Experiential Dynamic Therapy
My approach to Psychotherapy
Our most profound feelings contain the seeds of our transformation and growth. Often, however, our access to these healing emotions is blocked by fear, shame, and guilt. We are left feeling stuck—mired in depression, anxiety, anger, dysfunctional relationships, addiction, and other forms of emotional suffering. In the context of a warm, supportive, and connected relationship in psychotherapy, the fears that block us can be overcome, allowing us to reach wellsprings of transformation and unimagined new vitality.
By building a strong, warm, therapeutic relationship, calming the anxieties that arise when feared feelings begin to surface, and noticing the ways we have learned to avoid those feelings, we can rapidly gain access to them and their healing potentials. This is the heart of Experiential Dynamic Therapy.
EDT was pioneered in the 1970s and 1980s. Since then, several authors have refined and elaborated this approach, among them Leigh McCullough, Ph.D., at Harvard Medical School, Rob Neborsky, M.D., at UCSD Medical School, and Diana Fosha, Ph.D., at New York University. Dr. Allan Abbas, of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, has conducted many scientific studies demonstrating EDT’s effectiveness at resolving a wide range of emotional concerns.
I developed my passion for Experiential Dynamic Therapy when I encountered the work of master EDT therapist Jon Frederickson during my graduate training, and was privileged to study for one year in his Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy program at the Washington School of Psychiatry. Since coming to California, I have continued my training in EDT through three years of in-depth study with Susan Warren Warshow, a leading West Coast EDT therapist. Although I may draw upon other counseling approaches as appropriate to the particular client, the core of my work centers on this powerful method of unlocking access to suppressed feelings, allowing their energy and power to transform anxiety, depression, and grief. In 2015, my scholarly paper entitled "Men in the Triangle: Grief, Inhibition and Defense," based on what I have learned over many years of using EDT as a framework, was published in the Journal of College Student Psychotherapy.
To find sources of more in-depth information about Experiential Dynamic Therapy, see the "Additional Resources" page.