AEDP Institute Faculty

Diana Fosha, Ph.D., the director of the AEDP Institute, is the developer of AEDP, a healing-based, transformation-oriented model of   psycho–therapeutic. She is the author of The Transforming Power of Affect: A Model for Accelerated Change (Basic Books, 2000), and of numerous articles and chapters on transformational processes in experiential psychotherapy and trauma treatment. She is the editor, along with Dan Siegel and Marion Solomon, of The Healing Power of Emotion: Affective Neuroscience, Development, and Clinical Practice (Norton, 2009), part of Norton's Interpersonal Neurobiology Series. A DVD of her AEDP work with a patient has been released by the American Psychological Association, as part of their Systems of Psychotherapy Video Series (APA, 2006).

Throughout her career, she has been interested in exploring different aspects of the change process. Her work on transformational studies has focused on integrating recent developments in attachment theory, affective neuroscience, emotion theory and developmentally-based understandings of the dyadic regulation of affect into clinical work with patients. Recently, Diana Fosha introduced the construct of transformance, key to transformational theory, and has been exploring the role of positive affective experiences as wired-in somatic markers of precisely the kind of transformational processes that are involved in healing psychic suffering and in the fostering of flourishing and well-being.

Dr. Fosha has contributed chapters to Longevity, regeneration, and optimal health: Integrating Eastern and Western perspectives (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2009); Clinical pearls of wisdom: 21 leading therapists offer their key insights (Norton, 2009); Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders: An Evidence-Based Clinician's Guide, edited by Christine Courtois and Julian Ford (Guilford, 2009); Healing Trauma: Attachment, Mind, Body and Brain, edited by Marion Solomon and Daniel Siegel (Norton, 2003) and to The Comprehensive Handbook of Psychotherapy., Volume 1: Psychodynamic and Object Relations Therapies, edited by J. J. Magnavita (Wiley, 2002).

Diana Fosha is on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology of both NYU and St. Luke's/Roosevelt Medical Centers in NYC. She has done workshops, telecourses, and intensive trainings nationally and internationally. Outside of the US, she has taught and supervised extensively in Brazil, Denmark, and Italy. She teaches, supervises, and is in private practice in her beloved New York City, where she also occasionally leads AEDP Core Training groups.

Dr. Frederick is currently the lead supervisor/teacher for an AEDP Core Training Group in San Francisco, supervises trainees in AEDP, and has co-facilitated, with Dr. Fosha, AEDP Immersion Courses in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Ron Frederick travels throughout North America as a speaker and trainer. He has written articles for several publications and has been an invited contributor to three books by The Haworth Press, Inc. His work has been featured in The Star Tribune, Lavender Magazine, the APA Monitor on Psychology, and Clinical Psychiatry News: The Leading Independent Newspaper for the Psychiatrist.” Ron Frederick now teaches and has a private practice in Minneapolis, MN.

Kari Gleiser, Ph.D.,

Dr. Gleiser just finished her term on the board of directors of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation (NESTTD), where she chaired a committee on education and outreach. She has written several clinical papers and book chapters and has presented on applying AEDP to treat dissociative disorders at various international conferences over the past three years.  In collaboration with Jerry Lamagna, Dr. Gleiser is developing an "intra-relational" model of therapy, which imports AEDP's relational and experiential interventions to patients' internal systems of dissociated self-states.  She leads the AEDP Core Training Group in Boston. Dr. Gleiser has a private practice in Hanover, NH.

In addition, Mr. Lipton is a consultant to social service and healthcare organizations throughout New York City on issues related to clinical practice and staff development. He is the editor of From Crisis to Crossroads: Gay Men Living with Chronic Illnesses and Disabilities (Haworth Press, 2004), has published several clinical articles and book chapters in psychology and social service journals, and has presented on numerous occasions at national and regional conferences and workshops.

His current interests are in (i) the applications of attachment theory to therapeutic and supervisory relationships, (ii) early relational neglect and its biopsychosocial sequelae, and (iii) the developmental impact of childhood physical accidents and medical trauma. He is a therapist and clinical supervisor in private practice in New York City and an adjunct faculty member of the New York University School of Social Work.

Dr. Osiason has given workshops on AEDP to mental health sites throughout New York City. Her current interest is on the integration of AEDP with neuroscience as it relates to attachment and emotion.  She is on the adjunct faculty of NYU Medical Center-Bellevue Hospital, City University of New York, and Rutgers State University of New Jersey. Dr. Osiason supervises in AEDP and is in private practice in New York City.

Eileen M. Russell, Ph.D.

Dr. Russell received her doctorate from Fordham University and received her clinical training from New York Hospital/ Cornell Medical Center and New York University Medical/ Bellevue Hospital Center. Until 2004, she was senior psychologist at NYU Medical/ Bellevue Hospital, where she worked with people dually diagnosed with substance dependence and psychiatric disorders.  Dr. Russell is a part-time Clinical Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU Medical Center where she supervises students in AEDP and dynamic psychotherapy.

Dr. Russell is currently the lead supervisor of one of two New York City AEDP Core Training Groups. She has taught AEDP seminars at several universities and clinics in New York and New Jersey and supervises clinicians learning AEDP.  Together with Diana Fosha, she has co-authored a paper on "Transformational affects and core state in AEDP" for the Journal of Psychotherapy Integration. Her research and writing interests include the development of AEDP theory and practice, and spirituality in psychotherapy. She is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in New York City and New Jersey.

Dr. Shapiro provides AEDP training in the form of seminars, group supervision and private individual supervision. He has lectured on AEDP and given workshops to the mental health community through various agencies and organizations. He is the former Director of Psychology and Education at Montgomery County Emergency Service (MCES), an emergency psychiatric hospital, where he worked primarily with severe personality disorders and those involuntarily committed to treatment.

Barbara J. Suter, PH.D., Co-chair at the Washington School of Psychiatry’s Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy program, has been a clinical psychologist for almost 40 years, practicing psychodynamically oriented work with individuals- child, adolescent, adult--and with families, communities, schools, and agencies. She is involved in training both new and experienced therapists. A lifetime of a rich, rewarding experience helping people has culminated in experiential work: through AEDP, and its holistic, healing, helpful approach, Dr. Suter has found a way to integrate many decades of previously disparate experiences.

Barbara Suter has found that AEDP uniquely lends itself to therapy, supervision and front line helping people in their communities and families. She has found it particularly useful with those suffering from trauma, reeling from life, and unable to find help despite a long time of seeking help, healing and change.

At present, Dr. Suter is teaching and supervising (i) George Washington University Psy.D. students; (ii) experienced therapists at the Washington School of Psychiatry’s Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy program; (iii) candidates in the Clinical Social Work Institute Ph.D. program; and (iv) professionals involved with a public charter school program in Washington D C. She is in her private practice in Washington, DC.

Gil Tunnell, Ph.D.,  is a licensed clinical psychologist, completed a three-year training in AEDP with Diana Fosha in 2007, and has been applying AEDP to couple therapy, described in Tunnell (2006), “An affirmational approach to treating gay male couples,”  Group, 30, 133-151.  He has presented this model at the AEDP Friday Seminar series and at the Ackerman Institute for the Family in NYC.  Given that traditional systemic models of couple therapy have mostly neglected the role of affect in treatment, he is particularly interested in developing ways of utilizing affect in session experientially, to create deeper attachment bonds in couples.

Prior to supervision with Dr. Fosha, Dr. Tunnell received advanced training in family therapy with Salvador Minuchin (see Tunnell, G. (2006).  Postscript 10 years after: “The Oedipal Son” revisited. In S. Minuchin et al, Mastering family therapy: Journeys of growth and transformation, Wiley), and with Maurizio Andolfi in Rome, Italy.  He was a family therapy supervisor in the NYU Family Studies Program 1985-92, and from 1992-98, he was director of family therapy training in the Department of Psychiatry at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. 

Dr. Tunnell is co-author with David Greenan of Couple Therapy with Gay Men (Guilford, 2002) and has published numerous journal articles and book chapters on working with gay men.  Dr. Tunnell is an adjunct professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he teaches family/couple therapy.  He is in full-time private practice in New York City, treating individuals, couples and families.

Diana Wais, Ph.D., obtained her doctorate in clinical psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she has worked on an NIMH-funded, longitudinal study of attachment and emotional processes in married couples. Her research also examined emotional development in early childhood and its effects on emotional functioning in adulthood, marriage and parenting.

Dr. Wais has taught on attachment, and has presented her research at scientific conferences and to clinical groups. As the AEDP Institute's representative in London, she organizes conferences, and teaches and supervises clinicians new to AEDP. She is the founder of the UK chapter of Experiential Dynamic Therapies.

In the past, Dr. Wais has worked for the National Health Service (NHS) in London. Her current interests include attachment research, and exploring and expanding its applications to clinical work in AEDP. She is currently in private practice in London.

Danny Yeung, M.D., C.C.F.P., C.G.P.P., F.C.F.P., is a Lecturer of Psychiatry at University of Toronto and consultant/supervising psychotherapist at several mental health service agencies in Toronto, Canada. Inspired by the work of Dr. Fosha since late 2002, he has been receiving advanced training in AEDP.

Dr. Yeung has co-authored with Dr. Fosha a chapter in Stricker & Gold's A Casebook of Psychotherapy Integration (APA, 2006),  titled "AEDP Exemplifies the Seamless Integration of Emotional Transformation and Dyadic Relatedness at Work." Passionate about sharing AEDP with Asian cultures, he has conducted Level 1 Immersion Courses, advanced workshops, and created Level 2 supervision groups in Hong Kong since 2005. As adjunct faculty of Tyndale University Seminary and College in Canada, Dr. Yeung teaches a master-level AEDP course for the counseling program. He has also written on, conducted seminars, and hosted primetime radio shows across Canada in psychospiritual transformation.

Invigorated with the integrative vision of AEDP, Dr. Yeung is exploring its interface with positive psychology, spirituality, prayer, mindfulness, EMDR, energy psychology and Chinese philosophy. His first book, Portrait of the Soul, co-authored in Chinese with Victoria Cheung and currently in its fourth edition, has an uncanny resonance with the principles of AEDP. His soon to be released second book ttitled The Rainbow After: Psychological Trauma and Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, will be the first original AEDP work published in the Chinese speaking world.

Anne Cooper, Psy.D, is a psychologist in private practice on the Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is an adjunct faculty member of the Wright Institute, supervising doctoral students in psychology. Recently, Dr. Cooper worked on staff at Kaiser Permanente as a consulting supervisor and therapist for an intensive outpatient clinic treating eating disordered adolescents and their families.

Dr. Cooper received her graduate degree from the Wright Institute, and for many years, focused on the theory and practice of relational psychodynamics. Her desire to pursue training as a psychoanalyst came to a halt after attending a daylong seminar on AEDP with Dr. Diana Fosha in 2006. Since then, she has been absorbed by AEDP and has attended the Immersion Course training followed by two years of Core Training taught by Ben Lipton, LCSW, Diana Fosha, Ph.D., Eileen Russell, Ph.D, and Ron Frederick, Ph.D. She has continued ongoing supervision under Ben Lipton, LCSW, for several years and became certified in AEDP in 2008, and Faculty in 2009. She has given seminars on AEDP both locally and abroad. In 2008, she presented in Manila, introducing AEDP to the Philippines.

Anne Cooper's interests include the use of AEDP in treating relational trauma and PTSD; the interplay of spiritual experience (transformation), mindfulness/meditation and the therapeutic process; addressing cultural diversity, and cultural and clinical implications when treating Asian Americans, with a special interest in the Filipino culture; and the application of AEDP in healing trauma in children and families. She enjoys providing consulting services to therapists new to AEDP.

Since 2002, she has adopted AEDP principles as the major tenet in her teachings at the Center of Post-Graduation Studies of Santa Casa Hospital R.J. where she is Academic Director. She is an Affiliated Professor of Dynamic Psychotherapy at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro at the Post-Graduation Program in Psychiatry.

Ms. Junqueira travels regularly to USA in order to participate in seminars and workshops on AEDP technique. She has co-authored 2 books on short-term dynamic psychotherapy: The Future of Integration: Developments in Short-Term Psychotherapy (2000) and Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapies: Contemporary Perspectives.

Ms. Junqueira's current interests are in applying AEDP principles to bipolar disorders and in how to best train students in the practice of experiential dynamic psychotherapy. Mainly focused on adolescents and young adults, Ms. Junqueira is in private practice in Rio de Janeiro.

Jerry Lamagna, LCSW, is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City and Westfield, New Jersey. After completing his graduate studies at Adelphi University in 1993, he participated in a six month residency at the Caron Foundation’s Center for Self Development, and for six years thereafter his work focused on issues in chemical dependency/ACOA treatment. He currently works with individuals in AEDP psychotherapy,  addressing problems related to trauma, dissociation, addiction, depression, low self worth and personality disorders.

Throughout his career, Mr. Lamagna's interest in affect based, experiential treatment approaches has led to his extensive training in psychodrama, EMDR, ego state therapy, trauma/dissociative disorder treatment, and most recently, AEDP. The study of these modalities has inspired his ongoing efforts to integrate relational, intra-psychic, and experiential elements into his clinical work.

Jerry Lamagna, along with Dr. Kari Gleiser has developed a modified version of AEDP for the treatment of dissociative disorders. He has presented at national conferences sponsored by the International Society for the Study of Dissociation (ISSD), the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI), the International Experiential and Dynamic Therapy Association (IEDTA), and the New Jersey chapter of NASW.

In January 2007, the Journal of Trauma and Dissociation published a paper written by Mr. Lamagna and Dr. Gleiser entitled "Building a secure internal attachment: An intra-relational approach to ego strengthening and emotional processing with chronically traumatized clients."

David Mars, Ph.D. has trained with Dr. Fosha since 2005.  He entered the study of AEDP after thirty years as a process-oriented, somatically, and empathically focused couple and individual psychotherapist. 

Since the 1970s, David has been developing innovative techniques of integrating movement therapy in a group format  with individual therapy to deepen safe, embodied and relationally attuned experiences of patients.  He teaches Authentic Movement, having trained and consulted for many years with Janet Adler, Ph.D.. For more than two decades, Dr. Mars brought awareness of the functions and expressions of the heart, breathing, muscles, and brain through the integration of biofeedback, and later EMDR, into couples treatment and psychotherapy. He has presented on the application of these techniques to the treatment of panic disorder, PTSD, trauma, and deprivation at conventions and seminars across the country.  Video-taping and video feedback have been ongoing areas of interest, culminating in his current use of dyadic video in his clinical practice and in training AEDP therapists.

Currently, David is Adjunct Faculty at the California Institute for Integral Studies, where he integrates AEDP into his teaching. He is developing and training therapists in AEDP-based Transformative Couples Therapy and AEDP Coordinated Therapy, in which two individual therapists team up with a couple’s therapist to form a dynamic attachment-based team for the healing of trauma and for facilitating accelerated transformation. 

Candyce Ossefort-Russell, LPC is a psychotherapist in private practice in Austin, Texas, where she has actively lived and studied psychological and spiritual perspectives of suffering and renewal for two decades. She received her graduate degree in counseling and depth psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Intensive clinical and life experience drew her to the transformational work of AEDP, and she has extensively trained with Ron Frederick and Diana Fosha. She has an ongoing interest in transformation through grief, life transition, parenting, and trauma.


Candyce provides both individual and group therapy for adults, couples, and older adults; and she provides group and individual AEDP supervision and training. She is known for her warmth, facility with group process, and integration of head and heart in her work and her teaching. Candyce also supervises therapist interns, facilitates writing groups, and conducts a consultation group for therapists who intensively study the literature of AEDP and its foundational sources.

Candyce has a particular interest in AEDP as applied to grief and to group therapy. She is at work on book that applies AEDP, attachment theory, and interpersonal neurobiology to grief, and she has a paper about AEDP and grief available for distribution upon request. She is the former editor of The Voice, the newsletter of the Austin Group Psychotherapy Society, and she has a passion for writing about psychological theories of healing in a way that is accessible to the layperson. It is for this purpose that she publishes a monthly e-newsletter through her website.

Karen Pando-Mars, MFT is a licensed psychotherapist in San Rafael, CA. She was irresistibly drawn to AEDP in 2005 and captivated by the depth and breadth of its transformational model. She immersed herself in training and consultation with Dr. Fosha and three years of core training with Dr. Frederick.

Karen is one of the founders of AEDP West, Co-Director of the Center for Transformative Therapies in San Rafael, and currently is a supervisor for the Bay Area Core Training. She presents AEDP trainings around the San Francisco Bay Area and offers individual and small group supervision to psychotherapists. She is known for her warmth and approachability, and her ability to create safety in the supervisory relationship. Karen's long-time interest in deepening connection between self and other has been grounded through AEDP's precise tracking of attachment principles and related neuroscience, and this influence is woven throughout her work with individuals, couples and groups.

Licensed since 1989, her background in somatic and experiential therapies includes Focusing, Process-Oriented Psychotherapy, Sandtray, EMDR, and Authentic Movement. She was a founder of The Sandtray Network and a contributing editor of its journal. As adjunct faculty at Dominican University, in San Rafael, CA, she taught AEDP as the overarching theoretical model in her Alternative and Innovative Psychotherapies course.

Natasha Prenn, LCSW began her career as a psychotherapist working with at-risk adolescents at the Bronx High School of Science. She has led groups in schools, provided psychotherapy as part of an outreach program at Cooper Union through the Training Institute for Mental Health (TIMH) and was a patient advocate in New York City hospital emergency rooms through the Mount Sinai Sexual Assault Violence Intervention program (SAVI). She completed two years of training at the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy (ICP) before deciding to focus more fully on the theory and practice of AEDP. In a previous life she was a lecturer in Classics at New York University, a college counselor, and teacher.

Natasha was drawn to AEDP because of its focus on how to actually help people change! She is currently writing and presenting on the vocabulary of right-brain language in experiential treatments, on the effective use of the self and of self-disclosure, and on how to teach the building blocks of AEDP to clinicians new to the practice of AEDP. She is working on the application of AEDP to complex trauma, more specifically to the treatment of eating disorders, PTSD, dissociation, and self-sabotage (including self-harm). In addition to her clinical practice, she provides private individual AEDP supervision and runs an AEDP small supervision group.