In this talk, Anna Christina, interviewed by Karin Dorell, MD, will present and discuss her observations and experiences of introducing AEDP to a Swedish cultural context. Are there cultural differences that need our attention as therapists when applying an experiential, radically relational therapy model like AEDP in a different culture? Can cultural understanding help us to tailor and modify AEDP-interventions to our own cultural norms in order to melt defenses?

In social research Swedish people are often described as reserved and quiet. The old cultural norm discourages the open expression of emotions. Sweden is one of the world’s most secular countries. Anna Christina refers to clinical examples about how religious, spiritual experiences similar to core state phenomena can be challenging to patients’ are discussed and how they connect to trans- generational cultural experiences.

AEDP with its four state map that helps the therapist to orientate, track and attune moment to moment, gives us very helpful tools to discern cultural differences from individual defenses.

Finally, Anna Christina hopes this Transformance Talk will inspire and support other AEDP-therapists developing communities around the world, and all colleagues who are interested in cultural differences and how to bridge them in therapy to get more
access to our universal transformational affects and deepest truths.

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.