AEDP is a powerful approach in the treatment of eating disorders. As patients experience the transformation of AEDP, they are released from the need to rely on eating disorder symptoms for self-regulation and emotional management. At the same time, eating disorders symptoms themselves are tenacious and addictive in nature. It is often said that an eating disorder takes on a life of its own. In other words, eating disorder symptoms can become self-perpetuating and persist independently from what prompted them to arise. In such cases, the therapist needs to be well-versed in techniques to help the patient directly address eating disorder symptoms.
This seminar series will be presented in two parts. In sessions 1, we will explore the specific application of AEDP to the treatment of eating disorders and consider how we tailor AEDP interventions to stages of recovery. In sessions 2, we will focus on how to incorporate techniques for symptom-reduction from other psychotherapy models (e.g. DBT, CBT, ACT) into an AEDP foundation.