Victoria Beecher

AEDP Level 3 Therapist

What is AEDP?

Well, this is the Million Dollar Question!  I would like to explain how Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) has revolutionised my professional and personal experience of psychotherapy.  Sadly, it is not well known yet in the UK, but it is gaining recognition, and it is in the experiencing of it that the question is truly answered.

There is no better way to capture the ethos of AEDP than to say this: we try to help our patients—and ourselves—become stronger at the broken places. By working with trauma, loss, and the painful consequences of the limitations of human relatedness, we discover places that have always been strong, places that were never broken.

AEDP seeks to clinically make neuroplasticity happen. Championing our innate healingcapacities, AEDP has roots in and resonances with many disciplines — among them interpersonal neurobiology, attachment theory, emotion theory and affective neuroscience, body-focused approaches, and transformational studies.

Through undoing of aloneness, and through the in-depth processing of difficult emotional and relational experiences, as well as new transformational experiences, the AEDP clinician fosters the emergence of new and healing experiences for the client, and with them resources, resilience and a renewed zest for life.

Addiction Counsellor

Graduating from the US based Counselor Training Programme at the Hazelden Foundation in Minnesota – the world renowned rehabilitation centre – in 1994, I have continually engaged in extraordinary levels of specialist training in the full spectrum of addictive processes – including eating disorders, gambling, self harm and many others.

I trained with Pia Mellody at The Meadows in Arizona in 1997 to heal trauma and shame and at the Hazelden Center for Youth & Family to gain additional expertise in adolescent & family work and the field of prevention.

In April 2000 Victoria and her family moved to Barbados where she and her husband Norman, also a counsellor, designed and managed a residential treatment facility that surpassed all expectations and endowed Barbados and the greater Caribbean with a centre of clinical excellence.

I have always recognised the value of service to the community, and have occupied a number of leadership roles in a variety of areas. The highlight of these was being appointed to Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) of the Organization of American States Task Forces established to develop guidelines for Latin America and the Caribbean on the organization of national drug treatment systems.

Encounter Centred Couples Therapist

I am a renowned “relationship builder” and I love guiding couples to experience the most alive and joyful connection with each other.

Encounter Centred Couples Therapy is an innovative, integrative and transformational approach to assist in the creation of stable, and creative relationships. The focus is the in the power of relational connection to repair ruptures, heal wounds and transform their experience.

Victoria’s Professional Qualifications are:

• Level 3 AEDP Therapist
• Encounter Centered Couples Therapist
• Internationally Certified Alcohol & Drug Counsellor (ICADC) by the International Certification & Reciprocity Consortium (IC&RC) and the United Kingdom Professional Certification Board of Alcohol & Drug Counsellors.
• Alcohol & Drug Counsellor (CADC) of the United Kingdom Professional Certification Board of Alcohol & Drug Counsellors.