“There is no better way to capture the ethos of AEDP than to say this: we try to help our patients and ourselves become stronger at the broken places. By working with trauma, loss, and painful consequences, we discover places that have always been strong, places that were never broken.”
Diana Fosha (Founder of AEDP)

Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy – What is it?

AEDP is a style of psychotherapy that draws on the latest findings in interpersonal neurobiology, somatic (body focused) approaches, attachment theory, emotion theory and transformational studies.  AEDP uses clinical interventions to help the brain create new, positive pathways.

 

Why AEDP?

Undoing Aloneness

The title of the first training I took was called ‘Undoing Aloneness’ and this is one of the key tenets of AEDP.  One of the hardest things about painful experiences in life, especially when we are children, is feeling alone and possibly overwhelmed. We all want to be seen, felt and heard at a soul level.  We want someone to look in to our eyes with love and compassion and see who we really are.  Sometimes it is about helping us remember and sometimes it is a longer process of discovery, especially if there has been a lot of trauma.  My job, as an AEDP therapist, is  to accompany you on this journey, to travel with you to the hard places and hold the light in the darkness.

“How did the rose ever open its heart and give to this world all of its beauty?
It felt the encouragement of light against its being, otherwise we all remain too frightened.”

Hafiz (version by Daniel Ladinsky)

Transformance

The other aspect of AEDP that really resonates with me is the focus on our innate urge to heal and how to notice, encourage and strengthen those abilities.   In AEDP we help you see, appreciate and develop the wholeness and resilience that is already there and the ‘glimmers’ of new capacities as they are emerging.  We hold the space for this possibility even in the face of unbearable pain.

Experiential

In our sessions we will focus on what is happening in the moment, especially in the body. Even when we talk about past events, we notice how the talking is affecting us now.  We slow down and take the time to learn the subtle language of body sensations and emotions.