AEDP® Seminar November 6, 2026

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Differentiate normative grief, Prolonged Grief Disorder, and PTSD using established diagnostic and clinical assessment criteria.
• Apply contemporary, evidence-based models of mourning (e.g., Dual Process Model, Meaning Reconstruction) within an AEDP-informed framework to guide case conceptualization.
• Select and implement appropriate intervention strategies, including ego-supportive and experiential techniques, based on clinical presentation and the presence of co-occurring grief and trauma. 
• Identify how therapist responses (e.g., attunement, regulation, or premature reassurance) can influence patients’ capacity for adaptive emotional processing in grief.

11:00 – 11:10 AM — Welcome (10 min)

• Goals, structure, and scope of the training
• Psychological safety and workshop parameters

11:10 – 11:55 AM — 1. Framing Grief in AEDP + Contemporary Models (45 min)

• Grief as an attachment-based, adaptive affective process of re-learning; research-driven common misconceptions; overview of kinds of losses
• Grief history beyond the Western canon & contemporary models
• Grief as a dynamic process & how it shows up

11:55 AM – 12:35 PM — 2. Differential Understanding (40 min)

• Grief vs. depression, PTSD vs. Prolonged Grief Disorder 
• Pathogenic affect vs. grief; resilient/typical vs. prolonged grief
• Parallel tracks of grief and trauma, and how trauma disrupts grief
• Grief, sex & trauma

12:35 – 12:45 PM — Break (10 min)

12:45 – 1:25 PM — 3. Clinical Decision-Making (40 min)

• Identifying the primary clinical process, and sequencing care when both occur
• Ego-supportive vs therapeutic interventions
• The wider intervention landscape in grief work
• Group reflective activity

1:25 – 2:20 PM — 4. AEDP Interventions (55 min)

• Dyadic regulation and a pro-symptom approach to tracking adaptive grief without over-regulation 
• Working with psychoeducation and guilt in grief, incorporating continuing bonds and meaning reconstruction 
• The Triangle of Experience across the four states in grief
• Patient tape 

2:20 – 2:45 PM — 5. Clinical Challenges & Therapist Positioning (25 min)

• Common pitfalls and cultural bias in working with what’s “normal” 
• Therapist responses to grief: discomfort, fixing, distancing, saviorism, overregulation 
• Group reflective activity on presence and attunement 

2:45 – 3:00 PM — Q&A (15 min)

Open discussion and integration into practice

Course Content Level: Beginning
This training is approved for 3.75 continuing education credits

Continuing Education Information

To receive continuing education credit, participants must pay the applicable CE fee, attend the entire training, and complete the course evaluation. Partial credit is not available. CE certificates are issued after the evaluation is submitted.

Continuing education applications may be underway for various national and state-level boards and agencies. Please refer to the individual course page for current CE availability, approvals, and the number of continuing education credits offered for that training. For questions, please contact admin@aedpinstitute.org.

Disclosure

All planners and presenters have disclosed that they have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies. There is no commercial support for these programs, nor are there relationships between AEDP Institute, presenters, program content, research, grants, or other funding that could reasonably be construed as conflicts of interest.

Continuing Education (CE) Approvals

Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)
AEDP Institute, provider #2307, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: October 31, 2025 – October 31, 2026.

Psychologists – American Psychological Association (APA)
AEDP Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. AEDP Institute maintains responsibility for its programs and their content.

New York Psychologists
AEDP Works, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists, #PSY-0256. AEDP Works, LLC maintains responsibility for its programs and their content.

New York Social Workers (LMSWs and LCSWs)
AEDP Works, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers, #SW-0805.

National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)
AEDP Works, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7622. Counselors in all states except New York and MFTs in all states except New York and Massachusetts are eligible.

This program was developed for:
Licensed and pre-licensed mental health professionals who are practicing under the supervision of a qualified, licensed clinician. Participants typically hold (or are actively working toward) one of the following credentials:

Graduate students enrolled in accredited mental health training programs practicing under a licensed Supervisor

Psychologists (PhD, PsyD, EdD)

Psychiatrists (MD, DO)

Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW, LICSW, MSW)

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT)

Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC, LPCC, LCPC, etc.)

Licensed Mental Health Counselors (LMHC)

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners (PMHNP, APRN)

Registered Psychotherapists (as recognized regionally)

Occupational Therapists with training in mental health

Licensed or registered art, music, or dance/movement therapists

The AEDP® Model of Psychotherapy

The following statements describe the empirical foundation, accuracy, utility, scope, limitations, and clinical considerations relevant to the content presented in AEDP Courses.

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Empirical Basis

AEDP® Psychotherapy is supported by peer-reviewed empirical research published in established scholarly journals. Effectiveness studies conducted within a practice research network demonstrate significant symptom reduction (e.g., depression, maladaptive negative cognitions, interpersonal functioning, experiential avoidance) and significant increases in positive indices of mental health (e.g., self-compassion, flourishing) across diagnostic presentations (Iwakabe et al., 2020), with longitudinal follow-up findings indicating maintenance of gains at six and twelve months (Iwakabe et al., 2022). These outcome studies evaluated a 16-session AEDP treatment protocol.

Additional empirical investigations examine therapeutic process variables associated with flourishing and metatherapeutic processing (Fosha & Thoma, 2020; Fosha, Thoma, & Yeung, 2019), as well as psychometric validation of measures assessing positive affective transformation, including the Moments of Flourishing Experience Scale (Fosha et al., 2024). Collectively, this body of outcome and process research provides empirical support for the clinical principles and interventions taught in AEDP Courses.

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Accuracy, Utility, Scope and Limitations

AEDP is a transdiagnostic, transformation-oriented model of psychotherapy practiced with clients experiencing a wide range of psychological difficulties. Developed and primarily taught for individual psychotherapy, the model may be adapted by trained clinicians for work with couples, families, children, and groups when clinically appropriate; however, formal empirical research has focused primarily on its application in individual treatment.

AEDP was developed to address affective, relational, trauma-related, and depressive symptom presentations within an attachment-based, experiential framework. The empirical base is strongest for these domains, and findings from the 16-session research protocol should not be assumed to generalize automatically to all treatment formats, durations, or to individuals with severe or unstable psychiatric conditions.

AEDP was not designed as a first-line or stand-alone treatment for active psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder that is not medically stabilized, or active substance use disorders. In such cases, clinicians should ensure appropriate stabilization and integration with disorder-specific and medically coordinated care. As with all clinical models, effective application requires sound professional judgment, adherence to ethical standards, and practice within one’s scope of competence.

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Ongoing Research

Current research continues to investigate the therapeutic processes and specific AEDP interventions associated with transformational change. In addition, AEDP-informed psychotherapy is being studied in collaboration with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai within randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.

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Risks and Clinical Considerations

As with all experiential and trauma-focused psychotherapies, potential risks include temporary increases in emotional distress, activation of traumatic memories, heightened affective arousal, interpersonal sensitivity, or destabilization if interventions are misapplied or insufficiently titrated. Severe risks are uncommon but may include significant dysregulation in vulnerable individuals if adequate screening, stabilization, and monitoring are not conducted. The model emphasizes careful attunement, pacing, and ongoing assessment to mitigate these risks.