In reflecting on the New Year, there are big changes afoot in my work. I am just as dedicated as ever to helping people heal psychological wounds and grow, and I still see IFS as the best way to do that. However, my work is shifting toward groups, teaching, training, writing, and producing other products to help people’s inner work.

Bonnie and I are currently focused on working with Inner Critic parts. We have already put up an questionnaire and various articles on this, and we are planning much more— downloadable booklets, a book, a web-based system for profiling Inner Critic and Champion parts, and probably CD’s of guided meditations, animated videos of inner work, and social networking sites. This feels very exciting and creative to me. Furthermore, even though I have already written four books in my career, I now have ideas for at least five more, and I plan to get them out much more quickly than I have in the past.

I am also planning on doing more teaching about IFS and leading IFS groups or personal growth programs. I have always loved working with groups, and right now I’m especially interested in doing more in-person groups. The telephone work has been surprising successful and satisfying, but I yearn for more direct contact with the people I am working with. I expect to be moving in this direction over the next year.

The other big change is in the direction of collaboration. Over my 35 years of doing therapy, I have usually worked alone—led my own groups, saw my individual clients, created my own ideas for classes, workshops, and books. Now am I collaborating with my wife Bonnie Weiss, and that is a lot of fun for us and engaging for me professionally. I really enjoy tossing ideas back and forth and sharing the work. And I plan to be collaborating with other people on various aspects of my work.

I have also done all of my own support work in the past—putting up my own website, writing and editing my books, etc. Now I am relying to other people to support me. I have already been working with a web designer, a virtual assistant who is incredibly helpful, and a great illustrator. Now we have hired a web programmer for the profiles and a collaborative writer for our next book.

This requires a very different way of working. It is more enjoyable because it gives me more time to focus on the creative activities that I do best. And it is fun to engage with others rather than just working by myself. But I also must rely on other people’s time schedules, deal with communication glitches, learn what each person does well and not-so-well, and watch my tendency to get annoyed when I don’t get exactly what I want. All in all, it is a stimulating cauldron for my personal growth.

2010 is stacking up to be an exciting year.