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AEDP Rocky Mountain Presents – LIVE, IN PERSON, IN DENVER, COLORADO
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AEDP Rocky Mountain Salon
Friday, September 12, from 1:00 – 3:00 pm.
Melissa Bannerot will guide us in “Exploring Portrayals: Making the Invisible Visible.”
Portrayals are a powerful, embodied practice in AEDP, used to promote healing and transformation. They help put words, tone, and gesture to experiences that may never have been mirrored. With attunement and resonance, portrayals create new pathways of connection—activating mirror neurons that may not have fired when we needed them most. Whether brief or extended, spontaneous or guided, portrayals help clients feel felt, witnessed, and known, while also recovering resilient parts of themselves once shut down to survive.
Together, we’ll explore:
- When to offer a portrayal (and when not to)
- What makes a portrayal safe and effective
- The difference between dramatizing and attuning
- How to listen deeply enough to offer oneself authentically
Location: The Conflict Center, 4140 Tejon St., Denver, CO 80211
Online Option: A Zoom link will be provided for those joining virtually
Cost: $15 for members | $30 for non-members
This event has ended:
AEDP Rocky Mountain Presents
Ben Medley, LCSW –
2 Day In-Person Training
May 15 & 16, 2026
Portrayals in AEDP®: Harness the power of the imagination to deepen healing
Portrayals are powerful clinical tools in AEDP that engage our clients' imagination to maximize change. Diana Fosha called them “the pinnacle of experiential dynamic-affect work” for good reason. They help clients access, deepen and complete emotional experiences, often getting them
unstuck when other interventions fall short.
In this two-day workshop, Ben will present the art and science of using portrayals to accelerate healing and transformation. We will explore the different kinds of portrayals, when to use them, what to do when they stall, and how to use them over time to help build capacities and deepen
transformation.
Extensive video of clinical work with portrayals will be
reviewed and discussed.
$240/Members. $270/Non-Members
Day 1
Friday, May 15, 2026
1:00 pm- 4:30 pm
The Conflict Center
4140 Tejon St.
Denver, CO 80211
Day 2
Saturday, May 16, 2026
9:00 am – 4:00 pm (lunch on your own)
The Conflict Center
4140 Tejon St.
Denver, CO 80211
Open to AEDP Level 1 and up
Meet the Presenter
Ben Medley, LCSW wrote the chapter on portrayals for the book Undoing Aloneness and the Transformation of Suffering Into Flourishing: AEDP 2.0 (APA). He is an AEDP senior faculty member and has taught AEDP internationally with the AEDP Institute,the National Institute of
Psychotherapy, the Cape Cod Institute, NASW, AEDP regional groups, and in many other mental health organizations and clinical practices.
In addition to teaching, he enjoys supervising AEDP clinicians individually and in groups. Ben has a private practice in New York City and specializes in working with the LGBTQ+ community. He earned his degree in Clinical Social Work with the NYU Silver School of Social Work. His paper “Recovering the True Self: Affirmative Therapy, Attachment and AEDP in Psychotherapy with Gay Men” is published in the Journal of Psychotherapy Integration. Most recently, Ben wrote the chapter "AEDP: A model of change and transformation" in Experiential Therapies for the Treatment of Trauma (Routledge) and the manuscript in submission Liberating the Core Self: Using the Triangle of Social Experience to Transform Internalized Oppression with AEDP.
He has also presented the "5 Star" seminars with the AEDP Institute Portrayals: Harness the Power of the Imagination, Liberating the Core Self from the Confines of Heterosexist Oppression with AEDP with AEDP faculty member Kate Halliday, and with AEDP faculty member Benjamin Lipton Undoing Shame and Healing Attachment Trauma with Straight and Gay Men (also available on demand).
Ben is the Faculty Chair for the AEDP Institute. He has also served on the AEDP Institute Steering Committee for two years, the DBEI committee for two years and serves as the Institute’s Social Work Consultant for Continuing Education. He was also the emcee at the Institute’s 3-day conference in April, 2025.
More information:
Cancel by April 15 and receive a full refund (less $10 service charge). Cancel by April 24 and receive a 50% refund. Cancelations after April 24 cannot be refunded. CEUs cannot be provided for this event, but we hope to make them available for future offerings.
Unfortunately on-line participation is not available at this event.
AEDP Rocky Mountain Presents
Ben Medley, LCSW –
2 Day In-Person Training
May 15 & 16, 2026
Portrayals in AEDP®: Harness the power of the imagination to deepen healing
Portrayals are powerful clinical tools in AEDP that engage our clients' imagination to maximize change. Diana Fosha called them “the pinnacle of experiential dynamic-affect work” for good reason. They help clients access, deepen and complete emotional experiences, often getting them
unstuck when other interventions fall short.
In this two-day workshop, Ben will present the art and science of using portrayals to accelerate healing and transformation. We will explore the different kinds of portrayals, when to use them, what to do when they stall, and how to use them over time to help build capacities and deepen
transformation.
Extensive video of clinical work with portrayals will be
reviewed and discussed.
$240/Members. $270/Non-Members
Day 1
Friday, May 15, 2026
1:00 pm- 4:30 pm
The Conflict Center
4140 Tejon St.
Denver, CO 80211
Day 2
Saturday, May 16, 2026
9:00 am – 4:00 pm (lunch on your own)
The Conflict Center
4140 Tejon St.
Denver, CO 80211
Open to AEDP Level 1 and up
Meet the Presenter
Ben Medley, LCSW wrote the chapter on portrayals for the book Undoing Aloneness and the Transformation of Suffering Into Flourishing: AEDP 2.0 (APA). He is an AEDP senior faculty member and has taught AEDP internationally with the AEDP Institute,the National Institute of
Psychotherapy, the Cape Cod Institute, NASW, AEDP regional groups, and in many other mental health organizations and clinical practices.
In addition to teaching, he enjoys supervising AEDP clinicians individually and in groups. Ben has a private practice in New York City and specializes in working with the LGBTQ+ community. He earned his degree in Clinical Social Work with the NYU Silver School of Social Work. His paper “Recovering the True Self: Affirmative Therapy, Attachment and AEDP in Psychotherapy with Gay Men” is published in the Journal of Psychotherapy Integration. Most recently, Ben wrote the chapter "AEDP: A model of change and transformation" in Experiential Therapies for the Treatment of Trauma (Routledge) and the manuscript in submission Liberating the Core Self: Using the Triangle of Social Experience to Transform Internalized Oppression with AEDP.
He has also presented the "5 Star" seminars with the AEDP Institute Portrayals: Harness the Power of the Imagination, Liberating the Core Self from the Confines of Heterosexist Oppression with AEDP with AEDP faculty member Kate Halliday, and with AEDP faculty member Benjamin Lipton Undoing Shame and Healing Attachment Trauma with Straight and Gay Men (also available on demand).
Ben is the Faculty Chair for the AEDP Institute. He has also served on the AEDP Institute Steering Committee for two years, the DBEI committee for two years and serves as the Institute’s Social Work Consultant for Continuing Education. He was also the emcee at the Institute’s 3-day conference in April, 2025.
More information:
Cancel by April 15 and receive a full refund (less $10 service charge). Cancel by April 24 and receive a 50% refund. Cancelations after April 24 cannot be refunded. CEUs cannot be provided for this event, but we hope to make them available for future offerings.
Unfortunately on-line participation is not available at this event.
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