Finding, Forming and Transforming the Self: A Journey From No Self to Core Self

The Talk: “Working with the Unformed Self: New Clinical Tools in AEDP” explores innovative therapeutic approaches for clients with profoundly unformed self-states. 

The Journal article and its companion Transformance Talk introduce two new conceptual frameworks: the Triangle of Finding and Rescuing the Self, and the Triangle of The Emerging Self. These tools guide clinicians in navigating maladaptive State 2 affective experiences, providing a visual roadmap for helping clients move from maladaptive to adaptive emotional states. Building on Eileen Russell’s work on agency, will, and desire as State 2 affective experiences, this article and Talk examine how neglect, exploitation, and oppression create developmental gaps in self-formation. Readers will learn how to effectively engage with clients’ maladaptive affects as pathways to their inner emotional lives. Special emphasis is placed on the therapeutic necessity of witnessing and connecting with split-off parts of the self, demonstrating how this process enables clients to develop a felt sense of self—an essential precursor to deeper emotional transformation and healing.

The Journal article is grounded in many ways in Eileen Russell’s (2021) ideas around State 2 affective experiences that “neglect, exploitation, and oppression of any kind leave holes in the development of self” (p.244), a deficit that Fosha has similarly described as unformed experience (Fosha, 2013). Ms. Medbo proposes that when working with clients who present with an unformed Self, we must connect with our patient within the realm of State 2 maladaptive affect; it is there that we encounter the neglected split-off part of the Self, needing to be rescued. As was true for her patient, the maladaptive affective experience might be the (yet) only “road” to their inner emotional life. Without being recognized, witnessed, and felt in the presence of a safe ‘other’ the split-off divided self cannot be unified, and the True Self cannot form and transform. Simply said, the patient needs to know they have a Self and have a felt sense of that Self before they can feel about and for the Self.

Transformance Talks are free for Institute members. We recommend that you read the article before the Talk – looking forward to seeing you -and hearing from you – there!

Transformance: The AEDP Journal, Preview (first article) of Volume 13: here’s the pdf.

Transformance: The AEDP Journal is the official journal of the AEDP Institute. Transformance has been published yearly since it’s inaugral  September 2010 and has published yearly since. It represented a quantum leap into a new era for a groundbreaking model of therapy that was introduced only 10 years earlier by Diana Fosha’s influential book, The Transforming Power of Affect: A Model for Accelerated Change. The publication also provided a much needed platform for disseminating the ever evolving advances, applications, and inspirations for the rapidly growing and highly productive AEDP community.   A quick scan of the titles will reveal the vast array of topics and the tremendous fount of clinical material, in the form of session transcripts, demonstrating the application of AEDP to clinical issues such as, eating disorders, sexual abuse, work with couples, addiction, racial trauma; methodological refinements such as, adjustments to attachment style, cultivating therapeutic presence; and innovation benefitting the general field of psychotherapy such as, harnessing termination as component of the healing process and the creation of an empirically validated model of short-term AEDP.  Additionally, Transformance has featured articles on cutting edge applications of neuroscience research as well as commentary on books and movies.