Training in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy
IPTAR offers an innovative three-year program in child and adolescent psychotherapy. The curriculum embodies a contemporary psychoanalytic perspective, complementary to IPTAR's Training Program in Adult Psychoanalysis. The program is committed to integrating the rapidly growing advances in infant and child research, developmental theory, and psychotherapy technique. Theoretical learning is organized around clinical work, which starts in the first year and continues throughout training.
Areas of study include:
- the traditional child literature on theory and technique,
- the work of contemporary Freudians,
- the modern Kleinians and the (British) Independents.
- Object relations,
- Attachment theory.
The Curriculum
The first-year courses cover comparative theories of assessment and diagnosis and beginning work with the child and family. In the second year, growing confidence in assessment and evaluation allows for greater understanding of the spectrum of childhood and adolescent disorders. The third year allows the candidate to experience, through the presentation of ongoing case material, the unfolding and deepening of the therapeutic process. The opportunity to see the children and adolescents in long-term treatment allows for greater understanding of the kinds of defenses and the modes of regression that children use. (A fuller description of the curriculum can be found here).
Each semester, one visiting faculty member presents his/her work to candidates and faculty providing a special opportunity to learn in greater depth from leaders in the field of child therapy and research.
Observation and Research
The program offers opportunities for nursery, parent-infant, and school setting treatment experience. In addition, candidates may develop and participate in the IPTAR Clinical Center Outcome Research Project as it applies to children, adolescents and their families. (For more information about IPTAR's research programs, please click here).
Supervision
Candidates are required to have two cases in supervision for a minimum of two years each, one case seen at least twice a week, and a second case seen a minimum of once a week. These two cases will represent different age groups. Cases may come from candidates' own practices or from the IPTAR Clinical Center (see below under "Resources").
Progress Through and Completion of the Program
Candidates are required to submit an initial report after the first month of work with each patient. Subsequently, reports are submitted every six months. These reports will culminate in a case presentation in the final semester. A certificate is awarded upon completion of the program.
Resources
In addition to the opportunity of becoming a member of a vibrant intellectual community, IPTAR offers a number of valuable resources to its candidates, including a comprehensive psychoanalytic library and access to PEP WEB; a vital candidates' organization; and the IPTAR Clinical Center (ICC). Through the ICC, candidates may be referred patients and begin to develop a private practice. For their work at the ICC candidates receive fees and free supervision from members of IPTAR.
Admission Requirements
Applicants should have at least a Master's degree and be licensed in any mental health area, or be enrolled in a program that will grant them a mental health license. As IPTAR is an interdisciplinary Institute, individuals who have a graduate degree in another field and who have relevant experience working with children, may be considered for admission if they pursue graduate work in a mental health program leading to licensure in New York State concurrently with their IPTAR course work. Candidates are expected to be in or to have completed their own personal psychoanalysis or intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
Please click here to download an application.
For further detail about all of IPTAR's training programs, please click here to download the IPTAR Bulletin.