2023 - 2024 Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program
Benjamin Fife, PsyD, Chair
INFANCY AND EARLY CHILDHOOD - FIRST YEAR
Psychoanalytically oriented treatment of children and adolescents make demands on the therapist that are different than treatment of adults. From infancy through adolescence, children are always on the threshold of experiencing their minds and bodies in new ways. How do we reach these inner worlds when they often cannot use words to tell us about their experience? Children often communicate through play, but some cannot play. The therapist has the task of bringing together the child’s behaviors, and their own countertransference reactions, to try to arrive at the underlying meanings of the child’s inner world.
The Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program (CAPPTP) is a two-year training program consisting of seminars that address the relational, environmental, and intra-psychic processes for both parent and child, and offers in-depth examples of interventions. The training program uses class discussion, readings, case presentations by instructors and participants, and individual clinical supervision to enrich and enliven clinical work and theoretical understanding.
Student participation in weekly individual supervision with experienced faculty is fundamental to the CAPPTP training experience. Each trainee completes at least 50-hours of supervision. This in-depth supervision focuses on individual growth by fostering each trainee’s unique skills and working through the specific challenges each trainee experiences in his or her clinical work as well as providing a place for clinical consultation and mentorship. CAPPTP supervision is not intended to provide caseload oversight, but is focused solely on furthering each trainee’s education as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. Supervisors are chosen from some of SFCP’s most experienced faculty at reduced fees. Supervision occurs in supervisors’ private offices. Supervision fees are separate from tuition and are determined on a case-by-case basis according to our sliding scale guidelines.
The upcoming year (Fall 2023) of this two-year program addresses infancy and early childhood. The following year, our program addresses school-age children, adolescents, and the integration between child and adult work. Both years will include a case conference seminar where students will have the opportunity to present and discuss a specific clinical case to the group. Attention will be paid to different theoretical orientations and to cultural and sexual diversity.
Benefits of enrollment include subscription to PEP-Web and Community Membership at SFCP. All students are also entitled to attend all child colloquia held at SFCP. The Child Analytic Program of the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis provides a free series of presentations demonstrating the scope of child psychoanalysis today. These events offer an opportunity to hear a range of ideas and participate in discussions contributing to enriching clinical work and theoretical training.
Please Note: This is a two-year commitment and students are required to complete 50 hours of supervision with a supervisor chosen from any Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy faculty.
| Dates: | Wednesdays, September 6, 2023 – May 22, 2024 |
| Time: | 07:30pm – 09:00pm |
| Sessions: | 35 Sessions |
| Location: | San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis 444 Natoma Street San Francisco, CA 94103 (remote option to attend the program virtually is available) |
| Tuition Fee: | $ 1,995 or $ 2,048 if paying by installment (an optional IJP subscription is available for an additional $55) |
| To Apply: | Click here to download the 2023-25 CAPPTP Application Form |
| Note: | CAPPTP Application deadline is July 15. Admissions will occur on a rolling basis up until the application deadline. If the course is full before the admissions deadline applicants may be added to a waitlist. |
Orientation
Wednesday, September 6 (6:45pm – 7:30pm), 2023
Framing our Thinking - Diversity and Inclusion - Early Childhood Focus
Child psychotherapists practice in a diverse world and need theories that support ethical and effective practice across lines of difference. This course will look at contemporary and canonical psychoanalytic texts as well as other source material with an eye towards developing the cohort’s capacity to think and speak together about the application of psychoanalytical thinking to work with diverse child and parent populations.
Benjamin Fife, PsyD and Erika Solis, LMFT
Wednesdays, September 6, 13, 2023
Working with Parents
Parent work is an integral part of treating children & adolescents. It is only by restoring the parent-child relationship that we can contribute to long standing therapeutic change in the families we work with. The therapist alliance with the parents is critical in supporting the child’s treatment and healthy development. Our goals for the course on “Working With Parents” are:
- How to build a framework for developing a relationship with the parents prior to beginning treatment.
- By offering many clinical examples we address the challenges of working with parents.
We will explore various dynamics such as:
- The role of rescue fantasies in the therapist’s hostility to parents
- Parent’s denial and competition for the child
- Transference to the parents and clinician’s counter-transference.
We will also have time to discuss some practical tips for working with parents and containing parent anxiety.
Kiyomi Ameriks, MD and Shahla Chehrazi, MD
Wednesdays, September 20, 27; October 4, 2023
Foundations
Because CAPPTP participants come from quite varied clinical and experiential backgrounds there is often wide variation as well as familiarity and understanding of fundamental psychoanalytic concepts. Taking into account the level of familiarity and understanding that exists in this cohort, we will develop a shared and deeper understanding of fundamental psychoanalytic concepts that will emerge in later CAPPTP classes. The class will include readings, instructor presentations, and discussion of case material.
Michael Pastor, Ph.D., LMFT
Wednesdays, October 11, 18, 25; November 1, 8, 2023
Winnicott's Thinking About the Basics: Issues of Connection, Ruthlessness and Loss in the Young Child
How does a child engage with the world—both with their caregiver and with their own sense of self? This seminar will explore the many-faceted world of the young child through the purview of Winnicott and his theories on the use of the object and on play. We will use his thinking as an entryway to understand the clinical issues that impacts a young child through both clinical and theoretical articles.
Reyna Cowan, PsyD, LCSW
Wednesdays, November 15, 29; December 6, 13, 20, 2023
Infant Development 0-18 months
This course examines the period of life from birth-18 months with an aim of understanding this potent and powerful span of development.
Catherine Phillips, LCSW
Wednesdays, January 3, 10, 17, 24, 2024
Understanding Toddlerhood
We will delve into the world of children aged 18 months to 3 years with an eye toward understanding normal development, which will then help us recognize when development begins to go awry. Clinical material and video footage will be used to illustrate some of the fun yet challenging milestones toddlers face as they hurtle toward increased independence.
Gregory Villalba, LCSW
Wednesdays, January 31; February 7, 21, 28; March 6, 2024
(no class on February 14)
Psychotherapy with 4-6 year olds: The Magic and the Romance
Looking at normal development in 4-6 year olds we will see how physical, cognitive and psychological developments contribute to the maturation of the mind and personality, making possible stage specific psychological achievements such as the capacity for internal conflict, oedipal fantasy, identity consolidation, moral development and more. We will look at play in and out of the consulting room –using clinical examples to illustrate how to use play to understand a child’s internal world, as a primary mode of diagnostic evaluation and informing technique, diagnosis and treatment planning. Clinical material from both faculty and students will be utilized.
Phyllis Cath, MD
Wednesdays, March 13, 20, 27; April 3, 10, 2024
Case Conference
Participants will have the opportunity to present detailed typed process notes of sessions from their own active child cases to their fellow classmates and to two experienced clinicians who will facilitate the discussions. Following each session closely we will trace the emotional tone of the patient-therapist interactions and the transference-countertransference. We will try to identify the child’s level of psychic functioning as well as his or her anxieties and defenses. We will discuss how to establish an appropriate frame and how to formulate interpretations or interventions, which have the potential to facilitate the child’s psychic integration and growth. Working with the child’s parents to support the treatment will be considered as well.
Paul Brinich, PhD and Lilly Hanson, MFT
Wednesdays, April 17, 24; May 1, 8, 15, 22, 2024
Tuition and Fees
You will need to pay annual tuition fees each year you are enrolled in the program. Please note that tuition rates and feess are subject to change and typically increase 3% each year.
Annual tuition fees cover the following resources and services:
- Seminars and Case Conference for the full academic year
- Access to Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing (PEP) and EZ Proxy online databases of books and articles
- Community Membership at SFCP – Community Membership is an entry into a diverse and vibrant community of clinicians, scholars, and educators united by their common interest in psychoanalytic practice and thought. Access to a broad range of educational and professional development activities is available to Community Members of SFCP, including free attendance at Scientific Meetings and reduced fees for other programs.
- Access to the SFCP Library – extensive collection of psychoanalytic books and journals.
Annual tuition fees do NOT cover the following resources and services:
- Supervision fees – Please note that supervision fees are additional to tuition and are arranged individually between supervisor and supervisee. A list of CAPPTP supervisors will be provided, all of whom are committed to providing a reduced fee for students when needed.
- Occasional assigned readings which are not on PEP Web or EZ-Proxy – these will be available online for a small additional fee (see Readers Fee section below).
- CE/CME credit fees – if you wish to receive CE/CME credits, these are available according to the SFCP CE/CME credit policy (see CME/CE Credits Fee section below).
Refund Policy (for both Leaves of Absence and Withdrawals from Training)
The initial deposit you paid is not refundable; however, your initial deposit can be credited toward your future tuition if you elect to resume CAPPTP classes at a later time.
Once the first day of a new class begins, no refunds for that class will be given if you need to take a leave of absence or withdraw from training for any reason. If you have paid the tuition in full for the academic year, you will receive a refund for any classes not yet started at the time of withdrawal/leave of absence.
Readers Fee
Charges for reading material required for the seminars are not included in tuition. Your readers will be prepared by CopyCentral, and the readers cost are based upon copyright laws and change based on the content of the readers. The SFCP Office will inform you when your readers are available to be purchased from CopyCentral’s website. Please note that CopyCentral may take 2 weeks to print and mail the readers to you, so we recommend you to purchase them as soon as they become available.