Transformance Journal: Volume 5

Editor’s Letter

By Gil Tunnell, PhD

After months of finding my “sea legs” as the new editor of Transformance: The AEDP Journal, I am very excited to launch Volume 5.  I thank the inaugural editors of Transformance, Natasha Prenn and Kari Gleiser, for their vision and enthusiasm in beginning this new venture, their creativity in soliciting manuscripts, their diligence in editing and producing the first four volumes, and their help in getting me up to speed.  (Read More…)


Transformance: The Couples Issue

Introduction to Transformance: The Couples Issue

By Benjamin Lipton

As we stand together at the horizon of the second decade of AEDP, the view in all directions is quite stunning.  Behind us, the many milestones of our model and our community fill the landscape from AEDP’s beginning to today.  Fueled by a commitment to emergence, rigor and authenticity, the development of AEDP theory and technique during its first decade has brought dynamic, new theoretical understanding and increasingly effective and nuanced clinical strategies to the field of individual psychotherapy.

(Read More…)


AEDP for Couples

Transforming Potential Divorce into Falling Freshly in Love in the Thirtieth Year of Marriage

By David Mars

Abstract:  This paper shows the pre to post-treatment journey of a couple who came through an accelerated treatment process of eleven sessions of AEDP for Couples.  In the course of these sessions, they moved from the brink of divorce to freshly falling in love with each other after thirty years of marriage.  Key interventions of the AEDP for Couples method are shown for establishing and deepening safety within the couple dyad. (Read More…)


Resiliency-Focused Couple Therapy

A Multidisciplinary Model

By David E. Greenan

Abstract:  With a focus on resiliency, this article presents a three-phase systemic treatment model for working with high conflict couples.  Initially informed by the work of Salvador Minuchin, the author uses joining and enactments with the couple to identify circular behavioral problems that maintain homeostasis.  Using the teachings of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, the therapist in the middle phase of treatment introduces mindfulness practices to quiet the central nervous system, and then incorporates aspects of John Gottman’s communication exercises for skill-building and resolution of conflict.  (Read More…)


Facilitating Transformance for Couples

A Comparison between Structural Family Therapy and AEDP

By Gil Tunnell

Abstract.  The author compares the similarities and differences between Structural Family Therapy and Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychology applied to couples, and then discusses how he incorporates principles of both models in his work with couples.   Bowlby’s attachment theory is described, with an emphasis on the importance of balancing both the need for connection and the need for autonomy with couples. (Read More…)