Agenda: AEDP™ in Action: Navigating the Therapeutic Journey Through Emotional Pain into Transformational Change

Date and Time: Eastern Standard Time USA + Canada

Session 1 of 6: March 5, 2024 (CE: 3.25)

12:00 – 12:30 I:  Course overview and group orientation 

12:30 – 12:40 II: Icebreaker in pairs, break out rooms

12:40 – 1:15 III: Didactic Presentation:

      a. Brief overview of AEDPs Conceptual Framework and Foundational Principles

      b. AEDP Psychotherapy’s Four State Map of the Transformational Process

      c. Therapist Stance

1:15 – 1:30 IV:  Break

1:30 – 2:00 V: Case Presentation and Video Demonstration of First Sessions

    a. Transformance Detection & amp; Affirmation

    b. Choosing an Entry Point

    c. Experiential Focus

    d. Metatherapeutic processing of moments of positive change

2:00 – 2:10 VI. Large group discussion and Reflections

2:10 – 2:40 VII: Clinical Video of First Session- Part Two

a. Processing Core Affective Experience (State 2)

b. Post-breakthrough affect

c. Metaprocessing ushers in State 3

2:40 – 3:00 VII: Small group discussions of video demonstration in breakout rooms

3:00 – 3:30 VIII: Large group discussion and Q&A 

AEDP™ in Action: Moving Through Emotional Suffering into Transformational Change



Session 2 of 6: March 19, 2024 (CE: 3.25)

12:00 – 12:15 I: Review Session 1 and Overview of Session 2

12:15 – 1:00 II: Didactic Presentation:

  1. Four State Map revisited, with State Specific Goals
  2. Moment-to-Moment Tracking, the Triangle of Experience, and therapist choice points that arise in clinical work
  3. Clinical interventions to access, deepen, and process emotion to completion  

1:00 – 1:15 III: Large Group Discussion: Comments & Questions

1:15 – 1:30 IV: Break

1:30 – 2:00 V: Case Presentation & Video Demonstration: Emotion Processing

a. Choosing an Entry Point

b. Experiential Focus

c. State 2 processing of core affect (anger) to affective shift

2:00- 2:15 VI: Large group discussion: Q & A, Reflections

2:15 – 2:45 VII: Clinical Video Demonstration (continued)

a. Metatherapeutic processing of moments of positive change yields State 3 transformational affects

b. We will witness, track, and discuss:  

  • Mastery Affects: Pride & Joy
  • Tremulousness: Positive change is unsettling
  • Mourning the Self: Grief 
  • Healing Affects: Gratitude, poignancy

2:45 – 3:10 VIII: Small group discussions in breakout rooms – discussing the video case presentation

3:10 – 3:30 IX: Large group discussion: Q & A


Session 3 of 6: April 2, 2024 (CE: 3.25)

12:00 – 12:15 I: Review Session 2 and Overview of Session 3

12:15 – 1:00 II: Didactic Presentation: State 2 Emotion processing yields State 3 Transformational Affects

  1. Differentiating the Clinical interventions of AEDP State 2 and State 3
  2. Metatherapeutic Processing revisited: Alternating rounds of experiential exploration of emergent positive affective experience and reflection on novel experience — an interative, expansive process
  3. The clinical landscape of State 3: Characteristics of six phenomenologically distinct transformational affects 

1:00 – 1:15 III: Large Group Discussion: Comments & Questions

1:15 – 1:30 IV: Break

1:30 – 2:00 V: Case Presentation & Video Demonstration: State 2 Emotion Processing Yields State 3 Transformational Affects

a. Choosing an Entry Point

b. Experiential Focus

c. Processing Core Affective Experience (Sadness, Anger, Disgust) 

d. Post-breakthrough affect 

2:00- 2:15 VI: Large group discussion: Q & A, Reflections

2:15 – 2:45 VII: Video Demonstration (Part 2): Metaprocessing cultivates flourishing

a.  Metaprocessing ushers in State 3

b.  Extending and expanding State 3 positive affective states

c. We will witness, track, and discuss emergent State 3 transformational affects: 

•     Realization affects: surprise, awe

  • Mastery affects of pride and joy
  • Healing affects: gratitude; poignancy
  • Enlivenment affects: exuberance, delight

2:45 – 3:10 VIII: Small group discussions in breakout rooms – discussing the video case presentation

3:10 – 3:30 IX: Large group discussion: Q & A



Session 4 of 6: April 16, 2024 (CE: 3.25)

12:00 – 12:15 I: Review Session 3 and Overview of Session 4

12:15 – 1:00 II: Didactic Presentation: Revisiting States 2-4

  1. Categories of State 2 Core Affective Experience (State 2 can encompass more than emotion processing)
  2. Differentiating State 3 from State 4 (Core State)
  3. The potential value of judicious affective self-disclosure 

1:00 – 1:15 III: Large Group Discussion: Comments & Questions

1:15 – 1:30 IV: Break

1:30 – 2:00 V: Case Presentation & Video Demonstration: Judicious Self-Disclosure Deepens Transformational Process

a. Affective Self-Disclosure

b. Receptive experience and receptive affective capacity

c. Metaprocessing to expand moments of positive change 

d. Core State calm, integration, and subjective sense of truth  

d. Non-linearity of transformational process in AEDP

2:00- 2:15 VI:   Large group discussion: Q & A, Reflections

2:15 – 2:45 VII:  Video Demonstration (Continued)  

2:45 – 3:10 VIII: Small group discussions in breakout rooms – discussing the video case presentation

3:10 – 3:30 IX: Large group discussion: Q & A, and closing the day



Session 5 of 6:  April 30, 2024 (CE: 3.25)

12:00 – 12:15 I: Review Session 4 and Overview of Session 5

12:15 – 1:00 II: Didactic Presentation: Further Strategies for facilitating AEDP’s Transformational Arc and Working within Traumatized Patients’ Window of  Tolerance

  1. Working with blocks to receptive experience
  2. Moment-to-moment tracking and dyadic affect regulation
  3. AEDP Therapist Stance: Beyond Empathy & Actively helping
  • Use of self & self-disclosure 
  • Willingness to adapt and repair rupture(s)

d. Intra-relational Portrayals: Self-to-part  

1:00 – 1:15 III: Large Group Discussion: Comments & Questions

1:15 – 1:30 IV: Break

1:30 – 2:00 V:  Case Presentation & Video Demonstration: Working within traumatized patient’s window of tolerance to undo unbearable states of  aloneness and process core affective experience

2:00- 2:15 VI: Large group discussion: Q & A, Reflections

2:15 – 2:45 VII: Video Demonstration (Part 2): State 2 Processing of Core Affective Experience yields Core State Integration and Unity 

2:45 – 3:10 VIII: Small group discussions in breakout rooms – discussing the video case presentation

3:10 – 3:30 IX: Large group discussion: Q & A, and closing the day



Session 6 of 6: May 14, 2024 (CE: 3.25)

12:00 – 12:15 I: Review Session 5 and Overview of Session 6

12:15 – 1:00 II: Didactic Presentation: Deepening and expanding transformational experience in the wake of suffering and loss

  1. Experiential arc from State 2 through State 3
  2. Privileging & supporting the emergence of new, positive experience
  3. State 3 transformational affects revisited: The realm of flourishing
  4. Key quality of the transformational affects is contrast  
  5. Metatherapeutic processing, revisited: Each new experience is a new departure point
  6. Therapist use of self, revisited: Recognition ofpatient’s emerging authenticity and therapist affective response(s) to the patient’s change process expand, and deepen the transformational process
  7. Art and timing of affective self-disclosure

1:00 – 1:15 III: Large Group Discussion: Comments & Questions

1:15 – 1:30 IV: Break

1:30 – 2:00 V: Case Presentation & Video Demonstration: Moving through Emo- tional Suffering into Transformational Change, with a traumatized patient

a. Imaginal work (portrayal) to facilitate emotion processing of past trauma – Inviting the impulse in patient’s affect

b. Upregulating disgust and anger

c. State 3 involves contrast between the emergent new and previous pain 

d. Therapist use of self to expand positive affective experience  

2:00- 2:15 VI: Large group discussion: Q & A, Reflections

2:15 – 2:45 VII: Video Demonstration (Part 2): 

2:45 – 3:00 VIII: Small group activity in breakout rooms (with prompt)

3:00 – 3:30 IX: Large group discussion: Q & A, reflections on the course, Evaluations