About SFCP

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