A model for wholeness

'Nature-based part work' is a brilliant, little-known gem for (psychedelic) integration

If you’ve been reading my work for a while, you’ll know that I am a big fan of Bill Plotkin’s work. The depth psychologist and wilderness guide has written various books on soul initiation, soul craft, and the human psyche, which I cite generously.

Similarly, I’ve gotten much out of Dick Schwartz’s parts work model called Internal Family System/IFS (which I know many of you practice and love, too).

Now, Bill Plotkin has his own genius “parts work” framework — albeit much less known than IFS, I have found it equally transformative, for two main reasons:

• Universality — it maps our internal parts to archetypes that live in all of us (and as such, makes it even more universally applicable)

• Nature focus — as in all of his work, Plotkin draws deep connections to the natural world, which grounds his teachings (and makes them more tangible)

Bill Plotkin’s nature-based map of the psyche is quasi IFS meets Jungian archetypes meets nature. It may be the most fitting tool for plant medicine integration that I am aware of, and I’m eager to share some of its gems with you today.

Bill Plotkin’s Nature-Based Map of the Psyche 

The nature-based map of the psyche consists of two ‘layers’ with four archetypes each based on the cardinal directions — North, East, South, and West.

• The outer layer houses the four facets of the Self, representing our wholeness: Nurturing Generative Adult (North), Sage/Sacred Fool (East), Wild Indigenous One (South), and Muse/Inner Beloved (West)

• The inner layer is comprised of our four subpersonalities, representing our woundedness: Loyal Soldiers (North), Escapists and Addicts (East), Wounded Children (South), and Shadow Selves (West)

Self (our wholeness)

The facets of the Self align with what IFS refers to as ‘Self-energy’. The beauty of Plotkin’s framework is that it provides a much more nuanced map for how to cultivate Self-energy, by tapping into the four archetypes it emerges as.

Each facet of the Self is grounded in love and has its own favored form of love:

• The nurturing generative adult provides selfless, unconditional love, the kind of love that is resourceful, creative, caring, and discerning.

• The inner sage provides affectionate friendship love, based on deep bonds of mutual respect and shared values and visions.

• The wild indigenous one shares romantic, sensual, and passionate love, celebrating joy, playfulness, spontaneity, and embodiment.

• The inner muse provides familial love, grounded in deep bonds and a sense of safety.

Several facets of the Self are gravely underdeveloped in modern society: Our wild, instinctual tendencies as deeply sensual and emotive beings have vanished as we evolved into rational beings with 9-5 jobs and modern lifestyles. So have our inner muses, thanks to the systemic suppression of our creativity. Cultivating these qualities that we all carry within is critical to returning to wholeness.

Reparenting our wounded child through the compassion of the generative adult is a key step (and one often catalyzed by psychedelic work), but it is the other facets of the Self that mobilize our capacity for deep imagination, creativity, enchantment with life, and wisdom — the gifts that emerge from integration.

Subpersonalities (our woundedness)

Our subpersonalities house the immature, wounded, or fragmented parts of our psyche. Each subpersonality has a different strategy for protection, most of which were learned in childhood.

Subpersonalities are not motivated by love but by their unique fears¹:

• Loyal soldiers house our inner critics (and inner flatterers), suppress emotions, and impose rules based on the fear of failure and rejection.

• Addicts and escapists seek relief from the pain the inner system holds, they also fear the boredom that may reveal the hidden pain.

• Wounded children represent the parts of us that carry wounds resulting from unmet needs in childhood, fearing abandonment and a lack of love.

• The shadow holds the parts within we reject or deny out of fear of being unlovable and overwhelmed by the darkness within.

In IFS, loyal soldiers are called ‘protectors’, addicts/escapists ‘firefighters’, and wounded children and the shadow ‘exiles’.

Healing, Plotkin teaches similarly to Dick Schwartz, requires two steps:

1. Gaining awareness of our wholeness

2. Increasing our capacity to function from Self when subpersonalities take over

This can be a life-long process, especially in inner systems with overpowering subpersonalities (or, an overpowering identification with subpersonalities). Rewiring unconscious patterns is tedious and time-intensive. But it is necessary to move from fear to love. It is the process of integration of all that we wish we weren’t (but are), through growing our capacity to be all that we wish we were (and already are).

Much can be said about this concept (in fact, Plotkin dedicated an entire book to it).

I’m curious if these concepts resonate with you? Would you be interested in working more with nature-based parts work?

“We must reclaim and embody our original wholeness, our indigenous human nature granted to us by nature itself. And the key to reclaiming our original wholeness is not merely to suppress psychological symptoms, recover from addictions and trauma, manage stress, or refurbish dysfunctional relationships, but rather to fully flesh out our multifaceted, wild psyches, committing ourselves to the largest story we’re capable of living, serving something bigger than ourselves.”

— Bill Plotkin

Image by Hypernormal Space

1. This is my interpretation of Plotkin’s work, not a connection he makes explicitly.