AEDP® Essential Skills Overview

Deepen your AEDP training with Essential Skills, an immersive program that builds on the foundation of Immersion through advanced clinical learning and experiential practice.

Develop greater confidence applying AEDP through clinical video, hands-on practice, and highly interactive learning with AEDP faculty and colleagues..

Deepen Your AEDP Training

AEDP® Essential Skills builds on the foundation established in Immersion, helping clinicians deepen their understanding of AEDP and develop greater confidence applying the model in clinical practice.

This highly interactive training combines AEDP theory, clinical video, experiential learning, and hands-on practice, giving participants opportunities to engage directly with AEDP concepts and interventions.

Essential Skills is designed to be responsive to the needs of each group. Faculty engage with participants’ questions, clinical challenges, and emerging themes throughout the course, creating a learning experience that is structured, relevant, and connected to participants’ clinical work.

What to Expect

Essential Skills provides an in-depth exploration of AEDP theory and the practical application of the model.

Throughout the training, participants will:

  • Deepen their understanding of AEDP theory and clinical interventions
  • Observe AEDP in action through clinical video
  • Develop moment-to-moment clinical skills
  • Participate in guided experiential learning and small-group practice
  • Receive support and feedback from AEDP faculty and Experiential Assistants
  • Build greater confidence integrating AEDP into clinical practice

The combination of didactic teaching, clinical demonstration, and experiential practice helps participants develop both a conceptual understanding of AEDP and a felt sense of how to apply the model.

Hallmarks of AEDP® Essential Skills

Faculty • Experiential Assistants • Clinical Video • Experiential Learning

AEDP training combines rigorous clinical teaching with an emphasis on connection, experiential learning, and undoing professional aloneness.

Experienced AEDP faculty teach the model through didactic instruction and clinical video, while Experiential Assistants support participants during small-group experiential practice.

Course Structure

AEDP® Essential Skills consists of five modules, with each module taught over four half-day sessions.

During each module, participants move between didactic teaching, clinical video, discussion, and small-group experiential practice. This structure provides repeated opportunities to learn AEDP concepts, observe them in clinical work, and practice applying them experientially.

Who Should Attend

AEDP® Essential Skills is designed for clinicians who have completed AEDP® Immersion and are ready to deepen their understanding and application of the model.

Completion of Immersion is required before attending Essential Skills. Essential Skills is also a prerequisite for AEDP® Advanced Skills and counts toward the AEDP training and certification pathway.

Participants do not need to be pursuing certification to attend.

Upcoming AEDP® Essential Skills Courses

Live Online and Highly Interactive

ESSENTIAL SKILLS • INTERMEDIATE

Essential Skills 1 – October 2026 – Everest

Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty

Five 4-Day Modules | October 1, 2026–June 27, 2027
Thursday–Sunday | 11:00 AM–3:30 PM ET

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& REGISTER

ESSENTIAL SKILLS • INTERMEDIATE

Essential Skills 1 – November 2026 – Olympus

Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty

Five 4-Day Modules | November 12, 2026–April 12, 2027
Thursday–Friday & Sunday–Monday | No Session Saturday | 9:00 AM–1:30 PM ET

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& REGISTER

ESSENTIAL SKILLS • INTERMEDIATE

Essential Skills 1 – December 2026 – Annapurna

Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty

Five 4-Day Modules | December 3, 2026–July 18, 2027
Thursday–Sunday | 12:00–4:30 PM ET

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& REGISTER

ESSENTIAL SKILLS • INTERMEDIATE

Essential Skills 1 – February 2027- Angkor

Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty

Five 4-Day Modules | February 25–October 24, 2027
Thursday–Sunday | 12:00–4:30 PM ET

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& REGISTER

What Participants Say About Essential Skills

I’ve realized that ES works, that from one module to another I feel more confident in doing the excercises and I more understand the model. And I like that change is happening. 🙂 Thank you!
—Daniela, PhD

 I was struck by how much positive change can arise from “being with” versus “clinical doing.” It will turn the way I practice upside down.

In addition to a deeper understanding of the model and interventions, I am grateful as always for the environment, the culture, the care.

The AEDP Essential Skills course is absolutely one of the best psychotherapy trainings I have ever done. The format is a perfect balance of didactics, video observation and experiential practice (doing it!), with loads of supportive individual attention and feedback. I can’t recommend this training enough!

              – Victoria Lemle Beckner, PhD

AEDP® Essential Skills 1 – Kilimanjaro
Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty
June 11, 2026–February 7, 2027
Five 4-Day Modules
View Course

AEDP® Essential Skills 1 – Chimborazo
Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty
April 16–November 22, 2026
Five 4-Day Modules
View Course

Past AEDP® Essential Skills courses are listed below for reference.

2026

AEDP® Essential Skills 1 – Denali
Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty
January 29–September 13, 2026
View Course

2025

AEDP® Essential Skills 1 – Perseus
Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty
October 3, 2025–June 29, 2026
View Course

AEDP® Essential Skills 1 – Lynx
Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty
December 5, 2025–August 3, 2026
View Course

AEDP® Essential Skills 1 – Orion
Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty
September 25, 2025–May 18, 2026
View Course

AEDP® Essential Skills 1 – Vela
Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty
June 20, 2025–February 9, 2026
View Course

AEDP® Essential Skills 1 – Northern Cross
Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty
April 11, 2025–January 12, 2026
View Course

AEDP® Essential Skills 1 – Eldordo
Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty
January 31–September 15, 2025
View Course

2024

Essential Skills 1 – Redwood
Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty
Five 4-Day Modules | December 6, 2024–August 4, 2025
View Course

Essential Skills 1 – Aspen
Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty
Five 4-Day Modules | October 4, 2024–June 23, 2025
View Course

Essential Skills 1 – Sequoia
Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty
Five 4-Day Modules | August 2, 2024–March 24, 2025
View Course

Essential Skills 1 – Willow
Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty
Five 4-Day Modules | June 21, 2024–January 20, 2025
View Course

Essential Skills 1 – Cypress
Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty
Five 4-Day Modules | April 12, 2024–January 13, 2025
View Course

Essential Skills 1 – Mango
Presented by AEDP® Institute Faculty
Five 4-Day Modules | February 22–October 27, 2024
View Course

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