you can finally feel at home in yourself again.
Because I know what it’s like to forget. And I know the power of remembering.
If this speaks to you, I invite you to join me. It’s time to come home. Join our Circle April 4th in Toronto register here