David Waters, Ph.D.

I am a clinical psychologist, having received my PhD at Emory in 1972. I taught at the University of Virginia from 1971 to 2008, mostly in the Department of Family Medicine, where I trained MDs in the humanistic aspects of medical care and the psychological aspects of patients’ lives and medical care. I also trained psychologists in the Family Stress Clinic, which I created as part of the Department of Family Medicine. In addition, I trained psychiatrists in various forms of therapy, as well as working with chaplains, social workers and others delivering human services.

In 2008 I retired from the University and came downtown to practice full time and do some teaching with young therapists.

I see individuals and couples, and I work in a particular theoretical system called Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, or AEDP. AEDP is focused on emotional depth and the active experience of emotion as part of the process of change. (More information is available to read at http://www.aedpinstitute.org/ if you are interested.) I find it extremely effective because therapy often does not deal with emotion as fully as it might, and I believe that deeply ingrained emotional patterns are where we get stuck in our growth and development. Experiencing those patterns directly and in depth, in the company of someone trained to change them, is for me the road to real change.