About SFCP

Our Mission

The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis is dedicated to advancing the vitality and enduring value of psychoanalysis in Northern California and beyond.

The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis was organized in 2007, combining the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute & Society, founded in 1941, with the San Francisco Foundation for Psychoanalysis, founded in 1991. The SFCP is a not for profit organization with more than 230 practicing analysts, more than 38 candidates (psychoanalysts in training), 70 psychoanalytic psychotherapy trainees, and more than 200 community members. The Center provides an extensive training program in psychoanalysis. The Center also sponsors a large, vibrant Extension Division which offers classes and seminars for continuing education credit to mental health professionals upon approval of membership. Outreach programs may also be found on our calendar. These events are free and offer no continuing education credit and are open to the general public. In addition, SFCP maintains a Low / Moderate Fee Referral Services for adults, children and adolescents as well as providing other mental health services and programs for the general community.

Since its formation seventy years ago by American and European analysts, the SFCP has been an able and avant-garde member organization of the American and International Psychoanalytic Associations. As it has undergone continuing self-study and evolution in each decade, it now arrives in the 21st Century as a model for contemporary psychoanalytic training — offering a full vision of educational development for psychoanalysts-to-be. The SFCP offers program that rests on the traditional three pillars of psychoanalytic education: seminars in clinical work and theory, supervision of analytic cases, and personal psychoanalysis, to which we add a fourth pillar — the serious cultivation of critical thinking with a focus on evidence and logical coherence.

In support of the Mission Statement, the Board of Trustees of the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis shall establish policies that enable the organization, with a commitment to excellence, to address each of the following:

  • provide training and continuing education of psychoanalysts, mindful of the needs of our local and extended communities
  • promote the understanding of and regard for psychoanalysis in the mental health community and in the community at large
  • make affordable psychoanalytically-oriented services available to patients, programs, and institutions
  • support and enrich the professional lives of members
  • further psychoanalytic knowledge and practice through writing, research, and public presentation


What we offer

  • As an accredited institute, full training in psychoanalysis for mental health professionals
  • Continuing education for mental health professionals who hold active membership
  • Training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy
  • Programs for the general public in a variety of arts and educational programs
  • Support for psychoanalytic research and selected community consultation for educators
  • A library with the largest collection of psychoanalytic publications in the Western United States


Professional Programs

  • Full Psychoanalytic Training — In Adult, Child, or Adult & Child Psychoanalysis (Accredited by APsaA and IPA), requiring a personal training analysis for candidates, supervised cases, and seminars in theory and clinical practice.
  • Partial Psychoanalytic Training — Available for research and academic candidates, requiring personal training and institute seminars.
  • Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training — A two year program for mental health professionals involving seminars and supervision, currently taught on the Peninsula.
  • Clinical and Theoretical Courses of the Extension Education Committee — A large variety of offerings for mental health professionals.


Public Programs – Arts, Educ​ation, and Service to the Community

  • Referral Service for Psychoanalysis — for Adults, Teens, and Children
  • Community Members Mentoring Program
  • Coalition for Clinical Social Work Program
  • Child Colloquium Series
  • Dialogues in Contemporary Psychoanalysis
  • Psychoanalytic Students Seminar
  • Scientific Meetings

Upcoming Events

Saturday, December 7, 2024
Scientific Meetings
Substance Abuse in an Adolescent Boy—Waking the Object
Mary Brady, PhD (presenter)
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
Coalition for Clinical Social Work
The Importance of Mentalization in work with Foster Children
Tina Adkins, PhD, LPC; Toni Heineman, LCSW, DMH; and Analisa Cabrera, MSW, LCSW (presenters)
Thursday, December 12, 2024
SFCP Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Conversations
SFCP Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) Conversations - Module 1
David Luna, MBA, JD
Saturday, December 14, 2024
SFCP Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Conversations
SFCP Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) Conversations - Module 1
David Luna, MBA, JD
Wednesdays, January 8, 2025 to May 21, 2025
Extension Education Programs
2024-2025 Coalition for Clinical Social Work Extension Division Program: Foundations of Psychodynamic Clinical Work in Community Mental Health Settings - Year TWO
Sandra Gaspar, LMFT; Elizabeth M. Simpson, LCSW; and Danny Yu, LCSW (instructors)
Wednesdays, January 8, 2025 to February 5, 2025
Psychoanalytic Student Seminars
Promoting Depth and Analytic Process in Psychotherapy With Patients in Internship and Clinical Settings
Beth Steinberg, PhD (instructor)
Thursdays, January 9, 2025 to May 8, 2025
Extension Education Programs
2024-2025 Coalition for Clinical Social Work Extension Division Program: Foundations of Psychodynamic Clinical Work in Community Mental Health Settings - Year ONE
Genevieve Vidal, LCSW; Sebastian Melo, LCSW, MPH; Julia St. George, LCSW; and Beth Kita, LCSW, PhD (instructors)
Saturday, January 11, 2025
Child Colloquium Series
Therapy and medications: How can child and adolescent clinicians work collaboratively with psychiatrists?
Ross Andelman, MD, MFA (presenter)
Saturday, January 18, 2025
Dialogues in Contemporary Psychoanalysis
The Social Unconscious: Beyond the Individual and Beyond the Group - Juan Tubert-Oklander in Conversation with Jyoti Rao
Juan Tubert-Oklander (interviewee); Jyoti Rao, LMFT (interviewer)
Thursday, January 23, 2025
SFCP Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Conversations
SFCP Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) Conversations - Module 2
David Luna, MBA, JD
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