Perhaps with the exception of anger, emotions are feminized and shamed in our society.  For men, this has created a pernicious demand for defensive strategies of denial and dissociation that conceal underlying shame and unbearable feelings of aloneness.  As a result, men have been thwarted from reaping the psychological and social rewards of feeling one’s emotions.  The cost of this phenomenon, not only in terms of personal well-being, but also societal development, has been great.

For gay men, growing up in a world that favors and expects heterosexuality can be a doubly alienating and traumatic experience.  From a very early age, boys become aware of homophobia and heterosexism and begin to receive clear messages that being gay is not okay.  Often these boys, adolescents and, eventually, grown men are left carrying their struggles, and the pathogenic feelings attached to being gay in a homophobic world, alone.

With its specific focus on accessing and processing emotion from a therapeutic stance of affirmation and authenticity, AEDP offers the clinician theoretical knowledge and a set of operational tools particularly well suited to address the psychological needs of men, both gay and straight.  By dyadically co-creating new, positive experiences and deeply processing adaptive emotions in the context of a supportive, authentic, emotionally engaged relationship, men can recover and discover themselves.  For straight men, this experience opens the door to possibilities of relating to themselves and others with authenticity and compassion.  For gay men, this experience goes one step further by undoing the shame of internalized homophobia and allowing their True Selves to be seen, affirmed, and integrated.

Using extensive videotape from their clinical work, the presenters will illustrate specific ways that AEDP can be used to address the therapeutic needs of men that so often center on shame and aloneness.  Through the lens of AEDP theory and technique, we will first examine the ways that AEDP’s focus on healing attachment trauma provides a framework for work with gay men.  Then, we will explore the paradoxical ways in which gay male therapists, grounded in the AEDP therapeutic stance, seem to offer unique opportunities for healing the psychological wounds of their straight male clients.

You’ll Learn:

• Men are shamed out of feeling their wired-in, adaptive emotions
• Feminization of emotions leads to a psychological crisis for boys
• Homophobia and heterosexism create feelings of otherness in gay children
• Attachment trauma can occur as a result of overwhelming experiences suffered alone
• Many gay children and adolescents are left alone with feelings of shame
• Shame and fear of being ostracized lead boys and men to create a false self to maintain attachment bonds while suffering alone with intense feelings.
• This dynamic is often intensified and compounded for gay boys and men.
• AEDP helps heal attachment trauma through its specific stance, a focus on processing emotions to completion, making the implicit explicit, privileging healthy emotional risk-taking, undoing aloneness, and meta-processing of new experiences
• AEDP provides a therapeutic opportunity for the client’s True Self to emerge

Objectives:

At the end of this program, participants will learn:

How to use the AEDP technique of metaprocessing to expand and anchor new emotional and relational experiences to help heal trauma and potentiate resilience

How homophobia and heterosexism impact our both gay and straight men

How to recognize and undo shame with male clients

How to use the AEDP stance, self-disclosure and dyadic regulation of affect to undo aloneness and foster secure connection with male clients

AEDP™ INSTITUTE  REGISTRATION AND LICENSE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND PROMISE OF CONFIDENTIALITY AND RESPECT.

By registering for this course you agree to all the terms of this license: you are purchasing a limited license to use and access the above-referenced content from the AEDP Institute and agreeing to the following terms.

This content is intended solely for the use of licensed mental health care professionals and professionals, interns, trainees and students involved in the field of psychotherapy and similar professions. This content contains training in the theory and practice of AEDP and excerpts from or descriptions of actual clinical therapy sessions with patients, as well as descriptions of patients and their treatment. These patients have graciously and generously consented to this use of their experiences.

In return, as a professional, you have two important duties: Confidentiality and Respect.

CONFIDENTIALITY: By licensing and using this content, you are agreeing to keep this content confidential. You may use this content only for its intended educational and training purposes, and you agree not to disclose this content to others. DO NOT SHARE THIS CONTENT WITHOUT THE APPROPRIATE, ADDITIONAL WRITTEN PERMISSION. (If you want to share this content with others in what you believe is an appropriate professional setting, you must first obtain that additional written permission. To that end, or for related questions, please contact admin@AEDPInstitute.org).

RESPECT: As professionals, we share an ethic of respect for our patients and for each other. Please respect the patients who have allowed their therapists to share this content in this way and respect the decision they have made to reveal themselves so that you can learn how to help other patients more effectively. Therefore, even beyond any other legal obligation of confidentiality, you agree to treat this content the same way you would treat the experiences and records of your own patients. For example, do not view this content in a public place, or in some other way that would allow others to see or hear it. Do not share any information about the patients depicted in this content that might lead to someone identifying these patients.

Professionals also respect the work of their colleagues. Therefore, you are agreeing not to infringe the intellectual property contained in and constituted by this content. For example, do not copy this content or share or distribute it in any way without the appropriate written permission (see above). 

You are also agreeing to respect the spirit in which your fellow professionals are offering this content. Psychotherapy is not an exact science, and patient responses and outcomes will always vary based on the individual and many other factors. Therefore, you are agreeing that you understand that the practices and techniques discussed in this content do not guarantee any particular patient outcome, and that the AEDP Institute and its advisors, faculty and staff (collectively, “the Institute”) are accepting no responsibility or liability whatsoever for any actions, omissions, injuries or damages by or of you or any third party. In addition, you agree that the Institute is not providing you with professional advice of any kind; does not owe you or your patients any expert, professional, heightened, special or fiduciary duty of any kind; and is not responsible for the statements or misstatements of others, intentional or otherwise.

IN NO EVENT WILL THE INSTITUTE, OR ANY PERSON OR ENTITY WITHIN THE INSTITUTE, OR DEPICTED IN THIS CONTENT BE LIABLE IN CONTRACT, IN TORT (INCLUDING FOR ITS OWN NEGLIGENCE) OR UNDER ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY (INCLUDING STRICT LIABILITY) FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR SIMILAR DAMAGES, LOST PROFITS OR REVENUES, LOSS OF USE, OR SIMILAR ECONOMIC LOSS, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF, CONTENT IN, OR INABILITY TO USE, THE CONTENT YOU ARE LICENSING.

For questions, please email us at admin@aepdinstitute.org

By registering for this course you agree to all the terms of the above license.

AEDP Institute On Demand Trainings are to be viewed on your private computer or smart device. They are intentionally not downloadable; we “stream” them. So, having a high speed Internet connection is important to having a good learning experience.

This training is intended to be viewed only by mental health professionals and students in mental health or related fields. You will be asked to provide evidence of and swear to uphold your professional credentials before completing registration and payment and receiving access to the materials.

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.