Heloise (Lois) Ridley, EdD, MBA, MA, LPC, NCC

Heloise (Lois) Ridley  is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Pennsylvania and a Level 3 AEDP therapist. She earned a doctorate from Wilkes University, where she researched Counselors’ Experiences Utilizing Culturally Attuned, Trauma-Informed Care to Support BIPOC College Students’ Mental Health: A Phenomenological Qualitative Study, which included AEDP and attachment-focused therapists. Lois also holds a Master of Arts in Professional Counseling from Liberty University and an MBA from Pennsylvania State University.

Lois specializes in supporting adults struggling with connection, healthy boundaries, and communication in relationships impacted by early childhood trauma. She also provides strategic and encouraging support for caregivers navigating challenges with their children. Her work emphasizes creating corrective relational experiences that foster healing from attachment trauma.

Lois has presented on topics including Transformational Synergies in AEDP, Spirituality, and Psychedelics (AEDP Institute, 2022), Using AEDP to Access the Spiritual Core of BIPOC Clients and Facilitate Recovery from Racial Trauma (AACC World Conference, 2023), and as a guest presenter in the AEDP Immersion course on cultural considerations in promoting transformative change.

She is a founding member of the AEDP Vision Collective working to develop approaches to using AEDP to heal racialized trauma. Lois has served as an Experiential Assistant in programs such as AEDP with Applications to Racialized and Other Relational Developmental Trauma (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2023), the AEDP Vision Collective seminar Courageous & Restorative Conversations: Building Cultural Bridges, and in the AEDP Immersion course.

Jessica Slatus, LCSW

Jessica Slatus, LCSW is a Certified AEDP Therapist and Supervisor in Colorado.  She is an integral part of the AEDP Rocky Mountains community and has presented locally on a number of topics within AEDP, including the AEDP therapist stance, working with anxiety and defenses, building receptive affective capacity, and metaprocessing.  More recently, she has focused on writing and teaching about working with eating disorders using AEDP, and has authored two publications on the topic: an article in Transformance, the AEDP journal, and a book chapter co-authored with Natasha Prenn in the book Trauma-Informed Approaches to Eating Disorders.Jessica received her Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College, her Masters in Social Work from New York University, and her post-graduate training in eating disorders at the Center for the Study of Anorexia & Bulimia (CSAB).  Jessica was a participant in the inaugural AEDP Essential Skills course in 2010 and has not looked back since! (more…)

Location: Boulder, CO. USA

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Gabriela Pessoa-Mendes, BA

Gabriela is an AEDP certified clinical Psychologist and Supervisor. She has been dedicated to studying AEDP in Brazil since 2008, but it was through in-person courses in NY – Immersion (2013), ES1 (2016/ 2017) and Advanced Skills (2017/ 2018) – that she became even more delighted with the practice of the model. “Listening to Diana, it became clear to me that I was delighted beyond a model of therapy; it resonated with who I am in life.” Gabi brings an embodied AEDP presence to her work – a sense of safety, openness, curiosity, and genuine care to her clients and supervisees. Her expertise in working with trauma in psychotherapy, or doing supervision, shines through her focus on the bottom-up experience – privileging relational and somatic/emotional work.

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Location: Brazil

Sonya Parker, LCSW, RYT-200

Sonya Parker, LCSW, RYT-200, is a member of the AEDP Vision Collective and Lead Chair of the Racialized Trauma and Spirituality in AEDP Vision Collective Exploratory Group. Sonya was a copresenter in the institute-sponsored seminar, “Transformational Synergies in AEDP, Spirituality and Psychedelics” in July, 2022.

As a licensed therapist and Registered Yoga Teacher, Sonya uses a holistic approach to therapy grounded in attachment, relational, emotion and somatic-mindfulness modalities. Sonya has provided both individual and couples therapy in her career. She is currently researching constructs to expand the AEDP model to integrate spirituality as part of the transformational AEDP process of healing and mitigation of racialized trauma and oppression experienced by people of African ancestry and BIPOC communities in the United States. Sonya is also a founding member of the AEDP Institute’s Vision Collective working to develop approaches to using AEDP to heal racialized trauma.

Peter Muhwati, CSW

Peter Muhwati, CSW, is a Clinical Social Worker from Zimbabwe living in Johannesburg, South Africa who has been a guest presenter in many Immersion courses.

He uses attachment-based, experiential approaches to therapy with individuals and couples. His clinical experience also includes work within palliative care in Zimbabwe.

Peter hopes one day to be Certified in the AEDP model. He completed his higher education at Penn State University and Royal Holloway, University of London.

Following his undergraduate degree, he entered the religious life of the Franciscan Friars. He is still guided by Franciscan Spirituality. Peter is married with two children.

Della Mosley, PhD

Della Mosley, PhD  is the President of the non-profit The WELLS Healing Center (formerly the University of Florida based WELLS Healing and Research Collective). She co-founded Academics for Black Survival and Wellness (#Academics4BlackLives) with Pearis Bellamy and is the co-founder (with David Oh) of the Radical Healing Collaborative Group Practice. Della is also a proud member of the Psychology of Radical Healing Collective, and an American Psychological Association (APA) Minority Fellow.

In Dr. Mosley’s words, “I intentionally use my education and training in counseling, skills and experience conducting culturally mindful and award-winning research, history counseling Black youth and queer and transgender People of Color, experience organizing and (more…)

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