Experiential Dynamic Therapy

WHAT MAKES EDT UNIQUE? EDT focuses on accessing emotional truth in an exceptionally thorough manner, with the support and guidance of the therapeutic relationship. Through a powerful combination of therapeutic interventions and the strength of the therapeutic alliance, EDT is designed to rapidly resolve the root of the presenting problem and to bring about lasting improvement, which frequently occurs in months rather than years. This process greatly enhances the quality of relationships, reduction of symptoms, and it often leads to significant behavioral change. Hence, dysfunctional patterns from the past no longer need to limit possibilities in the present or be transmitted to one’s children in the future

EDT represents diverse applications of a school of therapy that evolved from the work of Dr. Habib Davanloo, Department of Psychiatry, Montreal General Hospital. Dr. Davanloo is the creator of Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (IS-TDP), and his painstaking study of over 2000 videotaped therapy hours and nearly forty years of systematic research broke new ground. He successfully isolated therapeutic interventions that are powerful agents of change.

HOW IT WORKS: Most of us have learned ways to protect ourselves from emotional pain. We often have layers of feeling that we wall off and keep outside of our awareness due to restrictive formative experiences. These barriers damage our relationships and ourselves, sometimes to a severe degree. In EDT, therapist and patient join forces and work together to overcome these obstacles in order to restore intimacy, spontaneity and a widening horizon of options.

This is accomplished by gradually expanding one’s capacity to access core emotion, especially those feelings that exist outside of awareness, within the safety of the therapeutic relationship. Most of us believe we ARE fully experiencing our feelings, but if emotional suffering persists, it is safe to assume that WE ARE NOT. It is common to think we are experiencing our feelings when we are in fact internalizing them or acting them out. Examples of internalization might be overeating or withdrawing when hurt or angry; externalization might be some form of verbal discharge, such as hurling accusations. Either pattern, usually learned in one's family of origin, is highly destructive to self and others.

There are three parts to fully experiencing a core feeling:

1. Naming the emotion accurately (sounds simple, but we may cry when we’re angry, laugh when we’re afraid, or become angry to cover grief). It is common to confuse a defensive, or cover feeling, from the underlying, core emotion.

2. Becoming aware of the physiological sensations (somatic manifestations) that accompany the emotion. All emotions reside in our bodies as well as our hearts. If we can’t feel them in our bodies, they are being stifled. For instance, grief brings the urge to cry which is felt around the eyes. Joy may feel like warmth in our chest. Anger may feel like a hot rush of adrenaline to the striated muscles. If instead we are tense, tight, detached, with racing heart or sweaty palms, we are actually experiencing anxiety rather than the underlying feeling. Anxiety and guilt are major inhibitors of core feeling.

3. The activation of an impulse. For example, loving feelings may arouse an impulse to “jump for joy” or to cuddle a child.

To reach core feeling, a skilled Experiential Dynamic Therapist utilizes a series of potent and empathic interventions to help the patient relinquish defenses that prevent awareness of self and emotional closeness with others. This requires rapid recognition of all defensive maneuvers, conscious and unconscious, and the ability to establish a strong working alliance with the patient. When core feeling is reached, it becomes possible for the therapist to link past relational dynamics with current relationship difficulties and disturbances in functioning. We often hear, “But I don’t need to dig up my past.” The truth is that the past is always present, occurring in the here and now moment with the therapist and in one’s current relationships. There is no way to separate the two. As the past resolves, so too does the present. As the present resolves, so too does the past. Research by Dr. David Malan has shown that positive outcome correlates with linkages between past and present relationship dynamics.

RESEARCH ON IS-TDP: Over sixty studies indicate positive outcomes for a wide spectrum of psychological and relational difficulties with this approach. Dr. David Malan of the Tavistock Clinic in London once predicted that IS-TDP is destined to revolutionize psychotherapy. His research supports the effectiveness of IS-TDP and is further corroborated by Dr. Leigh McCullough, Harvard Medical School. In one study by Allan Abbass, MD, Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Canada, patients report loss of symptoms, greater quality of life, and better health after only brief treatment, with long-lasting results.

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