AEDP
Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy
In-person in Chico, CA and online across CA & OR
You have spent years mastering the art of the "external fit." You’ve built the career, managed the crises, and maintained the composure. But internally, it can feel like you’re inhabiting a life that was designed for someone else—or worse, a life you can no longer fully feel. It is exhausting to be a high-performer who feels like a ghost in their own story.
You aren’t looking for someone to “fix” you. You’re looking for a place where you can trade the performance for inhabiting.
Many high-achievers are experts at "reporting" on their lives. You can describe your history, analyze your patterns, and explain your feelings with perfect logic—but you still feel the same. This is because intellectual understanding lives in a different part of the brain than emotional experience.
AEDP is designed to bridge that gap. We move from "talking about" your life to experiencing the shift in real-time.
The Architecture of Change
AEDP is based on the neurobiological principle that the brain is wired to adapt and change. Just as your body knows how to knit a bone back together, your mind knows how to move towards resolution under the right conditions.
In AEDP, the therapeutic relationship is the vehicle for change.
I am an active partner in our work, so you aren’t navigating the deep waters by yourself. We keep an eye out for “glimmers” or strength and resilience to foster these as your new baseline. We work together through mechanisms that are designed to keep you safe, but when applied too rigidly, keep you frozen in place.
What to Expect: High-Engagement Therapy
This is not "blank slate" therapy. I am right there with you, noticing the shift in your breathing, the softening of your posture, or the moment a new insight lands in your body. We work at the "growing edge" of your experience, ensuring the work is deep enough to be effective, but paced enough to be integrated.
Ready to step back into your life?
You’ve spent enough time watching your life from the ceiling, performing a version of "fine" that no longer fits. It is time to move beyond the cycle of endurance and into a life that is actually yours to inhabit.
FAQ About AEDP
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FAQ About AEDP 〰️
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It means we stay curious about your felt sense. Instead of just analyzing a situation, I might ask, "As you tell me that, what do you notice happening in your chest right now?" By staying with those physical "glimmers" of relief or strength, we allow your nervous system to archive the healing as a lived reality, not just a theoretical concept.
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In many models, the therapist is a passive observer. In AEDP, I am an active, engaged partner. We work together to "undo aloneness," ensuring that you aren't navigating intense emotional states by yourself. This high-engagement relationship is the primary tool we use to "braid" new resilience into your nervous system.
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This is a common fear for high-stakes professionals. In reality, being disconnected from your internal state is what leads to burnout and "reactive" decision-making. AEDP helps you transition from performance-based survival to integrated excellence. You don't lose your drive; you gain the structural integrity to sustain it without the exhaustion of "faking it."
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Glimmers are small, somatic signals of resilience, calm, or "truth" that show up during a session. While traditional therapy often focuses exclusively on what is "wrong," AEDP identifies these "glimmers" and stays with them. This process "braids" these positive states into your nervous system, eventually making them your new, steady baseline.
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Yes. In fact, AEDP is specifically designed to work with those who use their intellect as a primary defense. We don't ignore your intelligence; we honor it as a tool that has kept you safe. However, we work to drop beneath the "logic loop" to reach the core affect—the place where real, lasting transformation occurs. We move past your ability to "report" on your life and into the actual experience of inhabiting it.
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AEDP is "accelerated" because it focuses on the "here-and-now" experience rather than just discussing the past. By tracking somatic shifts—like a change in your breathing or posture—as they happen in the room, we can facilitate neurobiological shifts in real-time. This directness often leads to deeper movement in a shorter period than traditional, purely verbal models.
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Absolutely. AEDP is rooted in the latest research in neuroplasticity, attachment theory, and affective neuroscience. It is based on the biological truth that the brain is wired for healing and transformation when the right relational conditions are met.