Transformance Talk 17: Agency, Will, and Desire as Core Affective Experience: Undoing Disempowerment to Foster the Emergence of the Agentic Self Transformance

Eileen M. Russell, PhD

This is a recorded talk from Wednesday October 4, 2023

Presented by: Eileen M. Russell, PhD , interviewed by Carrie Ruggieri, LMHC 


The Talk:

This talk will explore the addition of the experiences of agency, will, and desire to State 2 Core Affective Experiencing, as outlined in Eileen’s chapter 9 of the AEDP 2.0 book. We will discuss the development of the agentic self, and the manifestations of thwarted agency as is often seen in people who have been traumatized or chronically disempowered. Additionally we will discuss relational interventions that are essential to birthing this agency and transforming the patient’s experience from a maladaptive self-state 2 to an adaptive state 2 core affective self-state. We will explore the relational configurations that promote differentiation and effectively nurture the agentic self. This exploration will include Eileen’s concept of “attuned disruption” as opposed to the in-syncness that we prize in AEDP.


Meet the Presenters

Eileen M. Russell, PhD

Eileen M. Russell, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and a founding faculty member of the AEDP Institute. She began studying and training in AEDP in 1996 with Drs. Diana Fosha and Jenna Osiason. Dr. Russell has been an adjunct faculty member at NYU Medical/ Bellevue Hospital Center where she completed her internship training and later worked as a senior psychologist with individuals struggling with addiction and psychiatric diagnoses. She is currently also on the faculty of the National Institute of the Psychotherapies (NIP) Integrative Trauma Program. Her passion is AEDP, which she has taught to individuals and groups since 2004 nationally and internationally. She combines a warm and gentle clinical style with a probing and articulate interest in theory to bring out the depths of the AEDP approach. In addition to her practice with patients and consultees, Eileen enjoys expanding clinical and theoretical ideas through writing. (Read More…)

Carrie Ruggieri, LMHC, BCETS

Carrie Ruggieri, LMHC has been an active member of the AEDP Institute since completing the Immersion course in 2007. She completed core training with Kari Gleiser, Eileen Russel and Natasha Prenn, and ongoing group supervision with Ben Lipton. Carrie is an experiential assistant for the Essential Skills courses. She has been the Transformance Journal Listserve discussant since 2013 and Associate Editor for the Journal since 2019. Carrie has written on the applications of AEDP for the Transformance Journal in her articles, Laura Hillenbrand: Author as True Other: Inspiring Quantum Resilience, Vol 3,  AEDP-Informed Equine Assisted Psychotherapy, Vol 8, and AEDP Author as True Other: A Successful Application of AEDP Ethos in a Self-Help Book: A Review of Ron Frederick’s Loving Like You Mean It, Vol. 9. (Read More…)


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