Level 2 Certification Course

Presented by AEDP™ Institute Faculty:
Benjamin Lipton, LCSW
Annika Medbo, MA
Richard Harrison, PhD
Live Online, Five 4-Day Modules, November 2023 – July 2024
Designed for Time Zones: Americas
Who the Essential Skills (ES1) Course is for:
Essential Skills is for Immersion Grads who are licensed mental health practitioners (or the local/regional equivalent to ‘licensed’*) as well as interns legally practicing under the license of a supervising practitioner.
These licensed mental health practitioners include: Psychologists, Social Workers, Counselors, Doctors, Nurses, Psychoanalysts, Psychotherapists, other Behavioral Health Therapists and related professionals.
*Every country / state / province has different rules regarding licensing. While AEDP™ Institute is generally familiar with navigating the licensing process in the U.S., we are not familiar with the process and regulations in most other countries. Our practice is to consult local AEDP practitioners for information on the nuances of education, licensing and other regulations in their areas.
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 with your credentials before registering.
For information about whether this course offers Continuing Education credits for your license, see the bottom of the page. Course Content Level: Intermediate/Advanced
Course Description
AEDP™ psychotherapy is an empirically supported approach that seeks to alleviate patients’ psychological suffering by helping them process the overwhelming emotions associated with trauma in a way that facilitates corrective emotional and relational experiences that mobilize changes in the brain.
If you are interested in persuing AEDP certification, the Essential Skills is the second course in a series of certification courses for licensed therapists.
AEDP Essential Skills provides practical skills for the application of AEDP as well as a thorough immersion in the theory underlying the practice. Different skill sets will be introduced, explained, illustrated and practiced in each module, so that participants will emerge with both an understanding and a felt sense of how to practice AEDP.
Faculty Steeped in Theoretical Framework, Clinical Teaching from Videotapes, Experiential Exercises. These are the hallmarks of AEDP trainings. At AEDP Institute, we pride ourselves in how thoroughly and deeply we seek to both undo professional aloneness and engage in rigorous clinical teaching with skilled accompaniment. Our faculty are excellent as academics, clinicians and teachers. Participants deeply appreciate how effectively faculty presenters’ clinical video demonstrates “AEDP in action.” And faculty have skilled accompaniment from a large number of Experiential Assistants – up to and often including one Experiential Assistant for every four participants. Participants rave about the excellent attention and support they receive in this unique learning environment.
Routine for each module: AEDP skills are introduced with their theoretical foundations and with illustrations by way of clinical videotapes. Skills are then practiced in small group experiential exercises. Experiential practice time makes up roughly 40% of the course.
Course Objectives
- Summarize the theoretical foundations of AEDP
- Identify and demonstrate core elements of AEDP’s therapist stance: welcome, affirm, validate, orient
- Integrate healing and transformance from the get-go
- Apply moment-to-moment tracking of emotional states and their markers to clinical practice
- Construct dyadic safety and connection to promote exploration and risk-taking, and foster the capacity for optimal affective experience
- Identify and respond to different aspects within the Triangle of Experience to facilitate affective experience and processing to completion, optimize “attunement” and accelerate the healing process
- Explain how to assist in the processing of emotions to completion to activate deep transformational processes
- Define the four types of attachment styles: secure, anxious-ambivalent, disorganized and avoidant and demonstrate how to utilize different interventions according to attachment style
- Utilize various interventions to regulate/alleviate anxiety and traces of shame, bypass defenses and other inhibitory forces which block progress in therapy
- Identify and access core affective experiences including anger, sadness, fear and joy Identify the presence and/or expressions of transformance, the overarching motivational force driving positive change in AEDP, in clients
- Demonstrate utilizing transformance affects as a catalyst to maximize patient’s healing
Course Topics Module 1 – 5:
Module 1: “Healing from the Get-Go, Undoing Aloneness & the Clinical Roadmap for AEDP’s Transformation Journey”
Module 2 :”Attachment & Relational Work: Undoing Aloneness in Clinical Action”
Module 3: “State 1: The Top of the Triangle of Experience Working with Defense and Anxiety”
Module 4: “State 2 Work: the Processing of Core Affective Experience”
Module 5: “The Processing of Transformational Experience & The Integration of Transformation into Self State 3 & State 4 Work”
Suggested Readings for each module
Daily Schedule
View the daily agenda for all 5 modules here.
Location: Live Online and highly interactive
AEDP’s Live, Online Learning: Requirements & FAQ’s
Dates & Times
- Sessions run Friday – Monday
- Online sessions use the U.S. Eastern Time Zone
- Please double check the meeting times for your local time zone if not U.S. Eastern Time Zone by visiting http://www.24timezones.com/ or your resource of preference.
- Please check the dates and times closely for conflicts with Local Holidays, Religious Holidays, etc.
- Participants must commit to all 5 modules.
Times: 11:00 AM – 3:30 PM Eastern Time
2023 – 2024
Module 1: November 3-6, 2023 | Benjamin Lipton, LCSW
Module 2: January 26 – 29, 2024 | Annika Medbo, MA
Module 3: March 15-18, 2024 | Kari Gleiser, PhD
Module 4: May 3 – 6, 2024 | Richard Harrison, LCSW
Module 5: July 12 – 15, 2024 TBD
Registration, Course Fees and Scholarships
Course includes 85 CE*
Member Registration: $3,209 USD (please log in to register)
Member Registration with a payment plan: $3,259 (requires a deposit of $500 due at registration and 8 monthly payments of $344.37 starting one month after your registration date)
Limited Scholarships are available for this course- click here for details
To attend you must have completed AEDP Immersion or an institute approved equivalent course
Course Fee: Includes 85 CE*
Non-Member Registration: $3259 USD
Non-Member Registration with a payment plan: $3309 (requires a deposit of $500 due at registration and 8 monthly payments of $344.87 starting one month after your registration date)
Are you a Member? Log in to get your Member discount
Scholarship Applications here
Meet the Presenters

Benjamin Lipton, LCSW
Benjamin Lipton, LCSW, is a Senior and founding Faculty member of the AEDP Institute. He has been instrumental in the development and teaching of AEDP across the US and in Canada, Sweden, Israel, Norway, and Denmark. He also supervises individuals and small groups of clinicians learning AEDP around the world. A sought after teacher and speaker, Ben is known for his open and engaging style, his humor, and his particular ability to translate complex theoretical concepts into user-friendly, accessible and engaging learning experiences. Ben has edited a book and contributed many book chapters and articles in psychology and social service journals as well as mainstream magazines. His most recent publication is a chapter on therapeutic presence in Undoing Aloneness & the Transformation of Suffering Into Flourishing: AEDP 2.0 edited by Diana Fosha. During the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the US, Ben was the Director of Clinical Services at Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), the world’s first and largest HIV/AIDS service organization. He has held adjunct faculty appointments at Columbia Presbyterian Department of Psychiatry and New York University School of Social Work. Ben maintains a private practice in the NYC area. (Read More…)
Annika Medbo, Licensed Psychotherapist

Richard Harrison, PhD
Richard Harrison, PHD is a Sr. faculty member of AEDP™ Institute and a Registered Psychologist with over 25 years’ experience as a clinician, educator, and group facilitator.
He was trained and supervised in AEDP by Diana Fosha, founder of the model, and has taught with her at AEDP Immersion Courses in Vancouver and the UK. He currently teaches Essential Skills courses and Workshops for the Institute. Richard is also a
Certified EFT Therapist and Supervisor. He maintains a full caseload with individuals and couples in private practice, and teaches and supervises graduate students in the Counseling Psychology and Psychiatry departments at the University of British
Columbia. (Read More…)

Kari Gleiser, PhD
Kari Gleiser, PhD, completed her doctoral work at Boston University and her internship through Dartmouth Medical School with a focus on trauma and PTSD. In her practice, she specializes in applying AEDP to the treatment of complex trauma and dissociative disorders. Dr. Gleiser is the co-founder/co-director of the Center for Integrative Health in Hanover, NH, a trauma center dedicated to multi-modal healing of mind, body and spirit. Dr. Gleiser has co-developed an “intra-relational” model of therapy that imports AEDP’s relational and experiential interventions to patients’ internal systems of dissociated self-states. Dr. Gleiser has written several clinical papers and book chapters and has presented at international conferences. She also explores the intersection of psychotherapy and spirituality, as well as the emerging field of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
Continuing Education Credit: This course is eligible for 85 CE
Outside of the U.S. and Canada:
Heisel and Associates holds no CE provider status with any other non-U.S. licensing/certification boards.
U.S. and Canada:
This training is co-sponsored by AEDP Institute and Heisel and Associates. To receive CE Participants must have:
- Registered an account on the Heisel and Associates website (see below)
- Attended the entire session (partial credit is not available)
- Completed an evaluation
CE: If you would like CE credit for this training, you must create an account here or click on the button below. You will need your license information to create your account. You only need to create one account for all AEDP trainings.
Upon completion of the training complete these 5 easy steps to receive your CE certificate:
- Log onto your Heisel and Associates account
- Go to “My Account”
- Click on “My Webinars”
- Complete the eval
- Download the certificate
American Psychological Association
Heisel and Associates is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Heisel and Associates maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
ASWB + ACE
Heisel and Associates, Provider Number 1253, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Heisel and Associates maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 5/3/2023 to 5/3/2026.
NBCC
Heisel and Associates has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP #6603. Programs that do not quality for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Heisel and Associates is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
NAADAC
This course has been approved by Heisel and Associates, an NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #111326, Heisel and Associates is responsible for all aspects of the programs.
New York:
New York Department of Education State Board for Psychology
New York Department of Education State Board for Social Work
New York Department of Education State Board for Mental Health Practitioners
Florida
Florida Board of Psychology
Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapy, and Mental Health Counseling
Ohio
Ohio Psychological Association
Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, Marriage & Family Therapists BoardOhio Chemical Dependency Professionals Board
Kentucky
Kentucky Board of Examiners in Psychology
Kentucky Board of Social Work
Kentucky Board of Licensure of Marriage and Family Therapists
Indiana
Indiana State Board of Psychology
Indiana Behavioral Health and Human Services Licensing Board
Canada
Heisel and Associates holds CE provider status for Canada.
Outside of the U.S. and Canada:
Heisel and Associates holds no CE provider status with any other non-U.S. licensing/certification boards.
It is the responsibility of attendees to contact their state licensing/certification board to determine if CE credit offered by Heisel and Associates meets the regulations of their state licensing/certification board.
There is no conflict of interest or commercial support for this program.
ADA Accommodations | Attendance | Refund Policy | Questions
ADA
All AEDP Institute Trainings are offered Live Online.
Should you need any modification or accommodation to allow you to effectively
participate, please contact Marilia Rodriguez, admin@aedpinstitute.org or call
813-5553-1294 thirty days or more before the event so we can be sure to accommodate
you.
Attendance and Makeup Policy & Refunds
• Attendance and Makeup Policy
• Refund Policy
• Grievance Policy
Course and all customer service related questions:
Please contact Customer Service Administrator
Marilia Rodriguez
admin@aedpinstitute.org
813-553-1294
Office Hours: 9:00 – 5:00 PM Eastern Time USA