Moment-to-Moment Guidance of Clinical Interventions by AEDP’s Healing-Oriented Transformational Phenomenology: Commentary on Vigoda Gonzalez’s (2018) Case of "Rosa"

Abstract

This paper, using the methodology of moment-to-moment microanalysis of videotape-based clinical transcripts, explores how Nicole Vigoda Gonzalez’s (2018) case study manifests AEDP’s fundamental transformational phenomenology in clinical action. Vigoda Gonzalez’s highly effective AEDP therapy of Rosa is informed by AEDP’s first "avatar" or iteration (prior to 2008), at the time, a three-state phenomenology. Yet, a close reading of the case reveals the very transformational phenomena, systematically and abundantly reflected in the author’s clinical data, that necessitated the theoretical and clinical developments of AEDP’s second avatar (post-2008) and the current four-state model of transformational change. It is a validation both of the soundness of this student therapist's clinical work and of the accuracy and power of AEDP’s healing-oriented transformational theory that constructs not in the author’s repertoire are nevertheless reflected and illustrated in the unfolding of Rosa’s treatment. This most interesting and unusual experience further illustrates how a descriptive phenomenology, guided by AEDP’s North Star, i.e., its orientation toward the wired-in healing within, can constitute an empirically sound alternative to the manualization of psychotherapeutic treatments. Also uncannily, this parallels the emphasis in Owen's (2013) multicultural orientation (MCO) framework on the need for "values" or "virtues," such as cultural humility, to "inform therapeutic activities as an alternative to the focus on multicultural competencies."

In the Light: On Meta-Experience and Spiraling Effects in Psychotherapy—Commentary on Louis Sass’s Commentary on Diana Fosha’s Commentary on Nicole Vigoda Gonzalez’s Case of "Rosa"

“…And when experience-near meaning-making or reflection is invited in response to a new experience, often yet another new experience emerges, and so on (see also Gendlin, 1996). Sass (2019, p. 99) says: I will focus on the issue of self-awareness or self-monitoring and on the associated "recursive spiraling processes" (p. 90) in psychotherapy that are discussed in Fosha's (2018) remarks.…”

In the Shadows: On Meta-Awareness and Spiraling Effects in Psychotherapy—Comment on Nicole Vigoda Gonzalez and Diana Fosha

“…It is a pleasure to comment on the case of "Rosa" by Dr. Nicole Vigoda Gonzalez (2018), and, in particular, on Dr. Diana Fosha's (2018) response to it. As befits the doubly meta-nature of my role (I will mostly be commenting on a commentary), I will focus on the issue of selfawareness or self-monitoring and on the associated "recursive spiraling processes" (p. 90) in psychotherapy that are discussed in Fosha's (2018) remarks.…”

“…It is a pleasure to comment on the case of "Rosa" by Dr. Nicole Vigoda Gonzalez (2018), and, in particular, on Dr. Diana Fosha's (2018) response to it. As befits the doubly meta-nature of my role (I will mostly be commenting on a commentary), I will focus on the issue of selfawareness or self-monitoring and on the associated "recursive spiraling processes" (p. 90) in psychotherapy that are discussed in Fosha's (2018) remarks. But before turning to that issue, I would like to register my profound respect for the compassionate, sensitive, and discerning work of the therapist, Vigoda Gonzalez, and for the illuminating commentary offered by Fosha-the formulator of a distinctive approach to psychotherapy ("AEDP: Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy") that offers much to be admired.…”

Integrating Client-Chosen Music in Relational Trauma Treatment: Pathways to the Heart

“…AEDP's focus on affect, present experience, and attachment theory framed Blimling's conceptualization of the use of music within each stage of his therapy. The model's incorporation of interpersonal neurobiology, emotion theory and bodily-focused trauma approaches (Fosha, 2000(Fosha, , 2006(Fosha, , 2018Lipton and Fosha, 2011) is particularly relevant to his insession work with music. There is something physical and body-centered about our experience of music, a direct channel that can sometimes bypass the defenses we erect against hurt and anxiety.…”

“…In terms of AEDP and its theory development, this was a treatment more characterized by what Fosha terms her "First Avatar" than the "Second Avatar," which stresses the metaprocessing of the emotionally significant experiences of the treatment, a steady inquiry into "what was it like to do this with me?" which further installs the benefits of treatment and increases reflective capacity (Fosha, 2018). Blimling's work was more demonstrative of some of the core features of the first iteration, the focus on here and now experience, the bypassing or moderating of defenses to get to core affect, the use of the attachment relationship to "undo aloneness," the emphasis on positive affect.…”