Psychology Today defines psychological trauma as a, “person’s experience of emotional distress resulting from an event that overwhelms the capacity to emotionally digest it.” Whether a client classifies it as big T TRAUMA or small t trauma—regardless of how someone else may have experienced the same incident—trauma is something that changes how we behave. Often trauma creates a coping skill or reaction that is stored in our body (via changes in our neuroplasticity) we may be unaware of. At some point, the coping strategy created to protect us from feeling distress may not be working in our present life and relationships.

Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) is a relational-based treatment for addressing trauma founded by Diana Fosha more than 20 years ago. Together, the therapist and client create a safe, stable, positive attachment to explore client triggers, beliefs and experiences—both positive and negative—using AEDP’s four-state model. AEDP helps make:

• the implicit explicit