AST Training is a three-year program that provides a thorough grounding in the theory and practice of AST. A one year commitment to training is required, with your commitment to training renewable at the commencement of each training year.
This training program is focused on learning and applying Affect State Therapy (AST), which incorporates attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969; Cassidy & Shaver, 2018), affect-regulation theory (Schore, 1994, 2003a, 2003b, Hill, 2015; among others), current neurobiological understandings of how the brain operates through a predictive modelling paradigm (Barrett, 2017; Clark, 2023; Friston, 2010), and processes of change in psychotherapy, including memory reconsolidation (e.g., Ecker, 2018, Lane et al., 2015).
AST provides an integrative model through which to understand your patients’ thoughts, affect states and actions. AST Training includes working with the full spectra of psychological problems, from mild to severe. However, the emphasis in AST Training is to teach trainees how to work with complex and treatment-resistant patients.
Additional components include an emphasis on understanding the patient’s worldview or predictive models and learning how to apply that understanding in treatment to build psychological capacity/resilience and to create prediction errors leading to the resolution of psychological problems.
Recognising where the therapist’s own worldview, or predictive modelling, is impacting their ability to clearly understand the patient’s problems and processes is a component of the supervision process in AST Training.
There are two components to AST Training: Didactic Training and Small Group Supervision.
Didactic Training
The Didactic Training is comprised of four two-day meetings per year where the core concepts of AST are taught with the aid of video recordings from AST sessions. As the training group is small, there is ample opportunity for questions and discussion to ensure that you fully understand each component.
It is not permitted to audio or video-record any aspect of these meetings. You will be provided with handouts for each meeting and a transcript of the meeting after it has concluded.
Group Supervision
The Group Supervision component is comprised of 20 small group (2-3 trainees) meetings per year, conducted via video conference (Zoom) on the Internet. For each meeting, you are required to upload to a secure folder (you will receive the link for this before group supervision commences), a video recording of a treatment session from your practice where you apply AST principles. The supervisor (Steve Arthey) provides 30 minutes of direct supervision of your video-recorded therapy session. The other supervisees participate primarily as observers. In each small group supervision meeting, each trainee receives 30 minutes of direct supervision and between 30 and 60 minutes of indirect or observational supervision.
You are able to screen record your component of the Group Supervision.
The AST Training program is an ongoing program with new trainees, space permitting, able to join at the start of each calendar year. Both the didactic component and the small group supervision are delivered online via Zoom.
Detailed information on AST Training is available by emailing Steve Arthey via the link below.