AEDP Resources

Reviews of books, videos and other material explaining AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy).

This website reflects the personal views of its authors and is in no way affiliated to the AEDP Institute.

Brief Description of AEDP

AEDP is comprised of three things:
  1. Underlying Concepts
  2. The Process
  3. Set of Tools

In many descriptions of AEDP these three are mixed together, but to gain a clear understanding of the system it is important to distinguish between them.

A. Underlying Concepts

  1. Psychopathology results from unwilled and unwanted aloneness in the face of overwhelming emotional experience (Fosha, 2000).
  2. People have an in-build capacity for self-healing.
  3. Healing comes from “undoing aloneness”. A new attachment relationship with the therapist which is deep and secure creates a “secure base” for exploration of old trauma, and a new experience of attachment that can be taken out into other life relationships.
  4. The stance of therapists is not neutral. Not only are they vulnerable and self-disclosing (essential for attachment) but give themselves to the client as a “true other” such that the client is “met and responded to in a way that is just right” (Fosha 2005).
  5. In therapy, healing begins to take place right from the very start.
  6. Because AEDP is rooted in observation of human behaviour, it is more descriptive than prescriptive, and so gives room for each therapist to work in a way that is natural to them. It does not force them into a protocol that makes them behave in a way that is not authentic to themselves.

B. The Process

C. Set of Tools

The primary tools are:

  1. Privileging the positive, not the pathological
    • The natural tendency of therapists is to go to the pathology, but instead they should actively look for what is going well, the new and the different.
    • Another term used is “being a transformance detective”, spotting the tiny glimmer of positive affect and using the tools to bring growth and vitality.
  2. Co-creating safety through empathy and self-disclosure
    • Other tools include vocal rhythm, intonation & pitch together with non-verbal communication (Prenn 2011)
    • The client’s reaction to different interventions must be carefully tracked because of wide individual differences, e.g. in attachment style.
  3. Moment to moment tracking
    • Noticing small changes in posture, movement, facial expressions, eyes and voice.
  4. Making the implicit explicit
    • “I just noticed a big sigh—tell me about it!”, “I’m feeling very moved by what you just said”
  5. Slowing down the process
    • “Stay with that”, “What’s coming up now?”, “and how does ..... feel?”
  6. Privileging the “here and now”
    • “How does it make you feel right now to have shared that story with me?”
  7. Metatheraputic Processing
    • “What is it like to have done this with me?”
  8. Affirming and delighting in the client
    • “I am so impressed at your courage in making that connection.”, “It’s such a joy to see the way you are growing as we do this work together”
  9. Asking permission and being respectful
    • “Would it be ok with you if we slowed down and stayed with that feeling for a few moments?”
  10. Receiving gratitude
    • Learn how to accept expressions of gratitude without minimizing or deflecting.

Online Resources

Books & DvDs

0465095674

Fosha, Diana. The Transforming Power Of Affect: A Model For Accelerated Change. Perseus Books, 2000

  • Fosha’s original technique for catalyzing change mandates explicit empathy and radical engagement by the therapist to elicit and harness the patient’s own healing affects. Its wide-open window on contemporary relational and attachment theory ushers in a safe, emotionally intense, experience-based pathway for processing previously unbearable feelings
  • Detailed Book Review By: James Grotstein, APA 2002
039370548X

Fosha, Diana and Daniel J. Siegel,‎ Marion Solomon (editors). The Healing Power of Emotion: Affective Neuroscience, Development & Clinical Practice (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology). Norton, 2009

  • Hard-core neuroscience, but absolutely first class content, especially the chapter on EMDR by Dianna Fosha
1433826402

Prenn, Natasha and Diana Fosha. Supervision Essentials for Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (Clinical Supervision Essentials). APA, 2016

  • Although this book is about supervision, it contains one of the clearest overviews of AEDP available. See also the companion DVD.

Journal Articles

Attachment Theory

More recommendations coming soon

1593854560

Wallin, David J. Attachment in Psychotherapy. Guilford, 2007

  • Although not the lightest reading, this is one of the most comprehensive and up to date book on childhood and adult attachment. The first chapters give an excellent history of the research results.
  • This book does not specifically talk about AEDP but it is one of the best theoretical underpinnings of the AEDP model in terms of attachment repair through dyadic relationship.

Contact