Our journey so far + plans for the future

Hi there, Tyra from Unblend here.

If you’re curious about what’s coming up for Unblend in terms of new features and product support, feel free to skip ahead.

But if you’re interested in the story behind how Unblend came to be, let me share a bit more about our journey.

How it all started

Unblend began as an idea from Spencer Thompson, a Level 3 IFS practitioner.

He approached us with the vision of creating an IFS app to support his clients' work, inspired by the challenges he’d observed in his sessions:

• Parts are always shifting, making it hard to track changes over time.
• Many clients had more than 10 parts, each with unique details that were difficult to keep organized.
• Clients often struggled to set clear intentions for their week between sessions.
• IFS progress isn’t always straightforward compared to more structured modalities like EMDR.

Building Unblend

The tool you’re using today is the result of many iterations. Our initial ideas were ambitious:

• We wanted to create a personalized algorithm to help users identify their weekly trailheads based on logged parts.
• We envisioned a library of meditation and skill-building exercises to encourage curiosity and openness in-between sessions.
• We even explored an AI-assisted check-in to guide users through what was present in the moment, breaking it down into practical workflows.

As we developed Unblend, we encountered several roadblocks.

Building a reliable AI algorithm proved far more complex than expected, and the nuanced nature of IFS made it difficult to simplify the process into clear milestones.

To adapt, we decided to pivot from our original plan of creating a mobile app to building a web app instead. T

his shift offered better flexibility and accessibility across devices, allowing us to bring the tool to life faster.

Where we landed

We distilled Unblend into two core features:

1. Parts Logging: Guided prompts to help you get to know your parts better.
2. Parts Mapping: A visual way to map out parts and their relationships.

To ensure the app addressed real needs, Spencer’s experience as a Level 3 therapist was invaluable.

My own perspective as a long-term IFS client and active participant in IFS communities also shaped our approach, particularly around making mapping more intuitive.

Building the Parts Mapping

To bring this vision to life, I even asked Spencer to run an IFS session with me.

During our session, we mapped out my parts, using real-time diagrams to explore the connections and dynamics.

What you see in the Parts Mapping feature today is inspired by those very diagrams Spencer has been drawing for his clients.

We focused on context-based parts mapping because we realized how essential it is to represent parts in different areas of your life.

“Context” could mean anything that matters to the user, like a specific life stage, a trigger, or an important event.

This approach helps bring more depth and clarity to how parts interact depending on where you are in your journey.

Building the Parts Logging

When we developed Parts Logging, we focused on creating resources that users could rely on independently, whether between therapy sessions or on their own.

From my own experience in parts work, I remember struggling to connect with somatic sensations or find the right words to describe and visualize my parts.

To make this easier, we built our feelings and needs modules with prepopulated options for visualization and somatic experiences.

These are designed to spark curiosity and make connecting with parts feel more natural and approachable.

Spencer personally developed over 50 prompts for Parts Logging, paying close attention to how each question was phrased.

Together, we refined the language to make it simple and intuitive. Here’s a look at the Excel sheet we used to develop and fine-tune these prompts:

What’s next for Unblend

Right now, our focus is on gathering feedback from users to understand what’s most valuable in their IFS practice.

We’re sharing our development roadmap, which outlines the features we hope to release in the coming months—depending on what you guys actually want.

If there’s a feature you’re particularly excited about, we’d love to hear from you.

We read every piece of feedback and occasionally reach out for interviews to learn more about your experience and how we can improve Unblend to support your IFS journey.

How you can support us

As a free tool, you can support us by:

• Signing up and using the app
• Participating in conversations that can help us make the app better
• Donating through this link (completely optional)

Thanks for using Unblend, and see you around!