“HOT” Topics in AEDP™

Aloneness in the face of overwhelming emotion is the epicenter of emotional suffering; it is what compels our patients to seek help. Thus, the therapeutic undoing of aloneness is essential to being able to process the turbulent emotions 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.

In this workshop, we present AEDP through its engagement with some of the most important “hot” topics of our day: relational work with complex trauma and dissociation, expanding trauma work to include traumas of oppression and marginalization, and exploring the synergy of spirituality and psychedelics with AEDP’s transformational work. This workshop is appropriate both for clinicians new to AEDP, and those who have experience in AEDP and are interested in exploring these cutting-edge, “specialized” topics.

This course will be a balance of didactic material delivered in an engaging interactive style, videotapes of actual therapy sessions featuring moment-to-moment microanalysis, and experiential exercises. AEDP’s paradigmatic innovations will be demonstrated through clinical videotapes of actual therapy sessions (using real patients, not actors). Participants will gain a deeper intellectual understanding of the theory of AEDP as well as a repertoire of new skills to practice AEDP, including its application into cutting-edge areas like spirituality, liberation from oppression, and psychedelic-assisted therapy.