On behalf of Diana Fosha and myself, I could not be more delighted to share with you that Ilene Yasemsky is now a certified AEDP Supervisor.
Ilene has been a member of the AEDP community since nearly its beginnings and is a founding member of the AEDP community in California. She has been instrumental in nurturing and expanding AEDP in that region in addition to supporting our courses across the country as an Experiential Assistant many times over. Moreover, as the Clinical Director of a mental health clinic, Ilene brought her AEDP skills to her professional staff, as well. The ripple effects of Ilene’s informal and formal AEDP supervision have already impacted so many.
I have had the privilege of supervising Ilene both for her certification as an AEDP therapist and more recently as a supervisor in training. In addition to her clinical skill and deep understanding of the theory of AEDP, I want to highlight Ilene’s particular dedication to transformance detection and ensuring that her work, both as a supervisor and as a clinician, is informed by a confidence in, and commitment to, authenticity. This all, in turn, is informed by a fundamentally fierce commitment to justice conveyed in the most kind and gentle way. I have learned so much from Ilene’s elegance in this area, among many others.
Diana Fosha writes:
I am thrilled to share my delight in, together with Ben Lipton, announcing Ilene Yasemsky as a certified AEDP supervisor. I whole heartedly congratulate Ilene on her remarkable achievement, which only makes official what those of us who have known her and have worked with her for a long time have known for a long time: her giftedness of heart and mind of being able to guide supervisees and experiential exercises participants to have a deep learning experience of AEDP, and of themselves as AEDP therapists, all the while feeling safe and held and cared for. Above all, Ilene loves AEDP’s deep attachment orientation, which she embodies in heart and mind. And indeed, whether as therapist or supervisor or experiential assistant or lead assistant, she is able to make those she is working with feel deep security, experience the melting of the barrier of shame and take risks to heal and/or learn. She leads with her vulnerability, is a master of undoing shame through the use of self-disclosure, and has also become a master hands-on teacher of AEDP theory as well as. Practice.
Over the more than 20 years I have known Ilene in AEDP world, many of those years as her supervisor of either therapy or supervision, the hardest thing to get her to do has been to recognize and own her own deep gifts. The process of writing her supervision certification paper contributed to a big breakthrough in that area. Under the onslaught of affirmations and unwavering defense challenges from both Ben and myself, Ilene had to admit that she wrote a dynamite paper on AEDP supervision. And she also had to own that the reason why her paper is so brilliant is that it both details and articulates precisely what it is that she does everyday
My deep congratulations to Ilene on her certification as an AEDP supervisor. However in addition to congratulating Ilene on her achievement and recognizing the brilliance of her supervisory certification paper (stay tuned– you might read it in a future issue of Transformance), I think congratulations are in order for all of us in the AEDP community. It is a gift to have someone so gifted, so skilled and so humble join the ranks of AEDP supervisors. How lucky are we to have her!
And here are some highlights from Ilene’s certification reviewers:
Reviewer 1:
I am confident our AEDP community will be enriched by Ilene becoming a certified AEDP supervisor…Her articulation of her approach to AEDP supervision clearly demonstrates a solid and profound grasp of AEDP theory (I sense it’s in her bones and perhaps her DNA)! In addition to this depth of understanding, Ilene integrates head and heart, and a spirit of generosity, openness, respect and play in the supervision she provides. She demonstrated effective use of self in supervision, and speaks to the importance of privileging both experience and left brain/conceptual understanding, as she helps her supervisees develop their AEDP practice. Ilene also discusses parallel processes between supervision and therapy, including the importance of: co-creating safety in the supervisory relationship; transformance detection (in relationship to both supervisees and their patients); active helping to facilitate healing, growth and corrective emotional experiences in supervision; and the role of metaprocessing to invite and bring together experience and reflection in her work with supervisees, among other key AEDP principles and practices..
I feel great trust that Ilene brings skill, know-how, wisdom, gentleness, beginners’ mind, and a powerful generative integrity to her work as an AEDP supervisor. Her generosity is palpable. As is her warm heart and wise mind.
I feel like I’m gushing but I’m really moved and somewhat in awe. I’d love to have a supervisor like Ilene Yasemsky.
Review #2:
It is with such delight that I am able to wholeheartedly endorse Ilene to be certified as an AEDP supervisor….It is evident that she has thoroughly integrated the principles of AEDP with intellectual rigor and embodies the deep emotional attunement of AEDP practice. [She] demonstrates a profound understanding of AEDP’s core tenets and deep appreciation of/love for AEDP. Ilene’s paper reflects her exceptional capacity for self-awareness and the kind of clinical humility that is essential in an AEDP supervisor. Ilene’s heart and mind have clearly already deeply impacted therapists who have worked with her, and she will bring so much to the AEDP therapists who have the privilege of learning AEDP from and with her in the future.
Her integration of theory and practice, alongside a commitment to personal and professional growth, demonstrates that she is ready to be certified as a supervisor and will be an outstanding addition to the AEDP community in this new role.
Please join Diana and myself in congratulating Ilene on this important achievement. If you’d also like to share with her your personal congratulations, then pleas do so backchannel at ilene@yasemsky.com .