Many of us have an interior experience of different parts or self states. Within our psyche we can imagine a cast of characters– symbolic representations of parts of our self. Jungian James Hillman, who developed his own understanding of psychotherapy termed archetypal psychology, expanded on the ideas of Jung by focusing on the image, and understanding these internal parts as mythological gods and goddesses. Internal Family Systems in a model on the self developed by Richard Schartz that posits the self is composed of different subpersonalities or parts. Marion Woodman conceptualized somatic depth work. Different ways to approach and engage with the soul’s complexity.
Soul Making
"Soul-making is the process of bringing the images of the soul into being. It is not a matter of changing the person but of changing the soul’s relationship to the images and to the world."
-James HIllman, Revisioning Psychology
While IFS has grown in popularity, and provides an accessible framework for mapping the inner world of the self– into the categories of managers, firefighters, and exiles. Many find this therapeutic approach a helpful structure to begin talking about their experience of different self-states. However, it can also be experienced as formulaic and the model of IFS parts risks reducing psyche to a mere system of roles which can rob the process of interior work of its dynamic, fluid nature. The focus on parts may unintentionally overshadow the potential for encountering the numinous in image and psyche. The unconscious holds mysterious and transcendent aspects of psyche not easily reduced to predefined terms. Image and engaging in mythopetic soul making is an embodied unfolding of inner experience.
IFS offers a valuable entry point for exploring the inner landscape—normalizing the self as inherently multiple—it can also be limiting. The predefined roles, though helpful for organizing inner experience, may feel rigid or restrictive, some experience of parts may not fit into these categories. This can lead to feelings of “doing it wrong,” stifling the creative spontaneity that is essential for deeper therapeutic exploration.
Hillman’s archetypal psychology invites us to engage with our inner experience in a mythopoetic way. “Nothing is excluded.” Rather than parts, he saw inner figures as archetypal presences—images with their own autonomy and unpredictability. Depression might appear as Saturn, while anxiety might be Pan, the root of panic. Hillman encouraged therapists to befriend the symptom’s image, seeing it as soul-making rather than something to fix or do away with.
Marion Woodman invites the body into the imaginal dialogue, viewing inner figures as both psychic and somatic presences, stored in the very fiber of our being. For Woodman, healing required embodied imagination, allowing the figures to move through our being, increasing embodied awareness. A fierce protector might be invited to stomp or push against a wall, while a wounded exile might be met with gentle self-holding. Building on this, Joan Chodorow developed spontaneous, authentic movement, where the body expresses the psyche’s inner dynamics through unscripted movement. This approach deepens the connection between body, psyche, and imagination, allowing for integrated healing beyond verbal description.
Sandplay therapy offers a nonverbal entry into the psyche’s multiplicity. Clients create three-dimensional images using figurines in a tray of sand. Unlike IFS, which labels parts, sandplay allows the psyche to speak symbolically—such as a protector appearing as a dragon or a wounded part as a cracked turtle figurine. We need not reduce each figure and have to “say what it is” but rather engage in the image and let it guide us to a new understanding and spontaneous healing. Developed by Dora Kalff, sandplay uses Jungian concepts to engage the unconscious directly, bypassing intellectual defenses. The beauty of sandplay is that symbols aren’t guided by intellectual knowing, but are open to the psyche’s natural expression, fostering spontaneous and unfiltered connection between the conscious and unconscious.
Active imagination, a Jungian practice, serves as a bridge between these approaches. It invites direct dialogue with inner figures, whether they appear as IFS parts, archetypal images, or symbolic figures in the sand. By engaging them through visualization or spontaneous movement, clients build relationship with their inner cast.
Together, IFS, archetypal psychology, Woodman’s somatic depth work, and sandplay offer a creative, multi-dimensional path toward healing. They move beyond symptom management into soul-making, where suffering becomes meaningful. Rather than striving for wholeness by integrating parts, clients discover that wholeness lies in embracing the psyche’s multiplicity—not in being one, but in being many.
