Events

Active Hope:

Grounding the Self of the Therapist

Cultivating Embodied Engagement

Saturday, May 3rd, 2025

9:45 am - 4:00 pm

Cardondelet Center, St. Paul, MN

How do we facilitate healing for others while managing our own responses to painful realities in our world?

When our clients’ suffering stems from collective challenges and traumas, our role can be especially demanding. In order to be present with and for others, we need support in processing our own emotions and in strengthening our own resilience. Designed for psychotherapists and other health care providers, this experiential workshop will ground you in the teachings of the Work That Reconnects (WTR) and Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP™). AEDP, developed by Diana Fosha and others, offers a theory of how change happens and a psychotherapy model which deepens embodied experience and harnesses our innate capacity for transformation. WTR, developed by Joanna Macy and others, provides a framework and practices which help people discover and experience their innate connections with themselves, each other, and the self-healing powers of the web of life, transmuting despair and overwhelm into inspired, collaborative action.

In this daylong workshop focused on the self of the therapist, as related to practitioner resilience, we’ll explore the synergies of AEDP and WTR in a series of short presentations (providing a brief overview of both models), small group discussions, experiential exercises and collective reflection. We will integrate elements of AEDP as we move through the four phases of the Work That Reconnects Spiral: Coming from Gratitude, Honoring Our Emotions, Seeing with New and Ancient Eyes, and Going Forth. As we finish our day together, participants will be supported in reflecting on what emerged through our shared experience and what will be most helpful for each of us moving forward. 

Because this workshop will emphasize experiential learning of the full WTR Spiral, we ask that all participants plan to be present for the full day. 

Learning objectives:

Explain the role and importance of the self of the therapist in clinical work

  1. Explain the role and importance of the self of the therapist in clinical work

  2. Define and discuss AEDP’s concept of transformance

  3. Describe the 4 stages of the WTR Spiral 

  4. Identify 3 transformational affects in AEDP’s model of change

  5. Utilize 2 new skills for managing your own emotional responses to collective challenges

Cost

$150 for licensed professionals

$100 for clinical trainees/newly licensed professionals (first 2 years of independent license)

$50 for those experiencing financial hardship (no means testing to verify this)

EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION (BY APRIL 3RD): $125 licensed/$75 newly licensed

Mary Androff, MD is a practicing psychotherapist/psychiatrist and adjunct faculty member of the AEDP™ Institute, teaches modules of AEDP’s essential skills courses, participates as a treating clinician in the institute’s 16-session research program, and provides individual and group supervision. Mary has received training in The Work That Reconnects from Kaia Svien and she participates in the Twin Cities WTR Collective as an emerging facilitator.

Continuing education credits have been applied for this training with the following Minnesota licensing boards: Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy, Behavioral Health and Therapy, and Psychology.