Clinician’s Corner

Description: I will explore subtle, often nonverbal cues—implicit relational messages (IRMs)—that shape the therapeutic relationship. Drawing on mother-infant studies, clinical tape, and doctoral research, we’ll look at how facial expressions, prosody, gestures, pauses, and eye contact naturally communicate affect, support real-time attunement, and allow meaningful, profound, even sacred moments to emerge in therapy.

We’ll also touch on the initial messiness—the anxiety or tension that often arises when therapist and patient are “finding their shared frequency”—and how it gradually gives way as connection deepens. The aim is to offer a tangible sense of the rhythms, micro-cues, and subtle relational currents that bring these moments to life.

About the Presenter: Leah Subar, MSc, is an AEDP certified therapist, supervisor-in-training, and doctoral student living in Israel. Her research explores how therapists’ implicit relational messages surround and shape extraordinary moments in therapy — from the patient’s perspective. Leah has shared her work and research in professional settings and is currently introducing AEDP to clinicians at Kav L’noar, a mental health organization serving youth and families in Israel. Since 2021, she has also been a participant clinician in AEDP’s Practice-Research Network (PRN) 16-session study, bringing her clinical voice into the collective effort to advance AEDP research.  

Description: This presentation features video excerpts from a psychotherapy session using a format inspired by psychedelic-assisted therapy, yet without the administration of any psychedelic substances, along with integration sessions featuring state 3 and 4 work. This non-ordinary setting supports deep, abstract, and imaginal emotional processes commonly associated with psychedelic experiences (Grof, 2000; Carhart-Harris et al., 2014), and amplifies the imaginal techniques central to AEDP.

The session work demonstrates how this format, combined with AEDP’s focus on somatic tracking, relational safety, and experiential processing, facilitates access to core affective states and the transformation of trauma and shame. The client is supported in experiencing a heightened internal focus that promotes emotional release, memory reconsolidation, and the emergence of a centered, spiritually integrated self-state.

The presentation will include clinical rationale, theoretical underpinnings, and reflections on how psychedelic-informed frameworks can meaningfully enrich depth psychotherapy—without the legal, logistical, or physiological complexities of pharmacological interventions.

About the Presenter: Jason Trowbridge, MA, MFT is a certified AEDP therapist with a specialization in Intra-Relational (IR) AEDP parts work. With deep care and presence, Jason supports clients in healing trauma and rediscovering their innate resilience and wholeness.  An active voice in the AEDP community, Jason has presented at professional trainings including AEDP, Spirituality, and Psychedelics, Essential Skills, and the In It Together Conference.

In addition to his clinical work, Jason has contributed to research through the AEDP Research Study and a collaboration between MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) and the AEDP Institute. This research deepened his interest in the synergistic potential of AEDP and psychedelic-assisted therapy—particularly AEDP’s unique capacity to help integrate and transform the profound experiences often accessed in psychedelic work.

Description: A central aspect of my intervention with this client has been offering my full therapeutic presence and cultivating a co-created sense of safety and deep empathy. This holding environment has been essential in supporting her through the intensity of her grief, helping her to stay regulated and not become overwhelmed or go maladaptive in response to her situation.

When her son overdosed and had to be resuscitated, her response was not shaped by typical fear alone; rather, she was flooded and internally overwhelmed (State 1). She lacked the internal and relational resources to process what was happening. We focused on fostering a secure base within the therapeutic relationship, allowing her to begin to access and process her core adaptive emotions—such as fear and sadness— in a way that felt safe and tolerable (State 2)

Rather than experiencing grief and immediately arriving at calm on her own, it was the relational experience of being tracked, seen, and held in my therapeutic presence that allowed her nervous system to settle. She was able to move from dysregulation into a state of calm and peace (State 3 & 4). In this clinical video, this shift was so profound that she was able to fall asleep—an indication of deep
regulation and safety.

This work reflects state 2 relational and somatic interventions that were adaptive and transformative. It parallels what we observe in infant-caregiver studies: a distressed infant is soothed through attuned presence and moment-to-moment responsiveness. Similarly, my client—through the co-created, regulated dyad—was able to experience what had previously felt unmanageable and come to a place of internal rest and integration (State 4).

About the Presenter: James Santos is an AEDP Certified Therapist and a member of the AEDP DBEI committee. James Santos provides a passion and presence to promote diversity, belonging, equity and inclusion. James Santos has worked in many multicultural settings in downtown Lousiville, KY, and led trips internationally where he provided pastoral care and education, helping groups navigate new cultural and spiritual experiences.

James’s areas of competency and experience include being a practitioner, educator, and facilitator of diversity and inclusion in various contexts. In addition to his private practice work at Cornerstone Care, James serves as a corporate chaplain and life coach at Manna Inc. providing emotional and spiritual care.

“Originally born in the Philippines and raised in the panhandle of Florida, I love reading, writing, playing the piano, mountain biking, trail-running, drinking a good pour-over coffee, connecting with friends, playing cards with my 5 kiddos, and eating out with my beautiful wife, Terra.