AEDP™ Institute’s Mission, Work, Values and Ethos

Our Mission

The mission of the AEDP Institute is threefold:

• to nurture the integrity and healthy development of the AEDP model while ensuring its widespread recognition and accessibility,
• to provide mental health professionals with high quality training and certification in AEDP therapy and supervision, and
• to uplift, undo aloneness, and foster flourishing among AEDP practitioners.

In pursuing this mission and in honoring the deeply relational and transformational AEDP model of psychotherapy, we aim to promote healing for our clients worldwide.

Our Work

The AEDP Institute offers training and certification in the model through a series of certification courses plus access to AEDP supervision from Certified Supervisors. The Institute also offers ‘stand-alone’ workshops, seminars and online learning resources that serve to advance the practice of AEDP for clinicians at every level of experience. The Institute provides forums and platforms where clinicians share ideas and experiences, ask questions, learn from one another, raise issues and integrate new ideas into a model of thinking and clinical practice that is dynamic and continually evolving.

Developed by Dr. Diana Fosha, author of The Transforming Power of Affect and editor of Undoing Aloneness and the Transformation of Suffering Into Flourishing: AEDP 2.0, AEDP psychotherapy has roots in and resonances with many disciplines—among them attachment theory, affective neuroscience, body-focused approaches, and transformational studies.

There may no better way to capture the spirit of AEDP than to say this: we try to help our patients—and ourselves—become stronger at the broken places. And, employing a specific set of tested, proven techniques, we work with trauma, loss, and the painful consequences of the limitations of human relatedness to discover places that have always been strong; places that were never broken.

Crisis and suffering provide opportunities to awaken extraordinary capacities that otherwise might lie dormant, unknown and untapped. AEDP, as a therapeutic approach, is about making the most of these opportunities for healing and transformation. Key to this experiential enterprise is the establishment of the therapeutic relationship as a safe, secure base.

Through the in-depth processing of difficult emotional and relational experiences, the AEDP clinician fosters the emergence of new and healing experiences for the client.

Learn more about AEDP psychotherapy here.

Values

At the AEDP Institute we value openness to divergence and commitment to exploration. We grow — in ourselves, our practices, our theory and our community — by staying open to new ways of thinking and working. We welcome challenges from each other from new developments in theory and practice. By reveling in our resonances and embracing our differences, we foster the emergence of phenomena which are the stuff of professional, personal and organizational growth.

Our Ethos: to Exist in Each Other’s Hearts and Minds

Our spirit of openness and connection informs all the activities—clinical, intellectual, and community-building—of the AEDP Institute community. As the worldwide network of AEDP practitioners, teachers, and supervisors grows, a shared ethos helps us remain healthy and vibrant. In particular, we are committed to nurturing and promoting: