IMMERSION COURSE in AEDP,
with a Focus on the Treatment of Attachment Trauma

DIANA FOSHA, PH.D. with Steve Shapiro, Ph.D

Austin, TX
October 22-26, 2008

This FIVE-DAY IMMERSION COURSE in AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy) is intended for practitioners interested in learning AEDP, and exploring its applications to the treatment of traumatic disorders, with a focus on attachment trauma. Making extensive use of clinical videotapes of actual therapy sessions, the aim of this course is to foster proficiency in the practice of AEDP, as well as facilitate its integration into clinical practices that make use of other experiential, body-focused, trauma-based, and/or relational (e.g., EMDR, somatic experiencing, IFS, hypnosis, EFT, STDP,) methods.

An Emergent Conceptual Framework that integrates findings from Affective Neuroscience, Attachment Theory, Emotion Theory, Somatic Focusing, Developmental Studies of Dyadic Interaction, Trauma Studies, and --last but not least-- Transformational Studies will be presented. Then, so as walk the walk and not just talk the talk, the implications of these radical ideas for the specifics of stance, technique, and precisely attuned interventions to be used in day-to-day, moment-to-moment clinical presentation will be detailed.

VIDEOTAPES of actual therapy cases will be used throughout to illustrate

  • work with the patient/therapist attachment relationship
  • therapeutic stance: empathy, affirmation, emotional engagement, intersubjective delight
  • moment-to-moment dyadic affect regulation
  • intra-relational work with different ego states
  • working with the pathogenic affects of fear and shame
  • bringing emotion work to completion
  • moment-to-moment tracking of somatic experiencing
  • healing affects as somatic markers of transformational experiences
  • the fostering of True Self experience through being a True Other
  • receptive affective experiences: feeling seen, loved, understood
  • promoting core state: flow, ease, compassion, self-empathy

STRUCTURE: Grounding the clinical work in a highly integrative conceptual framework, each day begins with a 90 minute theoretical presentation. The rest of the day will consist of clinical teaching revolving around clinical videotapes, with a focus on (a) the co-creation of an attachment-based therapeutic relationship, especially in the context of disorganized attachment, (b) the moment-to-moment phenomenology of the transformational process, and (c) specific techniques and strategies of intervention. Special attention will be accorded to working with the healing affects, to offering and receiving affirmation, and to promoting core state experiencing.

We hope to would bring together clinicians sharing an interest in AEDP, but who will also bring their own very special expertise, interest, and experiences. In this way, not only will the course be exciting and enlivening, but AEDP will continue to grow, enriched and enhanced by being in communication, or dyadic coordination, so to speak, with other traditions, East and West, of knowledge and wisdom.

DIANA FOSHA, Ph.D., is the developer of AEDP, and the Director of the AEDP Institute in New York City. She is the author of The Transforming Power of Affect: A Model for Accelerated Change (Basic Books, 2000), and of papers on transformational studies, experiential process and trauma treatment. She also contributed a chapter to Healing Trauma: Attachment, Mind, Body and Brain, edited by Marion Solomon and Daniel Siegel (Norton, 2003). A DVD of her AEDP work with a patient has been released by APA, as part of their Systems of Psychotherapy Video Series. Many of her papers are available through the AEDP website at www.aedpinstitute.com.

 

FOR INFORMATION AND APPLICATIONS: Contact Dr. SueAnne Piliero at sapiliero@gmail.com