Internalized experiences of trauma, neglect, or oppression can severely impair one’s access to and expression of one’s emotions, as well as the sense of safety with oneself and others. But these experiences, as well as subtler, but chronic, experiences of not being seen or recognized, can also impair the development of the sense of the self being an agent in the world and in one’s own life. Even as one develops a connection to and capacity for one’s own feelings, people can still feel like “guests in their own lives.” 

We will explore and explain the development and expansion of AEDP theory to include the addition of agency, will, and desire to the Four State Transformational Process of AEDP theory and practice. This course will discuss the broadening of our attachment-based therapeutic stance to invite differentiation (vs. “we-ness”) in the service of nurturing the agentic self that has often been suppressed in many clients in psychotherapy. It will explore situations in which “safety,” highly prized in AEDP, can be over-used and instances in which allowing for some conflict, or at least tension, in the therapeutic relationship may be more growth-full for the development of the agentic, differentiated self. It will contextualize the importance of this expansion in developmental, polyvagal, relational psychoanalytic, and learning theories.

Dr. Russell will use videotapes of actual sessions to illustrate examples of blocked agency as well as techniques for inviting the emergence of agency within the therapeutic relationship.