AEDP® Essential Skills June 2025
Nickname: Vela
Presented by AEDP Institute Faculty
Five 4-day Modules
Starting June 2025 – February 2026
Live Online & Highly Interactive
Take your Skills to the Next Level
Participants emerge from Essential Skills with both an understanding and a felt sense of how to “do” AEDP.
Description
AEDP Essential Skills provides practical skills for the application of AEDP as well as a thorough immersion in the theory underlying the practice.
In 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.
- Module 1: Healing from the Get-Go: a Clinical Roadmap for the AEDP Transformational Journey
- Module 2: Attachment and 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: State 3 & State 4 Work: The Processing of Transformational Experience & The Integration of Transformation into Self
Hallmarks of Training
Faculty, experiential assistants and clinical video. These are the hallmarks of AEDP training. In AEDP, we pride ourselves in how thoroughly and deeply we seek to both undo professional aloneness and engage in rigorous clinical teaching. Our faculty are excellent as academics, clinicians and teachers.
Prerequisites
Essential skills is open to all licensed mental health practitioners who have completed the Immersion Course – see course pages for more details. This course is a prerequisite for the Advanced Skills training. While it counts toward certification, you don’t need to be pursuing certification to attend.
Course Objectives & Agenda
Presented by Benjamin Lipton, LCSW
Healing from the Get-Go, Undoing Aloneness & the Clinical Roadmap for the AEDP Transformation Journey
- Participants will be able to describe how transformance, a central construct in AEDP psychotherapy, drives positive change.
- Participants will be able to describe the AEDP 4-State Transformational Model and cite each of the 4 states.
- Participants will be able to describe the concept of ‘undoing aloneness’ and how it gets put into practice in the relational co-creation of safety.
- Participants will be able to state the vitality affects of transformative change which occurs during therapy.
- Participants will be able to role-play “meta-therapeutic” processing from a client’s perspective.
- Participants will be able to demonstrate moment-to-moment tracking.
Presented by Karen Pando-Mars, MFT
Attachment and Relational Work: Undoing Aloneness in Clinical Action
- Participants will be able to describe how attachment history informs emotional experience and sense of self.
- Participants will be able to apply the Self-Other-Emotion Triangle, as a framework for guiding relational interventions.
- Participants will be able to target their relational interventions to correspond to where the client is on the Self-Other-Emotion Triangle.
- Participants will role-play how to embody the AEDP stance of explicit care and compassion for the client.
- Participants will be able to name and identify receptive affective experiences and the blocks, i.e., defenses against them.
- Participants will be able to tailor interventions to attachment styles.
Presented byAnna Christina Sundgren, MA
The Top of the Triangle of Experience Working with Defense and Anxiety
- Participants will be able to describe the AEDP Triangle of Experience.
- Participants will be able to describe and name different types of defenses.
- Participants will be able to describe Cost/benefit analysis of defenses and their consequences.
- Participants will be able to apply interventions to soften and bypass defenses.
- Participants will be able to describe AEDP Self-at-Best versions of the triangle.
- Participants will be able to name multiple AEDP interventions to reduce anxiety.
- Participants will be able to role-play intervention strategies for reducing defenses and anxiety.
Presented by Mary Androff, MD
The Processing of Core Affective Experience
- Participants will be able to name the different kinds of core affective experiences and different kind of experiential processing that can be used to work with them.
- Participants will be able to utilize moment-to-moment tracking, a foundational AEDP skill, to assess the client’s experience State 2 therapeutic interventions, and their effectiveness.
- Participants will be able to describe and process a core affective experience to completion, or to a corrective emotional experience.
- Participants will be able to define the technique of “portrayal” and describe its clinical uses in facilitating the processing of affective experiences to completion.
- Participants will be able to name 3 different types of portrayals used to process core affective experience.
Presented by Benjamin Lipton, LCSW
The Processing of Transformational Experience & The Integration of Transformation into Self
- Participants will be able to apply the 4 state map of AEDP as a framework for processing the full range of affects
- Participants will be able to track the process of affective experience across the 4 State map of AEDP.
- Participants will be able to target their interventions to correspond to where the client is on the 4 State map of AEDP.
- Participants will be able to list 6 transformational affects in AEDP that lead to transformative change to maximize patient’s healing.
- Participants will be able to utilize Metaprocessing, ie. the process of reflecting on positive therapeutic experiences, as a primary focus of facilitating and integrating emergent, adaptive therapeutic changes.
- Participants will be able to demonstrate how to help a client develop a new working model of secure attachment and relational capacity.
- Participants will be able to demonstrate how a therapist’s mindful, authentic open-hearted embrace of a patient’s gratitude facilitates transformance.
- Participants will be able to describe how to facilitate state transformations.
- Participants will be able to describe how transformance is the overarching motivational force driving positive change.
- Participants will be able to utilized moment-to-moment tracking to assess the client’s experience of the effectiveness of AEDP therapeutic interventions.
- Participants will role-play how to promote client’s safety, how to use tracking, how to regulate anxiety, how to metaprocess, and how to apply state specific interventions.
- Participants will role-play how to assess markers of transformation in the client, how to express affirmation, how to bypass defenses, and how to embody the AEDP stance of explicit care and compassion for the client.
AEDP psychotherapy is an empirically supported model that heals trauma and helps to undo aloneness by championing the innate healing capacity of neuroplasticity in a safe, attached therapeutic relationship.
Through moment-to-moment, in-depth processing of difficult emotional and relational experiences, AEDP clinicians help clients recover their sense of core self and experience increased resilience and a renewed zest for life.
AEDP has roots in many disciplines including interpersonal neurobiology, attachment theory, emotion theory and affective neuroscience, body-focused approaches as well as transformational studies.
As a clinical treatment, AEDP is effective with a variety of psychological symptoms and issues, including depression, emotion dysregulation, negative thoughts, experiential avoidance, and interpersonal problems. AEDP is also effective in enhancing positive functioning such as self-compassion, well-being, and self-esteem.
Information Coming soon!
Meet The Presenters
Benjamin Lipton, LCSW
Karen Pando-Mars, MFT
Anna Christina Sundgren, MA
Mary Androff, MD
Dates, Times & Setting
Participants must commit to all five modules
Please check all dates and times closely for conflicts with local holidays, religious holidays, etc.
All times are Eastern Standard (New York)
Dates and Presenter
Module 1 | June 20 – 23, 2025 | Benjamin Lipton, LCSW
Module 2 | July 25 – 28, 2025 | Karen Pando-Mars, MFT
Module 3 | September 5 – 8, 2025 | Anna Christina Sundgren, MA
Module 4 | November 7 – 10, 2025 | Mary Androff, MD
Module 5 | February 6 – 9, 2026 | Benjamin Lipton, LCSW
Times
11:00 AM – 3:30 PM EST
11:00 AM – 3:30 PM EST
11:00 AM – 3:30 PM EST
11:00 AM – 3:30 PM EST
11:00 AM – 3:30 PM EST
Registration, Fees & Scholarships
Non-Member
Registration
Single Payment
$3259
Non-Member
Registration
Payment Plan
$3309
$500 deposit due at registrations + 8 payments of $351.13
Scholarships
Limited Scholarships available for this course
To be Eligible to Attend
Must be Level 1: a graduate of Immersion with the licensing credentials listed below.
Licensing Credentials
North America: Licensed mental health practitioners as well as therapists practicing under the license of a supervising professional.
Beyond North America: Mental health professionals who hold licensure equivalent to North American standards including ongoing affiliation with an organization responsible for issuing and overseeing mental health credentials in their country or region.
Important Notes:
Coaching licenses and other non-psychotherapy specific licenses are not eligible
If you’re unsure about the relevance of this course for you, or your eligibility, please contact admin@aedpinstitute.org with your credentials before registering.
Attendance and Make up Policy
Institute Sponsored Courses Including Immersion, Essential Skills, Advanced Skill Modules, Seminars/Webinars and Institute Sponsored Core Trainings
The AEDP Institute does not offer make-ups for missed course days. In the rare case where someone joins a course late, or misses a session in the middle of a course, the hour(s) or day(s) that person misses cannot be made up. Why? Group dynamics developed during a course are essential to the course’s success; so someone coming into a course for a short period of time is – regardless of their best intentions – disruptive to other participants and the course’s overall success. The Institute will, however, provide handouts from missed hours or days but will not allow a person to make up the hours or days they miss in another course.
AEDP Level credit: if a participant attends 80% or more of a course, the Institute will apply the course towards AEDP Level advancement
Refunds and Cancellations
Program Cancellation/Changes
The AEDP Institute reserves the right to cancel a training/ program prior to its start, in which case full refunds will be issued to participants for any tuition fees paid for the program. The AEDP Institute is not responsible for participant expenses including travel, childcare, missed practice sessions, etc.
In the rare situation that the AEDP Institute makes changes to advertised presenter(s), tuition fees will not be refunded.
By adhering to these policies, we aim to ensure a fair and consistent approach to cancellations, refunds, and transfer requests.
Canceling 16 or More Days Before a Course or Seminar:
- Refund: 85% of your course fee.
Canceling 1-15 Days Before a Course or Seminar:
- No Refund
- An Institute credit of 85% of your course fee will be provided for use towards a future course.
Canceling / Withdrawing / No Show on the 1st Day or During a Course or Seminar:
- No refund
- No credit
Transfer Requests Made 45+ Days Before Course Start:
- Requests will be accommodated wherever possible without financial penalty.
Transfer Requests Made 44-1 Days Before Course Start:
- $200 Transfer fee Applied to new course
Participants in Multi-Module Essential Skills (ES1) Courses:
- Requests to transfer from one ES1 course series to another are highly disruptive and rarely possible.
- Exception: In rare and extreme circumstances where an exception is made, a $200 transfer fee will be charged
Refund Policy for Institute Sponsored On Demand (recorded) Seminars
If for any reason you are unsatisfied with an Institute sponsored (recorded) On Demand Seminar, please email admin@aedpinstitute.org with an explanation of why you are dissatisfied. We will offer, one time per person, a credit for your payment, less a 15% banking and administrative fee that you may apply to a different (recorded) On Demand seminar.
Important Links
Privacy Policy
This privacy policy describes how we treat the information you choose to provide through this site. Please take a few moments to read this privacy policy carefully. If you have any questions, please contact us.
What personal information will we collect?
We will collect information that identifies you (“personal information”) only when you voluntarily provide it to us. For example, when you decide to register online for free information or in order to purchase and pay for a course, to sign up for paid annual membership with access to the AEDP Listserve and Transformance Journal, we will ask you to provide some personal information, such as your first and last name, and email address. When we collect such information, we will make every effort to link to this privacy policy.
How will we use this information? We will use this personal information to fulfill your online requests. For example, if you sign up for our paid annual membership, we will use your personal information to process your request and to give you access online to the Transformance Journal. We also may use this information to notify you of special offers, new courses, and other training that might interest you. If at any time you decide that you do not wish to receive these types of communications, simply follow the unsubscribe features contained in any email from us.
We will never sell your information to anyone.
We may also use this information in aggregate form in various ways; for example, to help us evaluate and modify existing services, and to help us develop additional services and training courses that are likely to interest other therapy professionals. The AEDP Institute may do research on our users’ demographics, interests, and behavior based on the information provided to us upon registration, during a promotion, from our server log files, and from surveys. We do this to better understand and serve our users.
Under confidentiality agreements, the AEDP Institute may share this aggregated data—not your personal information—with advertisers or business partners. Also, the AEDP Institute may disclose aggregated user statistics in order to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers, and other third parties, and for other lawful purposes.
With whom will we share this information? We will share your email with companies that assist in fulfilling our Listserve. We allow access to our database by third parties that provide us with services, such as technical maintenance, but only for the purpose of and to the extent necessary to provide you with those services. Any third party that has access to our database for this purpose is bound by the terms set forth in this policy.
If you opt in on the email form, we may share your personal information that we collect online with our current or future affiliated companies and with select third parties that may email you information or special offerings about products or services that we believe may interest you. It is your choice to allow us to disclose your personal information to third parties for this purpose, and your choice will not affect the cost of your service. This free choice also applies to personal information that we collect from you offline, and you can choose not to have information shared by us with third parties for marketing by calling, writing, or emailing us.
In any event, please note that we do not hold and will not share your credit card information for any purposes purposes. Finally, we may be required to disclose personal information by law or legal process, to protect and defend the rights or property of the AEDP Institute, or to protect the personal safety of our website users and customers. We reserve the right to contact appropriate authorities when activities that are illegal or violate our policies are taking place on our website.
How do we protect this information? We take reasonable measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access through the use of encryption and network firewalls. We also safeguard your personal information from unauthorized access by limiting the number of employees permitted to access such information and by having in place processes for disciplinary action where appropriate. However, as effective as these measures are, no security system is impenetrable. We cannot guarantee the security of our database, nor can we guarantee that the information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet. We do not store credit card information in any form.
What non-personal information will we collect? In some instances, our site may collect information about you that is not personally identifiable, as described below.
Cookies . We may collect certain non-personal information through the use of “cookies” — small text files placed on your hard drive that recognize repeat visitors, facilitate ongoing access to the site, and allow the site to understand how and when pages are visited and by how many people. We use cookies primarily to make improvements and updates to our site based on which areas are popular and which are not. Cookies also make web-surfing easier by saving your passwords and preferences when you visit our site. Most browsers are designed to accept cookies. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies; however, some parts of our site may be considerably slower if you do so.
Internet Protocol Addresses. An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a number automatically assigned to your computer whenever you access the Internet. If you request pages from this site, our server will enter your IP address into a log. We may use this information to measure site traffic for purposes of system administration. This information generally is not linked to any personal information, but in some cases, it may be possible to contact a user through his or her IP address. Although it is not our policy to attempt such contact, and we do not to release this information to third parties, we reserve the right to use this information to identify and, when appropriate, prosecute anyone who threatens our service, site, customers, and/or others. We also may release logged information to comply with any legal process.
What about kids? We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13. In the event that we learn that we have collected any personal information from a child under the age of 13 without parental consent, we will delete that information from our database as quickly as possible.
External Links . Our website may provide links to various websites that we do not control. When you click on one of these links, you will be transferred from our site and connected to the website of the organization or company that you selected. Even if an affiliation exists between this site and another site, we exercise no control over linked sites. Each of these linked sites maintains its own independent privacy and data-collection policies and procedures. If you visit a website that is linked to this site, you should consult that site’s privacy policy before providing that site with any of your personal information.
Terms, Changes and Questions. By providing personal information through this website, you signify your agreement to the terms of our privacy policy. If you do not agree with these terms, please do not disclose any personal information through this site.
You will be responsible for all charges, if any, incurred while your account is being used, including payment for any goods or services.
This website service is available “as is.” We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted or error-free. We are not responsible for the availability or content of other services that may be linked to from this website. We do not make any warranties, express or implied with respect to this website service. We reserve the right to correct any errors or omissions. Although we take reasonable steps to prevent the introduction of viruses, worms, “Trojan horses,” or other destructive materials to this service, we do not guarantee or warrant that this service or materials that may be downloaded from this service do not contain such destructive features.
Technology on the Internet is developing at a rapid pace, and we need to maintain our flexibility in the online arena. If we need to change our policy in the future, we will post these changes as soon as they go into effect.
If you have any questions or comments about this policy or our use of personal information, please contact us. We will use reasonable efforts to promptly investigate any complaint you may have regarding our use of personal information or this website’s function.
Anonymous Suggestions or Grievances
To make an anonymous suggestion or file an anonymous grievance, please click here. Note that the system allows for you to include your email address if you want to engage with the Institute anonymously.
ADA
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.
Questions
Please contact Customer Service Administrator
Marilia Rodriguez
admin@aedpinstitute.org
813-553-1294
Office Hours: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Eastern (USA)