AEDP® Advanced Skills December 2026

Click here for learning objectives

• Apply relational interventions designed to build safety and containment with patients presenting with severe trauma histories and dissociative symptoms.
• Demonstrate dyadic regulation strategies for intense traumatic affects — including fear, shame, and overwhelm — in the context of complex trauma treatment.
• Distinguish between external dyadic (therapist/client) and intra-relational (client/dissociated ego-states) processes and utilize both to accelerate internalization of secure attachment dynamics.
• Formulate clinical approaches for patients who have never established secure attachment and/or who experience emotions as traumatizing within an emotion-focused, experiential framework.
• Apply strategies for navigating deep emotional processing with patients prone to traumatic flashbacks or dissociative episodes during affect work.
• Adapt AEDP principles for clinical work with patients presenting with severe dissociative disorders, including Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).
• Integrate advanced AEDP techniques to facilitate transformative affect work and deep processing of traumatic memories in complex trauma survivors.
  
  

The 4-day Agenda is here.

The 2-day Agenda is here.

This program was developed for:
Licensed and pre-licensed mental health professionals who are practicing under the supervision of a qualified, licensed clinician. Participants typically hold (or are actively working toward) one of the following credentials:

Graduate students enrolled in accredited mental health training programs practicing under a licensed Supervisor

Psychologists (PhD, PsyD, EdD)

Psychiatrists (MD, DO)

Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW, LICSW, MSW)

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT)

Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC, LPCC, LCPC, etc.)

Licensed Mental Health Counselors (LMHC)

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners (PMHNP, APRN)

Registered Psychotherapists (as recognized regionally)

Occupational Therapists with training in mental health

Licensed or registered art, music, or dance/movement therapists

Advanced Course Content Level: Advanced
This training is approved for 16 continuing education credits

Intermediate Seminar Course Content Level: Beginner, Intermediate
This training is approved for 8 continuing education credits

Continuing Education Information

To receive continuing education credit, participants must pay the applicable CE fee, attend the entire training, and complete the course evaluation. Partial credit is not available. CE certificates are issued after the evaluation is submitted.

Continuing education applications may be underway for various national and state-level boards and agencies. Please refer to the individual course page for current CE availability, approvals, and the number of continuing education credits offered for that training. For questions, please contact admin@aedpinstitute.org.

Disclosure

All planners and presenters have disclosed that they have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies. There is no commercial support for these programs, nor are there relationships between AEDP Institute, presenters, program content, research, grants, or other funding that could reasonably be construed as conflicts of interest.

Continuing Education (CE) Approvals

Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)
AEDP Institute, provider #2307, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: October 31, 2025 – October 31, 2026.

Psychologists – American Psychological Association (APA)
AEDP Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. AEDP Institute maintains responsibility for its programs and their content.

New York Psychologists
AEDP Works, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists, #PSY-0256. AEDP Works, LLC maintains responsibility for its programs and their content.

New York Social Workers (LMSWs and LCSWs)
AEDP Works, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers, #SW-0805.

National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)
AEDP Works, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7622. Counselors in all states except New York and MFTs in all states except New York and Massachusetts are eligible.

The AEDP® Model of Psychotherapy

The following statements describe the empirical foundation, accuracy, utility, scope, limitations, and clinical considerations relevant to the content presented in AEDP Courses.

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Empirical Basis

AEDP® Psychotherapy is supported by peer-reviewed empirical research published in established scholarly journals. Effectiveness studies conducted within a practice research network demonstrate significant symptom reduction (e.g., depression, maladaptive negative cognitions, interpersonal functioning, experiential avoidance) and significant increases in positive indices of mental health (e.g., self-compassion, flourishing) across diagnostic presentations (Iwakabe et al., 2020), with longitudinal follow-up findings indicating maintenance of gains at six and twelve months (Iwakabe et al., 2022). These outcome studies evaluated a 16-session AEDP treatment protocol.

Additional empirical investigations examine therapeutic process variables associated with flourishing and metatherapeutic processing (Fosha & Thoma, 2020; Fosha, Thoma, & Yeung, 2019), as well as psychometric validation of measures assessing positive affective transformation, including the Moments of Flourishing Experience Scale (Fosha et al., 2024). Collectively, this body of outcome and process research provides empirical support for the clinical principles and interventions taught in AEDP Courses.

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Accuracy, Utility, Scope and Limitations

AEDP is a transdiagnostic, transformation-oriented model of psychotherapy practiced with clients experiencing a wide range of psychological difficulties. Developed and primarily taught for individual psychotherapy, the model may be adapted by trained clinicians for work with couples, families, children, and groups when clinically appropriate; however, formal empirical research has focused primarily on its application in individual treatment.

AEDP was developed to address affective, relational, trauma-related, and depressive symptom presentations within an attachment-based, experiential framework. The empirical base is strongest for these domains, and findings from the 16-session research protocol should not be assumed to generalize automatically to all treatment formats, durations, or to individuals with severe or unstable psychiatric conditions.

AEDP was not designed as a first-line or stand-alone treatment for active psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder that is not medically stabilized, or active substance use disorders. In such cases, clinicians should ensure appropriate stabilization and integration with disorder-specific and medically coordinated care. As with all clinical models, effective application requires sound professional judgment, adherence to ethical standards, and practice within one’s scope of competence.

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Ongoing Research

Current research continues to investigate the therapeutic processes and specific AEDP interventions associated with transformational change. In addition, AEDP-informed psychotherapy is being studied in collaboration with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai within randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.

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Risks and Clinical Considerations

As with all experiential and trauma-focused psychotherapies, potential risks include temporary increases in emotional distress, activation of traumatic memories, heightened affective arousal, interpersonal sensitivity, or destabilization if interventions are misapplied or insufficiently titrated. Severe risks are uncommon but may include significant dysregulation in vulnerable individuals if adequate screening, stabilization, and monitoring are not conducted. The model emphasizes careful attunement, pacing, and ongoing assessment to mitigate these risks.