Dear Community,
I am extremely happy to be able to announce that Anna Guest is now a Certified AEDP therapist. Hooray, Anna! Anna is a clinician whose AEDP skills and mastery of theory have been ready for this next level for quite some time; this makes the fact of her passing this milestone especially satisfying. Anna’s a really good example of a seasoned, deeply capable therapist with very high standards who wanted to be certain she was absolutely ready, and that her work was much more than adequate to meet the challenge, before she submitted her file. She brings a sometimes painful wealth of her own life experiences to the work; even though she rarely explicitly self discloses “facts” about her life, Anna’s therapeutic presence is informed and deepened by lived experiences of both grief and joy. Anna has a quiet, genuine sweetness in her demeanour that conveys itself to her clients with the outcome that trust builds rapidly in the dyad, and deep trauma repair work can move effectively and smoothly. Anna’s recordings demonstrated this, both with the client for whom this was an early session, and with the longer term client. The reviewers recognise these qualities, as well as her AEDP theoretical acumen: “(Anna) understands AEDP theory and where she is in each moment in the session and there is a true AEDP stance of care and compassion. Clearly her client feels safe and able to touch into hard, shame filled places with her true other. Her stance as the secure base and a@achment figure/mom helps her client touch into and own her core self with pride and certainty. She understands AEDP theory and where she is in each moment in the session.
Anna Guest has extraordinary presence as an AEDP therapist. She clearly cares deeply about each of her clients. She tracks relentlessly and meticulously. She has a slowed down presence and a very warm, nurturing gaze. Her enGre demeanor and body language signals compassion]and care.”
Here are Anna’s own words about her relationship with AEDP:
“Simply put, AEDP has changed my life. Learning and integrating the model has impacted my experience of myself, and therefore my experience of others and my relationship to them. This model makes me feel balanced internally- between right and left brain, between making space for the darkest places in myself and others, but also making space for the lightest, between privileging the positive but never at the expense of what is difficult.
People often assume, when I tell them what I do for work, that clients’ stories must weigh me down, that it must be so taxing to me personally to hear so much pain and trauma. But AEDP is inherently hopeful. And it affirms what I already believed, that we are all more than the things that have happened to us. AEDP had given me a map that shows the path to the growth and flourishing that is in everyone. And the fact that I get to accompany people in finding their core self, their own truth and wisdom, is such an incredible experience that I find myself grateful and appreciative of what I get to do rather than weighed down.
AEDP has given me permission to fully and deeply be myself, has encouraged me to be brave, and has affirmed that at all times there is nothing more important in the moment than who I am being. It makes me feel more alive.
I have learned so much from so many different people along the way, but I am particularly grateful to Kate Halliday and Richard Harrison for their guidance. Richard was my first supervisor- when I worked with Richard I felt his belief in me and his encouragement to keep going with AEDP. Kate helped me to believe in myself. Thank you, Kate, for being unapologetically loving.”
I hope you’ll help Anna celebrate her achievement by contacting her directly at:
anna.d.guest@gmail.com
Sincerely, Kate Halliday