Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)

[SenseOrgan]

The Origin of our Name: AEDP Psychotherapy
AEDP psychotherapy, was an acronym based on its original name "Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy" given to the model in the year 2000 by AEDP founder and developer Diana Fosha, PhD. Over time, as the AEDP model has been practiced by thousands of clinicians, its techniques and outcomes analyzed by researchers and published in peer reviewed journals and, most importantly, experienced by hundreds of thousands of clients, the model has become much more than the original four word description. Today we refer to the model simply as AEDP.

What is the AEDP Model of Psychotherapy?
AEDP psychotherapy is an experiential model that seeks to alleviate patients' psychological suffering by helping them process the overwhelming emotions associated with trauma in a way that facilitates corrective emotional and relational experiences that mobilize positive changes in our neuroplastic brains.

Crisis and suffering provide opportunities to awaken extraordinary capacities that otherwise might lie dormant, unknown and untapped. The AEDP model is about experientially making the most of these opportunities for both trauma processing and healing transformation. Key to the therapeutic action of AEDP is the undoing of aloneness and thus, the co-creation of a therapeutic relationship experienced as both safe haven and secure base where transformational healing can occur. Through the undoing of aloneness, and the in-depth processing of difficult emotional and relational experiences, the AEDP clinician fosters the emergence of new and healing experiences for the patient, and with them resources, resilience and a renewed zest for life.

Diana Fosha, PhD is a psychologist, author, researcher, clinician and educator, and the developer of AEDP psychotherapy. She first described AEDP in her 2000 book, "The Transforming Power of Affect: A Model for Accelerated Change." An evolved, updated version of the model is articulated in a book Dr. Fosha edited and co-wrote along with 12 faculty members of the AEDP Institute for American Psychological Association (APA, 2021), "Undoing Aloneness & the Transformation of Suffering into Flourishing: AEDP 2.0."

Since she first articulated the theory and practice of AEDP her 2000 book, Dr. Fosha has been active in promoting a scientific basis for a healing-oriented, dyadically transformational trauma treatment model.  Described by psychoanalyst James Grotstein as a "prizefighter of intimacy," and by David Malan as "the Winnicott of [experiential psychotherapy]," Diana Fosha's powerful, precise and poetic phrases —"undoing aloneness," "existing in the heart and mind of the other," "rigor without shame" and "True Other"— capture the ethos of AEDP.

AEDP has roots in and resonances with many disciplines — among them interpersonal neurobiology and affective neuroscience, attachment theory, emotion theory, body-focused approaches, and transformational studies.

The AEDP model of psychotherapy:

    Is transdiagnostic, i.e., it can effectively treat trauma, depression, emotion dysregulation, negative thoughts, experiential avoidance and interpersonal problems
    Establishes a therapeutic relationship of safety and trust
    Enhances positive functioning such as self-compassion, well-being, and self-esteem in both therapist and client

Dr. Fosha's synthesis of theory, research, and clinical practice termed AEDP, has become widely recognized as an important step forward in psychotherapeutic treatment. Psychotherapists who complete AEDP training and who can demonstrate the model being used effectively in a clinical setting can become Certified by the AEDP Institute. The model is currently practiced by thousands of clinicians worldwide.
Empirical Support

AEDP Psychotherapy: An Evidence-Supported Practice
There is direct empirical support for the effectiveness of AEDP as a psychotherapy model. The results from Iwakabe and colleagues' (2020, 2022) practice-research network study examining treatment outcomes of 16-session AEDP in ecologically valid private practice settings, showed that AEDP psychotherapy is effective with a variety of psychological symptoms and issues, including depression, emotion dysregulation, negative thoughts, experiential avoidance, and interpersonal problems. AEDP is also effective in enhancing positive functioning such as self-compassion, well-being, and self-esteem. These improvements are maintained over 12 months, and the maintenance of improvement was observed in all areas of functioning.

Nonetheless, AEDP is not proposed to be well suited to all patients. Exclusion criteria in the outcome studies conducted by Iwakabe et. al (2022; 2020) included: active suicidality; addiction and substance abuse; psychosis and severe impulse disorders, bipolar disorder, or moderate to severe autism spectrum diagnosis, and a current crisis situation requiring immediate crisis intervention (e.g., intimate partner violence). In order to mitigate potential risks of people experiencing severely dysregulated affect, significantly outside their window of tolerance, and subsequently engaging in harmful coping strategies outside of session, people suffering the above should be referred either to their physician, a psychiatrist, or to a clinician who practices another different form of therapy that might better meet their needs.

Source: https://aedpinstitute.org/about-aedp-psychotherapy/

[SenseOrgan]

Dr. Tori Olds - What is AEDP? | Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy - Part 1 of 3

In this first video in my Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) series, I summarize the core elements on AEDP, a form of therapy developed by Diana Fosha, while attempting to bringing to life what is beautiful and compelling about this emotion-focused way of working. I discuss why emotions are important to our wellbeing, and why learning to express one's self emotionally with another person can be so transformative. AEDP works to transform our unconscious schemas that tell us we are fundamentally alone, while restoring our faith in our own value and the value of our authentic feelings. In this way, AEDP is about reclaiming our true self and thereby gaining fuller access to our truth and vitality.

00:00 The Fear of Self (Or Emotions)
01:49 An Introduction to AEDP
04:03 The Importance of Tracking Our Emotions
07:13 Tracking Our Emotions Can Be Scary
09:40 How AEDP Helps With the Link Between Emotions and Shame
11:41 Secondary Emotions vs Core Affect
16:34 Undoing Aloneness
21:04 Join Us on Patreon

[SenseOrgan]

Dr. Tori Olds - Stages of Emotional Processing | AEDP - Part 2 of 3

In this second video in my Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) series, I describe a typical AEDP therapy session. I explain what it is like when we move through our authentic emotions, thereby accessing what Diana Fosha calls our transformational affects. Transformational affects include feelings such as pride, hope, compassion, and gratitude. They are the positive emotions that come when we process our core affects (genuine emotions) through to completion. When transformational affects are in turn processed, what follows is core state. In core state we feel deeply grounded in our true self and present in the moment. In this video we review the difference between these healthy emotional experiences and what in AEDP is referred to as pathogenic affect. Pathogenic affect (secondary emotions) are created when emotions get tangled with shame or fear or other trauma-based associations. For many of us, emotions can trigger secondary emotions, thereby making us afraid to feel. But when we can be supported in shifting from pathogenic affect to core affect, we can finally experience how good it feels to feel pure emotion, and all the healing it brings when we are able to finally access what Diana Fosha refers to as core state.

00:00 An Example of an AEDP Therapy Session
02:55 Secondary Emotions (Pathogenic Affect)
06:36 Core Emotion vs Pathogenic Affect
09:16 Transformational Affects
13:08 Core State
16:06 Join Us on Patreon

[SenseOrgan]

Dr. Tori Olds - Memory Reconsolidation and Metaprocessing Emotions | AEDP - Part 3 of 3

In this video I explore how the process of moving through deep emotions and then reflecting on this experience through AEDP's technique of "metaprocessing," can serve as an avenue for unlocking memory reconsolidation. Memory Reconsolidation is a particularly powerful form of neuroplasticity, one that allows our unconscious imprints or core beliefs to be transformed. More specifically, I will look at how AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy) approaches deep emotional processing work, and why the technique of metaprocessing is likely to meet the requirements for unlocking memory reconsolidation.

The core point is this: AEDP offers an entirely new, unexpected experience around what it can be like to process through emotions, one that is very likely to serve as a 'mismatch' experience (a core requirement for memory reconsolidation). AEDP work supports the brain's capacity to notice this mismatch through 1) keeping people within their window of tolerance (which is required for our mismatch detection system to stay online), and 2) through fully exploring the new experience in a process called metatherapeutic processing (or metaprocessing for short). During metaprocessing, clients are encouraged to spend time exploring the experience of allowing themselves to move through their authentic emotions, and finding that doing so takes them somewhere better. Metaprocessing is perhaps AEDP's most unique contribution to our field, and plays a large role in AEDP's capacity to galvanize memory reconsolidation.

00:00 Intro
00:38 What is Memory Reconsolidation?
07:38 How AEDP Facilitates Memory Reconsolidation
10:44 What is Metaprocessing?
13:32 Why Metaprocessing Emotions is Key to Memory Reconsolidation
17:33 Memory Reconsolidation and Autobiographical Reconstruction

[SenseOrgan]