Psychoanalytic Studies Program
Introduction to essential concepts in psychoanalysis.
About the Program
A two-year program for licensed professional clinicians and advanced scholars interested in learning about psychoanalytic approaches to enrich their work and help their clients.
The Psychoanalytic Studies Program (PSP) was created as a unique psychoanalytic educational experience for both psychoanalytic psychotherapists and for those intending to continue on to psychoanalytic training as candidates. It is also designed for academicians and others who might have an interest in learning how psychoanalytic concepts can better inform their thinking. The program is designed as an immersive experience where students are exposed to foundational psychoanalytic concepts through reading and classroom discussions, as well as through individual supervision for their clinical work. Scholars are also offered opportunities to meet in small facilitated groups or to work with a mentor. The program is designed to help clinicians develop their capacity to pay close attention to clinical material, to formulate a dynamic understanding of their client’s struggles and to think deeply about their own reactions and impact on their client. Scholars learn to develop their critical thinking and writing skills using a psychoanalytic lens.
The two-year curriculum is based on essential concepts in the field of psychoanalysis presented by a faculty of analysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists. Through classroom experience, case conferences, and active self-reflection, a fertile groundwork is laid for intellectual and clinical inquiry. In an environment based on listening and discussion, students share from their vantage points and can explore the applications of what they are learning to their own practice and work. Students are encouraged to bring their own unique backgrounds and experience to the conversation to enrich everyone’s learning. This diverse, multidisciplinary, and self-reflective exchange is one of the most powerful aspects of the program.
Graduates have developed valuable skills for applying a psychoanalytic lens to individual clients, groups, families and community work. Students are invited and encouraged to participate in all the Center’s activities including committees, conferences, workshops, study groups and more.
The PSP is appropriate for licensed and practicing clinicians, including MDs, PhDs, PsyDs, MSWs, DOs, RNs, psychotherapists, mental-health counselors, as well as scholars and others. Students earn CEs and CMEs for all classwork.
While the PSP may be taken as a two-year program of study, that is as an end in itself, it also constitutes the first two years of the Psychoanalytic Training Program. Students may enter the PSP as Psychoanalytic Candidates or choose to become so at any time during the program through a separate application process.
Curriculum
The curriculum of the Psychoanalytic Studies Program introduces students to the fundamental concepts, clinical techniques, and historical narratives of what has come to be called a psychoanalytic understanding of the mind. From its inception, as a body of ideas, mode of treatment, or method of research psychoanalytic thinking has aimed at the creation of new kinds of truths about how individuals, groups, and societies work and love.
The Psychoanalytic Studies Program is designed for clinicians who want to become better psychotherapists or psychoanalysts, and for scholars who hope that learning about the psychoanalytic model of the mind will help them in the work that they do. The PSP is predicated on the belief that a psychoanalytic approach to thinking is best articulated within a diverse community of learners who together explore foundational concepts enlivened by contemporary events, scholarship, and research. At its core the PSP is an open forum in which the ideas of Freud, Klein, and contemporary theorists provide a living lens on the workings of the unconscious mind and its effects on individuals, groups, and communities.
While the PSP may be taken as a two-year program of study, that is as an end in itself, it also constitutes the first two years of the Psychoanalytic Training Program. Students may enter the PSP as Psychoanalytic Candidates or choose to become so at any time during the program through a separate application process.
The PSP curriculum was designed to be both iterative and developmental fusing classical narratives with contemporary articulations of psychoanalytic concepts and research.
The First Year – immerses students in the writings of Freud viewed both as a history of ideas and that of a particular mind whose observations, formulations, and their revisions, have become synonymous with working and thinking psychoanalytically. Against this backdrop, students explore such concepts as the unconscious and transference along with more recent elaborations of psychoanalytic thought as it pertains to early relations and the social mind.
The Second Year – incorporates a closer look at psychoanalytic thinking as it is delineated through the vision of Melanie Klein, within today’s consulting rooms and communities, and across the lifespan. Through studying the writings of Melanie Klein and their contemporary elaborations, students become immersed in the growth of psychoanalytic thought and practice as it pertains to human development, race, and culture. Additionally, students engage in case conferences in which discussions of clinical material are paired with multiple theories and theoretical concepts through which they are interpreted and potentially understood.
Click this link to See More About the Curriculum
Click this link to See the PSP Faculty and Supervisors
PSP Students are required to attend the annual Colloquium. As a PSP student, you are also invited to participate in public WBCP programs and events, such as the Case Conference & Seminar Series and Scientific Meetings.
Logistics
Location
Classes for the 2024-25 academic year will be held primarily via Zoom with some in person classes, with the schedule and location to be announced.
Time commitment
Students are required to complete 60 hours of supervision over the course of the two year program. This generally works out to one hour of supervision per week of classes. The cost for supervision is $75 per session. After acceptance into the program, the Admissions Committee will assist students in finding a supervisor who will match their needs and interests. Supervision can take place either in person or remotely.
Non clinician PSP students, or scholars, are not required to be in supervision. They may elect to meet with a mentor whose role would be to discuss the application of what they are learning in classes to their specific field of interest. Mentors and scholars meet at a frequency they agree upon. There is no fee for the mentorship program. The Admissions Committee will also assist in finding a suitable mentor for a scholar student.
Students may choose to attend the PSP on a part time basis. For students attending part time, the supervision requirement will be adjusted based on the number of classes the student participates in.
Classes take place on Tuesdays from 4:00pm to 8:15pm Eastern. Each Tuesday includes three distinct courses and runs 4 hours and 15 minutes. Reading assignments average 80 pages a week in total in the first year, less in the second year; this might mean four to six hours of reading a week. Supervision would require an additional hour. This totals around 9 to 11 total hours a week (not including travel if relevant).
Admission & Tuition
Admissions
The admissions process is meant to be a collaborative process that allows applicants to learn about the PSP and themselves. We welcome applicants from diverse clinical fields and from the worlds of academia, the arts and other community and cultural institutions, who believe that the study of psychoanalysis will inform and enrich their work.
Applicants will be considered without regard to race, sex, marital status, sexual orientation or disability.
Timeline
Applications are accepted beginning in January of the coming academic year and end on June 1 of that year. We accept applications on a rolling basis and will let applicants know the decision of the committee as soon as possible after the application process is completed. We encourage applicants to apply as early as possible.
Requirements
Applicants must hold an independent license to practice in their field. Applicants who are licensed in psychiatry, social work, professional counseling, marriage and family counseling are all welcome to apply. The PSP is for licensed clinicians only. If you are still working toward licensure, you might consider WBCP’s Fellowship Programs and Observational Studies Programs.
Psychoanalytic Fellowship Program
Combined Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Fellowship Program and Candidate Seminar
Application Materials
Please submit the following application materials through the online portal. We only accept completed applications that include all the required written materials. The exception is that we ask that you send the two letters of recommendation via the following link (CLICK HERE) or by email to Joe@wbcp.org with a Subject Line of PSP Admissions. Please indicate the names and addresses of the people you are asking to write letters on your behalf. Please have all materials ready when you apply as the system will not accept partial submissions.
The required materials include:
- Completed application form. (CLICK HERE)
- A copy of your current curriculum vitae (CV).
- A copy of your professional license.
- A biographical sketch of about 3 pages that includes a description of your personal history and experience and your reflections on that experience.
- A career narrative of your career evolution and your reflections on your choices.
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After you submit your application we will also require two letters of recommendation from senior clinicians with whom you have had a training or professional relationship. At least one letter should be from a clinical supervisor.
Admissions Process
Once the Admissions Committee has received your completed application and your letters of recommendation, we will contact you to set up a personal interview with one of the members of the Committee. On some occasions we will also ask you to participate in a second interview with another member of the committee. In addition to your submitted materials, we may look at and consider your web presence as it pertains to your professional affiliations.
Admissions decisions are made by the Admissions Committee with oversight by the Institute Council. One of the outcomes of the admissions process may be to advise you to first attend one of the Fellowship Programs that our Center offers or the Observational Studies Program.
For more information about the PSP or your particular circumstances, please call or email Mimi Blasiak, Admissions Chair at 240-447-3388 or mimi.blasiak@gmail.com.
Tuition & Fees
2023-2024 Psychoanalytic Studies Program
Application Fee $159.75
Tuition per year $2,856.00
Matriculation $266.00
For students who are admitted part-time, tuition per class is $953.00
Supervision at $75/hr
CMEs/CEs are available for all PSP coursework.
*2024 – 2025 fees will be posted in the near future. Typically tuition and fees are increased to keep pace with annual inflation changes.
Scholarships
As part of our commitment to support increased diversity and to meet some of the financial needs of students in our training programs, the WBCP is pleased to be able to offer scholarship funding to cover the cost of tuition for eligible PSP and Institute students. We welcome applications for scholarship support. Guidelines for applying can be found in the Scholarship Application.