Diana Fosha

Professional Life

Diana Fosha was born in Bucharest, Romania on December 17, 1952. She received her bachelor’s in psychology from Barnard College, Columbia University, graduating magna cum laude in 1974. She interned at the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic at Cornell University and earned her doctorate in clinical psychology in 1982 from City College, the City University of New York. She studied dynamic psychotherapy as part of her post-doctoral training in both Canada and New York. She began teaching at City College in 1977 as a psychology instructor, and then moved to Barnard College, Columbia University. For five years, Fosha held the position of Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry at Downstate Medical Center, SUNY at Brooklyn, in New York. She later became a Clinical Associate at the New York Center for Training and Research in Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy. Fosha also held positions at Gracie Square Hospital and Saint Clares-Riverside Medical Center. She was an assistant professor of psychiatry at Bellevue Hospital and a Director of Advanced Seminar and Practicum in Accelerated Experiential/Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) in New York City. Fosha currently holds a private practice in New York City, and is an Associate Clinical Professor of the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies at Adelphi University. She is a founding member and the Director of Training at the International Experiential STDP Association. 

Contribution to Psychology

Diana Fosha developed Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) as a method for helping clients overcome traumatic and challenging emotional experiences. The basis of AEDP is derived from several therapeutic disciplines, including body-focused approaches, neuroscience, and attachment theory therapies. The goal of AEDP is to empower the client with the tools necessary to face the traumatic experiences that can often debilitate them and cause them to remain frozen in a place of stagnancy and pain. By teaching clients how to release their defenses and to tap into their own resources for healing, clients are able to recognize their emotional obstacles, understand them and eliminate them. AEDP arms people with the skills they need to discover their own natural resources for transformation. Clients are encouraged to use their inner strengths and rely on the power they contain within to face challenges as they occur. People who experience AEDP are encouraged to embrace life in its totality, with all of its challenges and rewards, regardless of the events that they have experienced in their lives. This form of therapy is empirically proven and it has been shown to be highly effective in patients experiencing various types of psychological problems. Many people who are treated with AEDP report long term positive outcomes and improved quality of life.