Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I am delighted to announce that Aarti Mathur is now a Certified AEDP therapist.  Aarti brings a lovely, rich balance of heart and mind to her AEDP work:  Wisdom, palpable warmheartedness, intellect, intuition, and spacious embodiment — along with a refined ability to track and use patients’ images and metaphors, to powerful effect, while working experientially.  She inhabits and exudes the AEDP therapist stance so fully, as though she were metaphorically bathing her patients in recognition, loving care, and respect. Her artful, sensitive work is also informed by left brain/ conceptual understanding of the AEDP model and its theoretical tenets, and maps, which she has clearly articulated in her annotated transcripts. Aarti’s openness and appetite for growth and new learning have added to my pleasure in being her AEDP certification supervisor. 

While there is so much more I could say, I invite you, instead, to read how Aarti’s certification reviewers responded to her work: 

Reviewer #1

Aarti demonstrates a masterful understanding and practice of the AEDP model. I felt moved by the care, warmth and attunement shown in both pieces of her work, and this powerful therapeutic stance led her clients to have deeply healing experiences in relation to being and feeling seen by her. Aarti did a beautiful job of working with state 1 in her early treatment video, by affirming/ appreciating defenses which in turn reduced shame and helped her client begin to have access to adaptive anger and pain. Right out of the gate, Aarti began weaving in relational interventions to undo her client’s aloneness around a currently painful, if not, traumatic event.

In her second video, Aarti masterfully demonstrates her ability to focus the entire session on experiential work and processing, with little to no “content” or storyline. It was inspiring to see her seize and stay with her target – to help her client have a corrective emotional experience of feeling loved and praised – and how she astutely facilitated deep healing by processing this to completion.

Reviewer #2

Aarti demonstrates a deep and embodied understanding of AEDP theory and practice. She brings this knowledge alive in the room, tracking her patient moment by moment with attunement and care. I felt my own heart warm with excitement as I watched her stay with, nurture, and gently deepen her patient’s Core State. Her strong self-reflective capacity shows how dedicated she is to continually learning and growing on behalf of her patients. Aarti brings a sense of playfulness and genuine delight to her work. Even reading the transcript lifted my heart.

Aarti’s reflections on her AEDP journey:

My journey with the AEDP model started as part of my personal journey with a therapist trained in AEDP among other modalities. As I explored the model, I was drawn to the therapist stance of an attuned, reliable ‘other’, the focus on minimizing hierarchy and amplifying authenticity and explicitness in the relational system. Although I have been trained in different modalities, AEDP has offered me a road map that feels indispensable, deeply grounding and feels like home.

I am deeply grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Richard Harrison, whose guidance and wisdom has expanded my capacity to hold space for transformation. He held me through the ebb and flow of the certification process with compassion and an attuned presence. It allowed me first hand to experience the healing power of being seen. His nuanced feedback has continually refined my conceptual and clinical skills. I am very thankful to Dr. Kari Gleiser for an opportunity to participate in group supervision with her. Her steady presence and insights have helped integrate intra-relational work with my clients.  I am indebted to my clients who continue to be great teachers. The AEDP community at large, the amazing lead assistants, experiential assistants, the courageous co-participants in trainings have shaped my growth, deepened my trust in the model and illuminated the transformative power of relational presence. The visceral impact of the interventions practiced as a participant in trainings was compelling and revelatory of my strengths and areas of growth, personally and professionally. My AEDP therapist has been a consistent, attuned other and has helped me to embody the power of the model in my own practice. I carry the invaluable lessons from my mentors in the therapy room where they guide my clinical interventions and beyond the therapy room where they continue to shape how I move through the world- with greater authenticity, vulnerability and compassion. I am honored to be part of the AEDP community. 

Please join me in congratulating Aarti on this significant achievement and well-deserved recognition. You can do so by writing to her directly at: draartimathur@gmail.com

Brava Aarti!

With warmth and joy, 

Richard

Richard Harrison, Certification Supervisor

AEDP Institute Faculty 

Dear Beloved Community,

It is with great joy that Wendy Summer and I announce that Jesse Luckett is now a Certified AEDP Therapist! 

It has been a total pleasure working with Jesse and getting to witness his beautiful work. He has such a kind, caring heart that manifests in a compassionate presence which engenders much safety and trust. This allows his clients to reach deeply vulnerable places. Jesse also truly delights in his clients and they feel so seen and valued. His heart is equally matched with his skill in working with defenses and dyadically regulating anxiety. His presence allows for very attuned moment-to-moment processing as well as attention to somatic experience. Jesse is quite skillful in facilitating State II transformational experience through the use of intrarelational portrayals as seen in his tapes. These two clients had very powerful transformational experiences and Jesse is quite adept at meta processing the transformational affects and fostering the integration of core state experience. He knows the model!

Well done and much congratulations, Jesse! We are so fortunate to have you in our community!

Wendy’s reflections on her supervision with Jesse:

Jesse is a long-time colleague whose love for AEDP has been a gift to his clients and professional community (in Charlottesville, Va. USA) for many years. His kind, open, present, attuned, responsive therapeutic stance is a thing of beauty. He is somehow able to be both slowed down AND active, responding skillfully to micro changes in his clients, all the while moving them towards a target. This deft work is overtly imbued with love and his unique Jesse presence.

Jesse’s certification session with a long-distance truck driver is a gorgeous example of his work, highlighting his ability to meet this client respectfully, with so much care and understanding. The safe holding that Jesse creates allows his client to touch into long-held hurt places, never before accessed, shining the first rays of light onto these pathogenic-self parts. This is AEDP magic at its finest.

It is an honor to welcome Jesse into the Certified Therapist circle. His work, his presence and his heart as a clinician and human being are a gift to all of us around him. Congratulations Jesse!

Reviewer’s comments:

Jesse is so welcoming of his patients, and very very spacious in his work. His use of self is powerful. His very presence (which is steady, centered, solid, soothing)  helps melt defenses and he feels very trustworthy. His voice is soft yet strong and inviting. He is undaunted by patients‘ shame, and really shows up on behalf of the people he works with, even when they can’t be there for themselves. He slows down for affect, and invites embodied experience. He is skilled in using parts work to facilitate a transformative experience. I feel ease and joy as he delights in his patients and their transformational process. And I appreciate how he energetically resonates with core state  experience as he witnesses and collaborates in the emergence of new meaning, truth sense, and integration.

Second Reviewer comments:

This is a beautiful tape, depicting deep, collaborative work. The therapist, in a humble and attuned way, really takes on the role of an older, wiser, safety-building, organizing Adult. He helps the client negotiate and understand his different parts and beautifully facilitates a deep experience of state two processing… There is notable and careful moment-to-moment tracking throughout…There is also really beautiful work bypassing defenses to reach the core emotions and the traumatized part. The therapist clearly understands the principals of AEDP, knows where he is on the AEDP maps and is able to make informed decisions while staying present and experiential.

And regarding Tape 2: This tape is another beautiful depiction of deep, collaborative work. Right from the beginning, the therapist skillfully slows the process down, making space for the client’s worry and anxiety, holding it with the intention of helping to regulate and understand it so that emotions can eventually emerge…Throughout the tape, the therapist does a beautiful job being guided by the AEDP map, creating safety and making room for affective experiences. He tracks moment to moment, responding quickly and flexibly with interventions that deepen affect and move away from defenses…Overall, this is beautiful, collaborative, and nuanced work — warm, safe, and deeply experiential.

Jesse’s reflections on his AEDP journey:

I feel a deep sense of gratitude for my journey as an AEDP therapist.  Through the process of studying and practicing AEDP I have gained the embodied capacity to be deeply attuned and connected with clients in their process of healing and growth. I have come to recognize that this capacity is only accessible when I remain committed to my own healing and healthy connection to myself and others.

I am in awe of my clients’ courage and willingness to trust me to accompany them in uncovering and moving towards the feelings and parts of themselves which were previously unbearable or unknown. AEDP is geared towards the discovery of joy and appreciation for life itself and it allows me to find and connect with my own sense of joy in this process of working with others. I am grateful for this opportunity to integrate my work as therapist into the broader journey of becoming a more genuine, whole and loving person. It helps me to be a better father, husband, son, friend and human.  Ultimately, AEDP helps to provide me with a deeper sense of purpose, clarity and compassion for this sacred, beautiful, and chaotic world in which we live and to embrace the shared responsibility of showing up in the world with a brave and open heart.

So, please join us in celebrating Jesse’s wonderful accomplishment in becoming a Certified AEDP Therapist. You can share your acknowledgements with Jesse at:  <jluckettus@yahoo.com>

With much excitement and delight,

Steve