Arcs of transformation: Taxonomy of affective change using accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy.

Ronen-Setter, I. H. (2025). Arcs of transformation: Taxonomy of affective change using accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy. Practice Innovations. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/pri0000278

Emotions and feelings, often referred to as affects, are the fundamental agents of transformation in experiential therapeutic settings. This article explores psychotherapeutic affective change in the form of arcs of transformation and suggests a comprehensive taxonomy of transformation for processed affects. The term “arc of transformation” refers to the overarching sequence of an experientially processed affect and its expected outcome, from triggering conditions yielding affects to adaptive affective experience processing, resulting in appropriate transformative action tendencies and resolution, all leading to well-being and resilience. Through accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy, a research-based experiential therapeutic model, we integrate clinical observations with theoretical understandings of emotions and demonstrate the suggested taxonomy of the arcs of transformation of affective change processes in psychotherapy. Using a coherent description of the transformation expected by processing the described affects, therapists may use this article to plan their path to creating change, directed by a guided classification of adaptive outcomes that will clear their vision regarding expected goals while experientially processing a particular affect. Consequently, therapists and patients could work on emotional experiences aiming to identify, process, and promote adaptive action tendencies accompanied by healing affects, all directed toward recovery and growth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)

Impact Statement

This article explores the processes that constitute affective change through accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy. It offers a taxonomy of “arcs of transformation,” unfolding the sequence of processing core emotions toward their resolution and subsequent action tendencies. The novelty of classifying affects and their expected emotional outcomes when processed experientially has direct clinical relevance, aiding therapists in identifying the specific inner experience to be processed and its anticipated emotional resolution. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)

Copyright

Year: 2025

Holder: American Psychological Association

November 18, 2024

On behalf of Malin Endrédi and myself, it is my tremendous pleasure to announce that Magda Evans is now a certified AEDP Therapist! Malin has been Magda’s primary supervisor, and each of their reflections on their journey together are included below. I (Richard) have had the honour of supporting Magda as her certification supervisor, which has been a joy. Magda is remarkably steady, sensitive, spacious, and artful in her clinical work; and her warm, heartfelt, caring presence on behalf of her patients is powerful. She has a deep trust in the experiential process and in somatic, embodied work, and a thorough understanding of AEDP. Moreover, I am in awe of her exceptional tracking skills! Magda also has a tremendous appetite for learning and growth – her own and that of her patients. There’s so much more I could say, but instead, I encourage you to take in the richness of what follows below! 

Here’s what Malin Endrédi shared about her experience of supervising Magda:

I have been meeting with Magda Evans as her supervisor for about five years.
This journey has been a true delight for me. Magda has always shown tapes and I’ve been impressed by her work.From our start I’ve been struck by Magda’s warm presence and care for her clients. It’s been running as a red thread throughout, making her an efficient psychotherapist.

Magda’s first training was Integrative Therapy and she has been working for a long time as a psychotherapist.It’s been lovely to see Magda shifting into AEDP. The more Magda has embodied AEDP, and its tools and its stance, her wisdom, creativity, playfulness and sense of humor have come to the fore. I see Magda mastering the work in all four stages with embodied presence. Her very attuned, calm and regulating ways are helping her clients to stay within the window of tolerance, relinquish entranced defences and dare to try something new. Magda captiours  these glimmers and makes the most of them by guiding the clients to have a felt sense of it. I’m impressed by Magdas’ way of staying with and deepening Core State and helping her clients to self trust and earned secure attachment.

Magda has been an Experiential Assistant several times and as such has been highly appreciated for her calm gentleness, warmth and her way of sharing her knowledge.
She has a beautiful ability in expressing and receiving gratitude. This is important both as a psychotherapist and a human being.

Magda has an impressively strong strive to learn and grow. This has really shown up during the certification process that we started in 2023. It’s been fun to choose among all tapes together with Magda. She’s been working efficiently with the transcripts, showing her theoretical understanding of AEDP. She is very self-reflecting and has been eager to get everything right. We’ve had interesting discussions. The certification journey has been one of learning and growing, just the way it’s meant to be.  
Both of Magda’s certification tapes are very moving to me and impressive, none of them have edits.

As Magda and I are continuing to work together, I have called out a few times: Magda this is another certification tape!

Comments from AEDP certification reviewers 

Reviewer #1: Magda’s work is beautiful, healing and highly moving to witness.  Her consistent attunement, patience, respect, gentleness, somatic focus, kind non-intrusive presence, ability to let the patient’s process guide the work are interwoven throughout both videos.  She displays a deep grasp of AEDP principles and skills and fully embodies the AEDP ethos. I wholeheartedly recommend her certification and fully expect her to move on to supervisor when she is ready. I applaud all the effort and learnings she’s made to complete this process. 

Reviewer #2:  

Magda’s work is beautiful, subtle, quiet, authentic and deep.  Having spent my morning immersed in Magda‘s work, I feel deep appreciation and gratitude for my involvement with AEDP.

A statement of Magda’s client in her later treatment stage tape describing the client‘s own internal experience in the moment perfectly describes Magda’s way of working as well: „There is such a lovely stillness about it, as if it was meant to be that way.“  Magda’s capacity for deep listening and hearing, for creating space and time for transformatve unfolding of her clients‘ experience, shines out in her material.  If I were to create a business card for Magda it might draw on a statement of her early treatment stage client: „Magda Evans: Believable Presence!“

Though mastery is not required for initial certification as an AEDP therapist, Magda’s work is truly masterful.  The steady accuracy of her moment-to-moment tracking which guides her interventions at choice points; her exquisite parts work and lending of her own affective capacity to her clients; her ability to titrate the pressure of her presence to make possible new experiences of healing in relationship; her skillful use of psychoedulcational, supportive, somatic, imaginal and relational interventions, and above all, her exquisite capacity for attunement with clients with very different levels of affective capacity: this and more demonstrates that Magda has attained a level of mastery as an AEDP therapist

Magda’s reflections on her AEDP journey: 

“Having seen Diana’s presentation at the Attachment and Trauma conference in London 2017, I felt I had found my next direction as a psychotherapist.   Over the last 7yrs I have attended AEDP courses, participated as an EA on many trainings, am part of the UK AEDP cohort and continue to engage in a peer group.  During this time I have been weaving, in particular, the relational and positivity processes into my therapeutic work, having trained originally as an integrative psychotherapist, whereas, I have been using the AEDP model more specifically for those clients who have requested that therapy.   

For me, AEDP has expanded my understanding on psychobiological change processes and increased my relational connection to my clients. When I started working in this model my growth edge was working somatically in a deeper and more relational way followed by broadening and building the positive emotions in my clients, as well as, trusting the process.  So I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge, with many thanks, faculty members whose presentations and teachings enriched my knowledge and learning throughout this journey:   Diana Fosha, Kate Halliday, Ben Medley, Karen Pando Mars, Jerry Lamagna, Steve Shapiro, kari Gleiser, Ben Lipton, Karen Kranz, and Annika Medbo.

While my comprehension of AEDP has been strengthened and honed during this certification process it has also highlighted that I can be more flexible and adaptable in the way that I use the model, especially when spontaneous events happen in sessions e.g. attending to unexpected transformance glimmers, relational experiences and distractions in the here and now.  And this is what I’m growing now.

Huge thanks go to Malin Endredi, my supervisor for nearly 5 years, from whom I have learned so much.  Malin’s calm, warm, gentle presence, together with her knowledge and attention to detail, has supported and guided me throughout and, furthermore, encouraged me into becoming certified in this model.  Our work together continued with the certification process and I remain in supervision with her.   

I am also deeply grateful to Richard Harrison for his expertise, heart, and helpfulness throughout the latter part of this process.”

Please join Malin and me in congratulating Magda on this significant achievement and well-deserved recognition. You can do so by writing to her directly at: magdaevans@blueyonder.co.uk

Brava Magda! 

Warmly,

Malin Endrédi and Richard Harrison

A letter from Education Committee announcing the appointment of our newest AEDP® Institute Faculty member, 

Annika Medbo, Licensed Psychotherapist, Licensed Physiotherapist. As part of this announcement, we have shared Diana’s letter welcoming Annika aboard. The letter from Diana to Annika, below, describes some of the many contributions she has made to date to both AEDP and the AEDP community. To learn about the process for becoming Faculty, see the notes* below Diana’s letter.Please read Diana’s welcome letter and join us in congratulating and welcoming Annika into our wonderful, accomplished, dedicated and growing group of Institute Faculty.

dear faculty and supervisors,

i am delighted to add my appreciation to that of the members of the Education Committee and welcome  Annika Medbo to the Faculty of the AEDP Institute. 

in the more than 13 years that Annika has been in, and fully immersed in, AEDP, she has contributed to its growth, development and well being in a myriad of ways– teaching, supervision, community development and more recently, cutting edge clinical/ theoretical work. her many gifts and contributions have been already acknowledged by the note from the Education committee.  Annika, together with Adjunct faculty Anna Christina Sundgren, has been absolutely instrumental, in  nurturing AEDP and a vibrant AEDP community in Sweden, and  now also fostering AEDP’s budding growth in Norway.

i want to personally uplift, acknowledge and appreciate one of her contributions and one of her personal qualities: 

— Annika Medbo is contributing to the growth of AEDP as a model with important work on the SELF in AeDP. many of you have had a chance to witness and experience in her recent seminars and ES2 courses, and  to read in her brilliant monograph  in Transformance: The AEDP Journal, Finding, Forming and Transforming the Self: A Journey From No Self to Core Self.  this work advances AeDP theory and clinical practice and showcases Annika’s quiet brilliance as a caring, attuned and creative AEDP clinician, and now also as a clinical theoretician. the years she spent steeped in caregiver-infant early development work clearly inform the depth, subtlety and attunement of the work she is developing — which is about the AEDP therapist being a midwife to the Self, rescuing it from non-existence. in the process, she is also extending our understanding of the maladaptive affects and how to work with them in people arrested and stunted in their growth by deep emotional  neglect 

— i also want to acknowledge a quality that stands out: Annika’s personal integrity as a person and as a clinician.  it is a quality which is impossible to not experience whether she is teaching or doing therapy. it is remarkable and deep quality, with nothing showy about it. along with her sensitivity and attunement,  it shines through, evoking trust in in  participants in her courses, in her patients and in her colleagues

it is wonderful to have Annika Medbo join the ranks of our stellar AEDP faculty. and look forward to her ongoing contributions in many realms of AEDP life

welcome Annika!

diana*The Institute revised the way people become Faculty. Until 2023, individuals had to be invited to become faculty and invitees were approved by all other faculty. Starting two years ago, supervisors have been invited to apply to become Adjunct Faculty, and starting in 2023, Adjunct Faculty may apply to become Faculty.For Adjunct Faculty to qualify to apply for a Faculty position, they must meet many requirements including completion of a number and variety of “successful” ES1 presentations (success = being highly regarded by mentor and participants), very high proficiency as an AEDP clinician, AEDP and general teaching experience beyond ES1, community involvement and commitment, plus a multitude of personal attributes and recommendations and feedback all submitted and reviewed by the Education Committee. To see the Faculty application go 

here.Meeting the requirements is very challenging and applying is not for the faint of heart. We are so pleased that Annika has met and exceeded these requirements and so excited to welcome her into the Faculty community.Lynne on behalf of the Education Committee

Eden Abraham
Gregory Czyszczon
Goretti Faria
Lynne Hartwell
Michael Mondoro
Eileen Russell

by Karen Pando-Mars (Author), Diana Fosha (Author)

Published by Norton Professional Books

Harnessing the power of attachment to transform psychotherapy.

Research shows that attachment patterns—our patterns of relating to others, which develop in early childhood—affect far more aspects of our lives than was previously thought. Given how crucial these patterns are to how every patient relates to the world and to their own selves, how can therapists harness attachment to provide more effective therapy?

Using AEDP® psychotherapy theory and methodology as a foundation, the authors present an innovative approach that tailors treatment to attachment patterns, allowing psychotherapists to help patients heal relational trauma. Here, readers will find attachment pattern-specific clinical interventions to help them translate attachment theory into transformative clinical practice. 

Case examples are used throughout to illustrate how to handle the unique challenges that psychotherapists encounter with each attachment pattern, while engaging commentary discusses how the attachment-informed experiential/relational process leads to healing attachment trauma and facilitating security, resilience, and well-being.

AEDP®Advanced Skills March 2025

“The Therapist as Organizing Other: Regulating and building self-structure in dysregulated clients through an AEDP lens”

Presented by Jennifer Edlin, MFT

Choose from two live online options:
Full Course: Friday thru Monday | March 14 – 17, 2025   
Seminar Only: Friday & Sunday | March 14 + 16, 2025 

Join your colleagues for a 3 Hour Dinner Cruise 
Saturday, April 5, 2025 | 7:00- 10:00PM

Seats are limited, so reserve a spot now for you and any family member who may have traveled with you!

Not registered for the conference yet?