Undoing Disempowerment: Cultivating Agency in AEDP™
Presented by Eileen Russell, PhD
Friday – Saturday, February 23 + 24, 2024
Two Registration Options:
• 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM: Attend the entire day: didactic in the morning and small group experiential practice in the afternoon (counts toward certification)
•9:00 AM – 12:30 PM: Attend the morning only: get the didactic, skip the small group experiential work (does not count toward certification)
Prerequisites: AEDP Level 2 or above; See details further below.
Meet the Presenter
Eileen M. Russell, PhD
Eileen M. Russell, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and a founding faculty member of the AEDP Institute. She began studying and training in AEDP in 1996 with Drs. Diana Fosha and Jenna Osiason. Dr. Russell has been an adjunct faculty member at NYU Medical/ Bellevue Hospital Center where she completed her internship training and later worked as a senior psychologist with individuals struggling with addiction and psychiatric diagnoses. She is currently also on the faculty of the National Institute of the Psychotherapies (NIP) Integrative Trauma Program. Her passion is AEDP, which she has taught to individuals and groups since 2004 nationally and internationally. She combines a warm and gentle clinical style with a probing and articulate interest in theory to bring out the depths of the AEDP approach. In addition to her practice with patients and consultees, Eileen enjoys expanding clinical and theoretical ideas through writing. (Read More…)Course Description:
Internalized experiences of trauma, neglect, or oppression can severely impair one’s access to and expression of one’s emotions, as well as the sense of safety with oneself and others. But these experiences, as well as subtler, but chronic, experiences of not being seen or recognized, can also impair the development of the sense of the self being an agent in the world and in one’s own life. Even as one develops a connection to and capacity for one’s own feelings, people can still feel like “guests in their own lives.”
We will explore and explain the development and expansion of AEDP theory to include the addition of agency, will, and desire to the Four State Transformational Process of AEDP theory and practice. This course will discuss the broadening of our attachment-based therapeutic stance to invite differentiation (vs. “we-ness”) in the service of nurturing the agentic self that has often been suppressed in many clients in psychotherapy. It will explore situations in which “safety,” highly prized in AEDP, can be over-used and instances in which allowing for some conflict, or at least tension, in the therapeutic relationship may be more growth-full for the development of the agentic, differentiated self. It will contextualize the importance of this expansion in developmental, polyvagal, relational psychoanalytic, and learning theories.
Dr. Russell will use videotapes of actual sessions to illustrate examples of blocked agency as well as techniques for inviting the emergence of agency within the therapeutic relationship.
Course Objectives:
- Explain the concepts of “sense of agency” and “will” and explore why these emotional aspects are often suppressed or underdeveloped in psychotherapy clients who have experienced different forms of disempowerment.
- Distinguish between State 2 maladaptive and adaptive core affective experience in the Four State Transformational Process of AEDP.
- Incorporate language techniques to assist clients in transitioning to more adaptive coping mechanisms and fostering a stronger connection with their innate sense of agency.
- Describe the contextual nuances of questions related to agency, will, as occurring in the dialectic between “freedom” and “determinism”. Explore how these concepts manifest in diverse psychological theories of pathology and transformation that inform our work.
- Develop and expand on AEDP psychotherapy’s attachment-based stance to include differentiation (and not just togetherness) to allow for the development of a separate self. and how to make use of them in therapy.
- Develop ways to address impasses in your practice where there is a collision between empathy and authenticity.
Prerequisites
Pre-requisites: you must be AEDP Level 2 or above meaning you have: Completed Immersion and Essential Skills
If you have a question about the relevance of this course for you and/or your eligibility for this course please contact admin@aedpinstitute.org.
Registration Options | Course Fee | Dates and Time
Option 1: Advanced Skills Course (didactic plus experiential practice)
- Attend the entire day: didactic in the morning and small group experiential practice in the afternoon
- This counts toward certification
Dates: Friday – Saturday, February 23 + 24, 2024
Time: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Eastern Time USA
- $649 USD Member (must be logged in to register)
- $679 USD Non-Member
Option 2: Advanced Seminar (no experiential practice)
- Attend the morning only: get the didactic, skip the small group experiential work
- This does not count toward certification
Dates: Friday – Saturday, February 23 + 24, 2024
Time: 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM Eastern Time USA
- $379 USD Member (must be logged in to register)
- $399 USD Non-Member
Limited seats available please register early.
ADA Accommodations | Attendance | Refund Policy | Questions
Disability Access: If you require ADA accommodations please contact Marilia Rodriguez, admin@aedpinstitute.org or call 813-553-1294 thirty days or more before the event so we can be sure to accommodate you.
Attendance and Makeup Policy & Refunds:
Questions:
Course and all customer service related questions:
Please contact Customer Service Administrator
Marilia Rodriguez
admin@aedpinstitute.org
813-553-1294