You have parts
The critic. The achiever. The one that goes quiet. Not moods and not symptoms — parts, each with a job it took on at some point for a reason.
- Accepting new clients
- Online across Pennsylvania
- Free 15-min consult
IFS Therapy in Pennsylvania — Online
Internal Family Systems — parts work — for adults carrying trauma, shame, and an inner critic that never lets up. Nothing about you gets treated as a symptom to remove. Sessions by video with John Pelikan, LCSW, LCADC.
- $175 / 55-min · private pay
- LCSW, LCADC
- HIPAA-compliant video
- Licensed in Pennsylvania
Request your free 15-minute consult
No pressure, no obligation. We will talk about what is going on and whether IFS with me is the right fit. You will hear back within one business day.
Prefer to book a time yourself? Book directly in SimplePractice (opens in a new tab).
You might be here because…
You understand your patterns. You still cannot stop them.
A harsh inner critic runs the show, and no amount of achieving quiets it.
Something from the past keeps showing up in the present.
Shame sits underneath the anxiety, and you are tired of carrying it alone.
One part of you wants to go there; another shuts the door the moment you get close.
You have read about parts work — maybe No Bad Parts — and you want the real thing.
You have tried it on your own and keep meeting the same protector.
Talk therapy helped, but it never reached what was underneath.
IFS does not treat those parts of you as problems to fix. It treats them as parts that took on a job — and it does not ask them to drop it until they trust that they can.
“I am not afraid of any of them. I can listen.”
Self · Not a part — this is you
Underneath every part there is a you that is calm, curious and compassionate. IFS calls it Self. It is never damaged, only crowded out — and the work is making room for it to lead again.
What Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy actually is
There are no bad parts
Even the harshest protector is guarding something younger. Fight it and it digs in. Get to know it and it starts to relax its grip.
You, at the center
Underneath them is Self: calm, curious, compassionate. Not something you have to build — something that shows up once the parts make room.
Managers keep things under control in advance. Firefighters put the fire out once it has started. Both are protecting an exile — a younger part carrying the original hurt. The work is earning the protectors’ trust, hearing what that part holds, and letting it put the burden down. All of it happens inside you, which is why it works as well by video as in a room.
How therapy with me works
Four steps, so you know what you are walking into.
Free 15-minute consult
We talk about what is going on, I answer your questions, and we both decide whether this is a fit. No charge and no pressure to book.
First session: meet the protectors
We start with whoever is running things — the critic, the planner, the one that goes numb. Not to get past them, but to find out what they are afraid would happen if they stopped.
Unburdening, at your system’s pace
Once the protectors trust that you can be there, they let you meet what they have been guarding. That part gets heard, puts down what it has carried, and they no longer have to work so hard.
Skills for the week
You leave with something practical — a way to catch a part before it blends with you, a question to ask it — so the work keeps going between sessions.
What a session looks like online
- A secure video link — nothing to install.
- A private space and headphones.
- 55 minutes, weekly to start.
- Anywhere in Pennsylvania.
About John
John Pelikan, LCSW, LCADC
I have lived with my own anxiety, depression and emotional pain, and I am in recovery from addiction and homelessness. That is part of why I do not treat your symptoms as problems to delete. Numbing, the drink, the critic that will not let up — those are parts doing jobs, and they took them on for reasons that made sense at the time.
IFS is not one approach among several for me. It changed the direction of my life before it shaped my practice, and it is the lens I bring to every session. My style is casual, honest and human — I will not sit in silence and stare at you, and I will not hand you advice that ignores your actual life.
Credentials and focus
- Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and Licensed Clinical Alcohol and Drug Counselor (LCADC)
- Trained in Internal Family Systems — parts work is the core of how I practice, not an add-on
- Dual licensure means compulsion and numbing are treated as protectors, not as a separate problem to hand off
- Licensed in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Maine — including Pennsylvania
- Works with adults on trauma, shame, anxiety, perfectionism and self-criticism
- Telehealth only — secure video sessions, no office visits
Fees, and whether this is the right fit
$175 per 55-minute session, private pay. I accept HSA and FSA cards, and I provide superbills you can submit to your insurer for possible out-of-network reimbursement.
- $175per 55-minute session
- Private payno insurance billing
- HSA / FSAcards accepted
- Superbillsfor out-of-network claims
This is probably not the right fit if…
- you are looking for couples or marriage counseling
- you are seeking therapy for a child or a teenager
- you need medication management or psychiatry
- you are in crisis right now — see the note at the bottom of this page
If none of that describes you, we are probably in the right place. The consult is where we find out for certain.
Questions people ask first
No. Most people arrive knowing nothing about it, and plenty have never heard the term. I explain it as we go, in plain language. There is nothing to read or prepare beforehand.
Yes — the same model: protectors, exiles, Self. What a book cannot do is notice when a part has blended with you halfway through a sentence. Catching that in the room is most of what I am doing while we talk.
Common, and not a failure. Usually a protector is keeping you at a distance for a good reason. We slow down and get to know that one first. That is the work, not a detour from it.
For this work, yes. IFS happens inside you, so nothing about it needs a shared room. Many people find it easier to go deep from their own space, with their own door shut.
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Maine. You need to be physically in one of those states during the session — that is a licensing rule, not a preference.
Usually within a week or two of the consult. Tell me which times work in the form and I will reply within one business day with what I have open in Pennsylvania.
No — I am private pay. $175 per 55-minute session. I accept HSA and FSA cards, and I provide superbills you can submit to your insurer for possible out-of-network reimbursement.
Fifteen minutes by video or phone. You tell me what is going on, I tell you how I would work with it, and you ask me anything. If I am not the right fit, I will say so and point you somewhere better.
It depends on what you are carrying. Most people start weekly. Some feel a shift within a couple of months; deeper trauma work usually takes longer. We check on progress as we go rather than guessing up front.
Sessions run on a HIPAA-compliant video platform. Use headphones and a room where you will not be overheard. I do not record sessions.
Ready to talk? The first 15 minutes are free.
Currently accepting new clients across Pennsylvania.