Carrie Ruggieri, LMHC, BCETS

AEDP Individual Psychotherapy

​

AEDP, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, is an approach to psychotherapy and a theory of healing developed by Diana Fosha.  AEDP is grounded in the cutting edge research of relational neuroscience, developmental attachment research, emotion research and transformational studies. As a new theory and model of treatment, that keeps pace with advancements in neuroscience and psychotherapy research,  AEDP is continuously refined and updated.  

​​

AEDP's foundational ethos:

AEDP is non-pathologizing: with a commitment to recognizing and building upon the natural healing capacities, and resiliency our clients. AEDP therapists believe that the symptoms and sufferings that bring you to psychotherapy are born of resourceful capacities to cope with unbearable emotions. For this reason, I no longer use the identifier, "patient", rather you are my client. AEDP therapy is a collaborative process; that is,  we work together toward self-righting so that painful and debilitating symptoms and patterns are no longer required to ensure emotional safety.

AEDP is healing oriented: we assume that healing/ self-righting is an innate drive that will recognize and respond to a healing environment.  We assume that our natural state is one of well-being, and that well-being resides within all of us, unharmed by life's trauma's. In fact, symptoms are born from creative mental strategies, sometimes gone awry, to protect this core well-being from harm.

AEDP privileges positive emotions: Psychotherapy research informs us that positive emotions especially, as they are experienced alongside the processing of painful emotions, will most effectively diminish the impact  traumatic experiences. Positive emotions need special focus and enhancement because, for many, it is surprisingly difficult to maintain positive emotional states. This is because our brains are designed to focus more intently on negative emotions and events.  For survival reasons, this  makes sense, our ancestors  have needed to remember that 'one bad berry', among the many healthy berries. And, some of us are tempermentally inclined to be the 'bad berry detectors' for our clan.   Diana Fosha refers to the use of positive emotions to update our ancestoral brains, as "reversing the evolutionary tilt."  An AEDP psychotherapist will hone in on a positive emotional experience with questions such as, "would it be ok if we stayed with what is happening right now a bit longer? I want you to memorize this good feeling."  

​

Reading Suggestions:

Free AEDP articles  on the AEDP website: www.aedpinstitute.com

Hendel, H.J. (2018). It's Not Always Depression:

Frederick, R. (2009). Living Like You Mean It 

Frederick, R. (2019). Loving Like You Mean It 

Ruggieri, C. 2020. AEDP published on Wikipedia

​