Transformance Journal: Guest Presenter

Joshua DeSilva, PsyD, CGP

Joshua DeSilva, PsyD, CGP (they/them) guest presented in the AEDP Institute-sponsored seminar, “Wounds We Cannot See” in October, 2020 and currently serves on the AEDP Institute’s DBEI Committee. Joshua is a licensed psychologist in Virginia and DC. They identify as a nonbinary Latine person of queer experience. Their family immigrated from Venezuela and maintains strong ties to Latin America. Growing up in the Midwest as a first generation American and attending college and graduate school as a first generation student has powerfully impacted their sense of the importance (and difficulty) of empowering diverse groups to live and learn in spaces that have historically been oppressive and unwelcoming. Professionally, Dr. DeSilva (Josh) is the Associate Director and Director of Training at American University Counseling Center. Josh feels lucky to be a part of the future of psychology in this role. They were appointed by Governor Ralph Northam to serve as a Member of the Virginia Latino Advisory Board and currently serve as Vice Chair of the Board. (Read More…)


Elizabeth Perkins, LMFT

Elizabeth Perkins, LMFT Liz is in private practice in San Diego, California. She is a Certified AEDP Therapist and Certified AEDP Supervisor. She specializes in Complex PTSD, chronic Depression and Psychedelic integration. Liz thrives on fine-tuning her skills in her own individual supervision and while supervising others. Liz feels that AEDP has been responsible for her most memorable and meaningful breakthrough moments in sessions.

When supervising others, she loves supporting the therapist in finding their AEDP style within the theory. She is also passionate about investigating all paths to transformational healing and has been avidly researching the intersections and parallels of AEDP  & psychedelic-assisted therapy. She is MAPS trained, a member of the AEDP & MDMA Research Committee, and a founding member of the AEDP & Psychedelics Committee. In addition, she has trained in Holotropic breathwork and TRE.


Malin Endrédi

Malin Endredi is a certified AEDP Therapist and Supervisor. Her office is in Stockholm, Sweden and nowadays online too. Malin welcomes Swedish and English speaking clients and supervisees. Malin is a member of the AEDP Sweden Program Group and one of two hosts of the AEDP Salon Stockholm/Sweden. She was a copresenter in the institute-sponsored seminar, “Transformational Synergies in AEDP, Spirituality and Psychedelics” in July, 2022.

Malin started her professional life as a clinical psychologist working with distressed parents and their dysregulated babies to help create secure attachment. After 17 years she took a Swedish attachment, relational and emotion focused psychotherapist training. That’s where Malin, through an APA video, first encountered Diana’s ways of working and AEDP and it all clicked.

She became devoted and crossed the Atlantic many times to attend trainings and assisting internationally (Read More…)


Deborah Lee-Thornby, MA

Deborah Lee-Thornby, MA, is a certified AEDP therapist and an AEDP supervisor in training. She has been a Lead Assistant for countless Immersions, Essential Skills, and Advanced Skills Modules. As a founding member of the Portland Oregon AEDP Steering Committee, she has hosted AEDP faculty lead workshops in Portland and Co-Lead a Portland-based Core Training. She was a copresenter in the Institute-sponsored seminar, “Transformational Synergies in AEDP, Spirituality and Psychedelics” in July, 2022.

Deb is in private practice in Portland. She works with couples and individuals, specializing in relationships and sexuality, and complex trauma. As a certified yoga instructor, she incorporates mindfulness, breath, and movement into her work with patients. Deb has a master’s in Applied Behavioral Science from the Leadership Institute of Seattle. She is an IPI-certified Psychedelic Assisted Therapist and continues exploring the varieties of psychedelic therapies that integrate well with AEDP.  
(Read More…)


Idit Ronen-Setter, MFT

Idit Ronen-Setter, MFT is a certified AEDP therapist and supervisor, working in Israel. Idit has received her MA and Family Therapy Certification from Tel Aviv University and has practiced therapy with individuals, couples and families, in Aluma Therapy Center and private practice, since 2006. She completed the certified studies of treatment of stress and trauma, at The Trauma Center (Boston, MA), directed by Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk (2013-2014).

Nowadays, Idit is teaching family therapy and AEDP through the Ministry of Social Services, and through the Israeli Association of Couples and Family Therapy. Since June 2018, Idit has been appointed the formal AEDP liaison for the Israeli community. In addition, since 2015 she is supervising a medical forum for couples (Read More…)


Kaori Stram, LMHC

Kaori Stram, LMHC is a certified AEDP therapist and supervisor. She is a licensed psychotherapist in private practice in New York.  Her AEDP journey started in 2014 when she was first introduced to the work of Yuko Hanakawa and attracted to its warm heart-to-heart connection between a therapist and a client.  She has assisted many courses in-person and online as an experiential assistant and lead assistant.  Since 2021, she has presented at Immersion and ES1 courses as well as trained Japanese therapists in Japan.

Kaori is also participating in an AEDP 16-session research project as a treating therapist.

Her passion is to help spread AEDP to Japan where she originally comes from and has been actively involved in the AEDP Japanese community.


Yuko Parris, LMHC

Yuko Parris LMHC is a certified AEDP therapist and supervisor, holding a New York state license for psychotherapy in private practice. Originally from Japan, Yuko brings over 20 years of experience in the United States, enriching her practice with a deep bi-cultural perspective. She works with clients of various cultural backgrounds, including those dealing with attachment trauma and intergenerational trauma, integrating AEDP ethos to enhance the therapeutic experience.

Yuko serves as a supervisor for AEDP therapists both in the U.S. and Japan. She provides both individual and group supervision. She has presented at AEDP Immersion training in the U.S. and has been a dedicated teacher in numerous AEDP workshops and trainings held in Japan. She has supported various AEDP training programs, including Immersion, Essential Skill, and Advanced Skill, serving as both a lead assistant and experiential assistant on numerous occasions.

(Read More…)


Martina Verba, LCSW, DSW

Martina Verba, LCSW, DSW is a certified AEDP therapist and supervisor in private practice in Westchester County, NY. She fell in love with AEDP when she took Diana’s Immersion course in 2008. She has both assisted and lead-assisted for Immersion and Essential Skills, as well as presented at Immersion. She has extensive experience working with patients with eating disorders and has developed a practice that integrates eating disorder treatment and AEDP. She is on the faculty of the Integrative Trauma Treatment Program at the National Institute of Psychotherapies.

Prior to finding AEDP, Martina worked as an eating disorder specialist at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California, a staff therapist at Harvard University’s mental health service, an adjunct professor at Simmons College, and the Director of Counseling at a program for at-risk youth in Boston. (Read More…)


Judy Silberstein, LCSW 

Judy Silberstein, LCSW has been an experiential therapist for over 30 years and has a private practice in NYC. She has been in small group/individual supervision with Diana Fosha & Natasha Prenn and has assisted in Immersion, Essential Skills (ES1 & ES2). She is the co-chair of AEDP Metro NYC – a salon style learning community dedicated to nurturing and growing AEDP in the metropolitan area.

With her roots in somatic therapy, Judy specializes in using the intersubjective field and AEDP–IR to help process and heal traumatized clients and their parts. (Read More…)


Andrew Joseph, EdM, MA, LMHC

Andrew Joseph, EdM, MA, LMHC (Research Associate, Guest Presenter in Immersion 2022), is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from Trinity Western University in Langley, BC, and an MA and EdM in psychological counseling and mental health counseling from Teachers College, Columbia University in New York. Andrew was recruited by his Marriage and Family Therapy professor at Columbia, Gil Tunnell, to work with Diana Fosha. Diana introduced Andrew to her co-leaders of the AEDP research project, Jenn Edlin and Shigeru Iwakabe, who invited Andrew to join the AEDP research team as a research assistant in 2018. Andrew was promoted to Research Associate in 2021. (Read More…)