(Volume 16, Issue 1, September 2026)
Article pdf: here

Portrayals are a dynamic tool for the AEDP therapist. With historical links to Gestalt and other expressive therapies, portrayals give clients a way to co-create new and memorable imaginative experiences within the safety of the therapeutic relationship. These experiences can help undo problematic expectations about the possibilities of living and relating to others.

This article explains the underlying principles and practical techniques of portrayal work. Applicable skills and strategies will be offered to enhance the therapist’s effectiveness in setting conditions for, accompanying and closing a portrayal. Annotated transcripts for and anger portrayal and a reversal portrayal will be offered to illustrate the principles and techniques in practice. 

Transformance: The AEDP Journal is the official journal of the AEDP Institute. Transformance has been published yearly since it’s inaugral  September 2010 and has published yearly since. It represented a quantum leap into a new era for a groundbreaking model of therapy that was introduced only 10 years earlier by Diana Fosha’s influential book, The Transforming Power of Affect: A Model for Accelerated Change. The publication also provided a much needed platform for disseminating the ever evolving advances, applications, and inspirations for the rapidly growing and highly productive AEDP community.   A quick scan of the titles will reveal the vast array of topics and the tremendous fount of clinical material, in the form of session transcripts, demonstrating the application of AEDP to clinical issues such as, eating disorders, sexual abuse, work with couples, addiction, racial trauma; methodological refinements such as, adjustments to attachment style, cultivating therapeutic presence; and innovation benefitting the general field of psychotherapy such as, harnessing termination as component of the healing process and the creation of an empirically validated model of short-term AEDP.  Additionally, Transformance has featured articles on cutting edge applications of neuroscience research as well as commentary on books and movies.