AEDP Vision Collective
Our vision is to build a diverse cohort passionate about developing initiatives and innovative approaches to “AEDP & Healing Racialized Trauma.” Recognizing the historic and current oppression of global Black communities, especially in the USA, we have focused on self-identified Black AEDP members leading efforts to reimagine how AEDP addresses racialized trauma.
The Initial Call
Our passion and commitment to the initiatives and innovative approaches to “AEDP & Healing Racialized Trauma has led to the emergence of a group of 12 members of our self-identified Black AEDP community members who responded to an initial call to work this initiative in the early fall of 2021.
Over the months, the groups cohered and the AEDP Vision Collective was born. Here is one description of the group in their own words: we are “a wise, committed and thoughtful group of Black-Identified therapists laying the foundation for a new vision of creating a more diverse and inclusive body of understanding within the AEDP Institute. This Collective has a lot of heart, a lot of grit, and a broad base of experience and knowledge to draw from. We embrace this opportunity to think outside the box of power and privilege and acknowledge that this is the time for AEDP to grow and expand the diversity of the contributors to its emergent growth.“
Now called the AEDP Vision Collective, this group (supported by the four AEDP Institute Consultants) are leading exploratory groups that meet focus on specific topics related to the application of AEDP to the healing of racialized trauma in the context of anti-Black racism.
Each of these groups function independently, in partnership with our AEDP Vision Collective, are Black led or co-led by members of the AEDP Vision Collective, and include at least one person who is AEDP certified, or an AEDP supervisor or faculty member as an AEDP consultant and support.
Invitation to our self-identified Black AEDP community members
If you are (i) a member of the AEDP community, (ii) identify as Black and (iii) are interested in joining us in this AEDP & Racialized Trauma Initiative, joining an Exploratory Group is a step toward potential membership in the Vision Collective. Participation in an Exploratory Group allows you to engage with the collective’s work, full membership is a separate process with additional considerations. If you wish to join a particular group, please email your interest directly to the address provided for that specific group. For general questions, contact the AEDP Vision Collective at VisionCollective@aedpinstitute.org.
AEDP Vision Collective Groups
Gerald Brooks, Peter Muhwati
Consultants: Jerry Lamagna
To contact Members of the group please email Relationalhealing.VisionCollective@aedpinstitute.org
Relational healing: What is effective validation in the context of racialized trauma
a. By Black men for Black men: Black male with Black male relational healing
b. Black therapist /White client, White therapist /Black client: What should these dyads do: Evolving guidelines
for these dyads; Implicit and explicit biases; Therapist accountability
c. Black therapist/Black client: Addressing Black on Black disconnection
d. Racialized trauma for those with a colonial history background
e. Sexual racialized trauma (intergenerational) in the context of white supremacy and misogyny
Nicky Cameron; Marsha Elliott; Sonya Parker; Lois Ridley; Connie Rhodes; Tabitha Azor
Consultants: Steve Carroll and James Santos
To contact Members of the group please email Spirituality.VisionCollective@test.aedpinstitute.org
The role of Spirituality in working with racialized trauma in AEDP
The Racialized Trauma & Spirituality in AEDP Exploratory Group led by Sonya Parker, Lead Chair, and Nicky Cameron, Co-Chair, explores the intersection of spirituality and AEDP psychotherapy. The Group is developing tools that leverage the power found at the meeting point of spirituality and AEDP psychotherapy to mitigate the suffering and oppression of racialized trauma in clinical and other micro, mezzo, and macro practice.
Jennifer Jackson and Kosu Boudreau
Consultants Karin Dorell and Judy Silberstein
To contact Members of the group please email BlackJoy.VisionCollective@test.aedpinstitute.org
This consultation group is a dedicated space for Black therapists to center ourselves and enrich our clinical work. Through the AEDP lens, we engage in consultation that fosters the ‘upward spiral’ toward the embodied experience of empowerment, resilience, and Black joy. Together, we cultivate a space where we can bear witness to one another’s challenges and strengths, while deepening our understanding and practice of AEDP with the communities we serve.
If you are a Black therapist seeking a supportive community to explore, process, and embrace the role of a ‘transformance detective’ in our racialized world, we welcome you to join us.
Meet our Vision Collective Members
Tabitha Azor-Douyon, LMFT
Gerald Brooks, LCSW
Kosu Boudreau, RP, MSW, RSW
Nicky Cameron, LCSW, AEDP Certified Therapist
Marsha Elliott, LMSW
Jessica Guillory, LPC
Jennifer Jackson, LCSW
Sonya Parker, LCSW, RYT-200
Connie Rhodes
Heloise (Lois) Ridley, EdD, MBA, MA, LPC, NCC
Diana Fosha, PhD
Lynne Hartwell
Karen Pando-Mars, MFT
Former Vision Collective Members: Thank you for your work!
Karla Amanda Brown, LMFT
In 2016, I found myself dragging along towards the LMFT licensing exam. After steadying myself from the vicarous trauma of the murders of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, I cycled into phases of anger and grief on behalf of Black people around the world. Thankfully, I was able to use these emotions to fuel my professional journey – once I decided to focus my energies on working with Black families. To my dismay, in professional development contexts, I have found myself
Mosaka Harris, LCSW
Mosaka Harris is a Licensed Social Worker based in Westchester County, New York. She has years of experience working with children and families. She is an AEDP level 2 therapist who fell in love with AEDP when she attended the Healing Relational Trauma seminar in 2018. In her work experience, AEDP has been a game-changer in supporting children in undoing the aloneness from years of complex trauma. She is also a founding member of the AEDP Institute’s Vision Collective working to develop approaches to using AEDP to heal racialized trauma.
Peter Muhwati, CSW
Peter is a Clinical Social Worker from Zimbabwe living in Johannesburg, South Africa who has been a guest presenter in many Immersion courses.
He uses attachment-based, experiential approaches to therapy with individuals and couples. His clinical experience also includes work within palliative care in Zimbabwe.