The Transforming Power of Affect by Diana Fosha

The Transforming Power of Affect: A Model for Accelerated Change by Diana Fosha is a book I wish every Cognitive Behavioural Therapist would read. It outlines the theoretical foundation for, and practice of, Diana Fosha’s Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP). I particularly enjoyed Part 1: Theoretical Foundations which describes how and why AEDP works.

AEDP is an emotionally-focussed form of Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy based on human neurobiology, John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory, and the power of Karl Rogers-style empathy to heal traumatic attachment wounds. In short, it’s a pretty similar to what I do with my clients.

The key element of AEDP is that for therapy to be really effective, it has help you feel, express and process your emotions. I believe that the core issue behind mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression are an inability to regulate emotions, reinforced by a society that teaches us to internalise and suppress emotions,rather than to express how we feel in a healthy manner.

AEDP’s approach to therapy involves creating a safe environment in which the relationship with the therapist becomes a healing proxy for the idealised mother-infant bond through which we would normally learn to regulate our emotions. While being able to feel and express our emotions offers tremendous healing in itself, doing this while in the empathic connected presence of another human being helps heal the attachment wound that caused us to become emotionally disregulated in the first place. Rather than acting as a blank slate as Freud suggested, the AEDP therapist is emotionally involved in the healing process.

The advantage of AEDP’s approach over Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is that it provides the opportunity to heal the underlying emotional trauma that causes us to be triggered, rather than having to keep applying cognitive strategies to help manage emotional overwhelm for the rest of our lives.

If you’re a clinical psychologist, therapist, counsellor or emotionally-focussed life coach, I highly recommend The Transforming Power of Affect by Diana Fosha.