January '26 - When Protector Parts Quietly Undo Good Therapy Work

By Lisa Larson, LMFT | Pacific Counseling and Trauma Center

When Protector Parts Quietly Undo Good Therapy Work

Over the past six months, I’ve noticed a pattern in my Brainspotting work that felt both puzzling and important. Clients would experience deep, meaningful breakthroughs—healing shame, resolving trauma—only to arrive the following session feeling as if all the progress had vanished.
At first, I wondered whether we needed to “go deeper,” or whether some clients were simply non-responders. What I came to understand, especially after integrating Internal Family Systems (IFS), is something far more compassionate: a protector part was doing its job.

Let me share a brief example.

I worked with a client carrying profound shame and self-loathing rooted in severe neglect and abuse. During a powerful session, we used Expansion Brainspotting to access his belief that he is, at his core, a loving and nurturing soul. He named this spot his “Higher Self” spot. We also included a spot connected to his two deceased grandmothers—the only caregivers who ever made him feel loved and safe. By the end of the session, his distress dropped dramatically, and his negative beliefs softened to almost all zeros.

When he returned a week later, the shame was back, stronger than ever.
Instead of assuming the work hadn’t “held,” I asked a different question: What part of you needs to make sure you never feel good about yourself? His response was immediate. He named a long-standing protector he called his “Drill Sergeant”—a part that had kept him safe since childhood by demanding perfection. For this part, self-love felt dangerous. If he relaxed, mistakes could happen—and mistakes once meant cruelty, shaming, and blaming.

We brought that protector directly into the Brainspotting work, alongside his “Higher Self” (or “Soul”) spot and the supportive presence of his grandmothers. Something shifted. The protector connected with his higher Self and the loving ancestors. He no longer needed to work so hard to assure perfection. Since that session, his self-compassion has remained intact, his honesty has improved, and his marriage has stabilized.
This is why I’m so passionate about integrating IFS with Brainspotting, especially when protector parts quietly sabotage hard-won progress. When protectors are understood rather than bypassed, therapy becomes more lasting—and more effective and humane.