So much.

Aloneness in the face of overwhelming emotion is the epicenter of emotional suffering: it is what compels individuals to seek help. Thus, the therapeutic undoing of aloneness is essential to being able to process the turbulent emotions, somatic sensations, and negative beliefs of trauma. AEDP psychotherapy, one of the fastest-growing approaches to working with attachment trauma, makes the undoing of aloneness the sine qua non of trauma work.

Drawing on neuroplasticity, affective neurobiology, attachment theory, dyadic developmental research, and transformational studies, AEDP has developed a fundamentally dyadic, experiential, healing-oriented practice. As such, AEDP assumes a healthy core within all people and emphasizes the importance of dyadic experiential work with present-moment experiences of attachment, emotion, and transformation to undo aloneness, heal trauma and promote flourishing.

AEDP is known for its rich, creative, systematic interventions, which:

• clinically entrain positive neuroplasticity from the get-go

• undo the patient's aloneness in the therapeutic dyad

• work dyadically and experientially with here-and-now attachment experiences to expand relational capacity, rewire internal working models, and deepen receptive affective experiences of feeling seen, feeling felt and feeling loved

• use dyadic affect regulation to experientially process the emotions of trauma until they release their wired-in adaptive action tendencies

• metatherapeutically process the resulting experiences of transformation to expand transformation and promote its integration into self

Through the moment-to-moment, in-depth processing of previously overwhelming emotional and relational experiences, and then metatherapeutically processing the emergent corrective experiences within the co-constructed safety of the therapeutic dyad, AEDP helps clients recover their sense of core self and experience flourishing, i.e., increased vitality, connection, meaning, and a renewed zest for life.

Here’s what the American Psychological Association (APA) has to say:

Accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP), is a healing-oriented, mind–body treatment that works experientially with trauma and attachment trauma (Fosha, 2000; 2017, 2018; Fosha et al., 2009; Gleiser et al., 2008; Lamagna & Gleiser, 2007; Lipton & Fosha, 2011; Prenn, 2009; Prenn & Fosha, 2016; Russell, 2015; Tunnell, 2011; Yeung & Fosha, 2015).

Experientially refers to an intensive focus on present-tense (i.e., here-and-now) internal experience, especially affective experience as it arises in the body, encouraging clients' attention to it, and then proceeding to work with it. From the get-go, AEDP seeks to put positive neuroplasticity into action, moment-by moment, session to session, in each and every therapeutic dyad in the context of work to transform the negative emotions associated with trauma and emotional suffering. Then, through metatherapeutic processing, the experience of change along with the positive emotions that accompany it, are also worked with to promote positive neuroplasticity.

Integrative, nonpathologizing, and transformation-focused, AEDP is healing oriented. It assumes a healthy core within all people, emphasizes adaptive motivational strivings, works actively and explicitly to cocreate the experience of safety in the therapeutic relationship, and stresses the importance of experiential work with evolutionarily adaptive affective change processes, like emotion, attachment, and transformation.

AEDP's healing-oriented, change-based metapsychology reflects an integration of many sources: neuroplasticity research (Davidson & Schuyler, 2015; Lazar et al., 2005), affective neuroscience (Craig, 2015; Damasio, 2003; Panksepp, 2009, 2010), attachment theory and research on developmental dyads (Schore, 2012; Trevarthen, 2009); interpersonal neurobiology (Porges, 2011; Siegel, 2015), emotion theory (Darwin, 1872; Ekman, 2015); transformational studies (Buber, 1965; James, 1902; Loizzo, et al., 2017; Stern et al., 1998); as well as two decades of AEDP practice by a growing number of practitioners worldwide (Fosha, 2018a; Fishman et al., 2019).

Its theory of therapeutic change as rooted in naturally occurring change mechanisms is supported by research demonstrating the potential for neuroplasticity from the cradle to the grave (Doidge, 2007; Davidson, et al., 2003; Hanson, 2017; Lazar, et al., 2005) and documenting the nature of the conditions that bring positive neuroplasticity to the fore (e.g., Davidson & Schuyler, 2015).

AEDP understands "psychopathology" as resulting from the individual's unwilled and unwanted aloneness in the face of overwhelming emotional experiences (Fosha, 2000). Thus, undoing aloneness and the dyadic processing of emotional experiences previously too overwhelming for the individual to deal with alone, are its overarching therapeutic aims.

Through the moment-to-moment, in-depth processing of difficult emotional and relational experiences, clients are helped to recover their sense of core self and experience increased resilience and renewed zest for life (Fosha, 2009a; Russell, 2015). The metatherapeutic processing of the experience of transformation is an AEDP technique for systematically facilitating flourishing in the client (Fosha, 2009b, 2013, 2017; Fosha, Thoma, & Yeung, in press; Iwakabe & Conceicao, 2015).

Four fundamental aspects of AEDP are

* an orientation toward healing and its emphasis on healing from the get-go

* undoing aloneness

* its experiential methodology

* the moment-to-moment guiding of intervention choice by an articulated four-state transformational phenomenology

The heart and soul of AEDP is our belief in the self-righting forces wired within us all. AEDP's healing orientation is its North Star: both its theory and moment-to-moment clinical work are guided by the foundational principle that healing (i.e., positive neuroplasticity) is a biological drive, ever present in all of us that can be brought to the experiential fore in the right conditions.

We call this innate, biological drive pulsing toward self-righting and self-expansion "transformance" (Fosha, 2008). The concept of transformance is viewed not just as a generalized inner capacity or drive but as a specific emotional process arising in the therapy room. From the get-go, that is, from the very first moments of psychotherapy, finding and amplifying "glimmers of transformance" and the accompanying "vitality affects" (Stern, 1985), the positive somatic/affective markers that identify it, is a central focus within AEDP.

AEDP has elaborated a detailed, four-state phenomenology of the transformational process (Fosha, 2009a, 2009c, 2018). This four-state phenomenology reveals an arc that organically links suffering with flourishing, negative emotion with positive emotion, trauma with transcendence, stuckness with flow, and languishing with resilience (Fosha, 2005, 2013, 2017).

The goal of the work is to help the client move through the four states, tracking affective phenomena moment-to-moment to pick up subtle fluctuations and significant state shifts. The moment-to-moment guidance of clinical practice by the phenomenology of the four states of the transformational process is foundational to how AEDP therapists work.

Operating as both map and compass, it helps therapists orient where they are in the process and where they want to go, thus guiding their choice of interventions.

AEDP has empirical support for its effectiveness for a variety of psychological issues and problems. AEDP has been demonstrated for a variety of psychological issues including depression, general psychological distress, interpersonal problems, negative thoughts, and emotion dysregulation. It enhances positive psychological functioning such as self-esteem, self-compassion, and wellbeing. You can review the literature by clicking here.

AEDP TRAINING LEVELS DEFINED

Level 1: completed AEDP Immersion

Level 2: completed AEDP Immersion and Essential Skills course **

Level 3: completed AEDP Immersion and Essential Skills course and either option A or option B below:

Option A): AEDP Advanced Skills course (5 modules) and one Supervision Option from the list below

Option B) Two Supervision Options from the list below (or one Supervision Option doubled).

Supervision Options:

Core Training: 1 yr / 5 modules; you are required to present video for a minimum of five hours of supervision

30 hours* Group Supervision: you are required to present video for a minimum of five hours of supervision

15 hours* Individual Supervision: you are required to present video for a minimum of five hours of supervision

* If you would like to combine individual and group supervision hours, contact Carolyn Fitzgerald, AEDP Certification Coordinator, at carolyn.f@aedpinstitute.org

* If a Faculty Member or other Certified Supervisor is present during supervision by a Supervisor in Training, the hours count towards AEDP Certification. Otherwise, the hours do not count towards certification until and unless the Supervisor in Training becomes certified, at which time the supervision hours are retroactively counted.

To explore exceptions to the above AEDP Level requirements and for therapists who work in agency settings or other settings where video is prohibited, contact Carolyn.

** Starting supervision while taking Essential Skills is recommended.

THERAPIST GUIDELINES FOR AEDP CERTIFICATION

Upon attaining AEDP Level 3, consult with your AEDP Certified Supervisor about your readiness to start the certification process.

Part l. Certification Process and Package Requirements

Part ll. Guidelines for Selection of Clinical Video Recordings

Part lll Guidelines and Format for Microanalysis

Part IV. Review Process by AEDP Faculty and Certified Supervisor

To receive the most up-to-date AEDP Therapist Certification information and courses led by faculty members, click here.

AEDP™ Immersion is required for certification and is the recommended first course for eligible therapists who are seeking to learn more about AEDP method of psychotherapy, whether or not they intend to become Certified.

Who Immersion is for:

Immersion is for licensed mental health practitioners (or the local/regional equivalent to ‘licensed’**) as well as interns legally practicing under the license of a supervising practitioner.

These licensed mental health practitioners include: Psychologists, Social Workers, Counselors, Doctors, Nurses, Psychoanalysts, Psychotherapists, other Behavioral Health Therapists and related professionals.

The best source for official AEDP course information is the AEDP Institute website.