Editor’s Introduction
By Gil Tunnell, PhD
Introduction to Summer Reading Issue
Welcome to our issue for “light” Summer Reading! I say “light” because there are only three articles, and each one is short.
Two articles are reviews of recently published self-help books written by Hilary Jacobs Hendel (2018) and Senior Faculty member Ron Frederick (2019). As Stephen McDonnell and Carrie Ruggieri say in their reviews, each book can be recommended to (a) lay people, (b) clients who want to know more about AEDP, (c) colleagues new to AEDP, and (d) AEDP clinicians who want a refresher course. Both Hendel and Frederick take the reader into the actual lived experience of AEDP with clients, with the added benefits of (a) revealing narratives of their own personal struggles, and (b) offering exercises for emotional mindfulness for all of us.
These articles are joined by a concise summary of the Essentials of AEDP by Portuguese therapist Hans Welling. Hans’s piece is geared to a more professional audience and can help each of us hone specific skills. As experienced AEDPers have probably heard at all-day seminars, some therapists afterwards say things like, “Well, I already do that!!” or “I help my client deal with their feelings. What else is new?” And I think to myself, “Well, I doubt you do the whole AEDP thing.” Hans tells us what the whole thing is.
Altogether, the two books reviewed here and Welling’s article on AEDP Essentials can serve as highly readable introductions to AEDP.
And, now with great fanfare (cue the drum roll!)…..
I welcome Carrie Ruggieri, our long-time AEDP Listserv discussant, as Associate Editor to the Journal. Carrie will be helping edit our very Special Issue on Therapeutic Presence to be published in early Fall. That issue will include articles by Shari Geller, Benjamin Lipton, Danny Yeung, Marc Cecil, Wendy Summers and Sigal Bahat.