ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to provide the entry of an acronym into the psychotherapy world by arguing that Experiential Dynamic Therapy (EDT) represents a promising integration of a number of therapeutic principles of this kind. It reviews the empirical studies of the efficacy of EDT. The chapter outlines EDT within mental health policy in the National Health Service in the United States (UK). Habib Davanloo “graded approach” emphasises a variety of means of regulating the client’s experience of anxiety, shame, and guilt in order to prevent negative therapeutic effects and, by implication, to maintain a positive therapeutic relationship. Randomised controlled trials of EDT are comparatively few in number, and have all focused on personality disorders. In 2007 the UK government committed £173 million towards its “Improving Access to Psychological Therapies” programme, designed to enhance access to evidence-based psychological therapies in primary care.
