Rooted in Healing

AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy) is an integrative, research-supported approach grounded in the understanding that we are inherently capable of healing, growth, and connection. Rather than focusing only on symptom reduction, AEDP works with emotional experience as it unfolds in the present moment, supporting access to resilience, inner strengths, and the capacity for meaningful change.

AEDP can be especially helpful in working with trauma, including relational trauma, though it is not limited to trauma work. It often resonates with people who feel stuck in repeating emotional or relational patterns, struggle with trauma, anxiety, or emotional numbness, or want to feel more connected to themselves and others. It also tends to appeal to those looking for a therapy experience that feels engaged, collaborative, and emotionally present.

In sessions, we focus less on analyzing or retelling experiences in a way that keeps you “in your head,” and more on what is happening in the moment between us and within you. This allows space to slow down and notice emotional experience as it arises, including thoughts, sensations, and feelings that may have been difficult to access or stay with on your own.

What sets AEDP apart is its focus on not just working through pain, but also tuning into what feels right, healing, and true—sometimes for the very first time. This positive emotional processing supports lasting change. Research in neuroplasticity shows us that our brains are constantly changing in response to new experiences. So, this attention uses our capacity for neuroplasticity to wire-in change for the better.

AEDP is an evidence-based approach with research support for a range of concerns, including depression, anxiety, emotion dysregulation, avoidance, negative self-beliefs, and interpersonal difficulties. It has also been shown to support improvements in self-compassion, emotional well-being, and self-esteem.

Being trauma-informed means recognizing the wide range of experiences that can be traumatic and understanding how they can shape our sense of safety, trust, and control. It also means seeing emotions, reactions, and coping strategies as understandable responses to what someone has been through, and creating space for healing through security, compassion, and collaboration.

Trauma can result from a single overwhelming event (PTSD) or from ongoing experiences of harm (complex trauma or cPTSD). When trauma occurs in close relationships, it is called relational trauma, a common form of complex trauma.

Relational trauma in childhood refers to harm within caregiving relationships. It may involve emotional neglect or misattunement, where caregivers are inconsistent, emotionally unavailable, invalidating, or unable to meet a child’s emotional needs. In other cases, it includes physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, physical neglect, or chronic exposure to chaotic, unpredictable, or controlling environments. Because these experiences occur within relationships a child depends on for safety and nurturance, they can disrupt attachment and shape a child’s sense of worthiness for care, protection, and security, as well as their understanding of how to seek and receive these in relationships.

These experiences often extend into adolescence and adulthood, shaping identity and beliefs about who we are and how the world works. Many people struggle with trust, boundaries, self-worth, emotional overwhelm, or repeating relationship patterns that can sometimes become unhealthy, coercive, exploitative, or unsafe. These patterns can be difficult to recognize or change without support.

In our work together, we gently explore these patterns with curiosity and compassion, helping you understand where they come from and how they’ve helped you survive. As this process unfolds, you may begin to feel more balanced, more connected to yourself and others, and more free to choose how you want to live—based on your present, not your past.

Narrative Therapy is based on the idea that our sense of self is shaped by the stories we tell (and have been told) about our lives and the meanings we make from our experiences, relationships, and culture. Following trauma, people often develop painful narratives about themselves—such as feeling ashamed, powerless, flawed, or disconnected—that can begin to feel like absolute truths.

Rather than seeing the person as the problem, Narrative Therapy views the problem as separate from the individual. Together, we explore how difficult experiences have influenced the beliefs, expectations, and meanings that have come to shape a person's identity, relationship with themselves, others, and the world around them.

Narrative Therapy recognizes that identity is not fixed, but is continually shaped through language, relationships, and social contexts. By identifying strengths, values, skills, and experiences that may have been overshadowed by trauma, we create space for new and more empowering narratives to emerge. Through this process, clients can make sense of difficult experiences without being defined by them, fostering greater resilience, self-compassion, agency, and connection to their authentic way of living.