SFCP Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Training Program

About SFCP’s Child & Adolescent Analytic Program

SFCP’s training program in child and adolescent psychoanalysis is the only such program in Northern California. It is also unique in that it offers a clinically based, experiential model for coming to understand the theories and techniques that are the foundation of contemporary child and adolescent psychoanalysis. The curriculum consists of didactic presentations and reading and discussion of the literature with local instructors, as well as candidates’ clinical presentations to a series of noted outside instructors who represent an array of theoretical and technical perspectives.

In this way, candidates learn the precepts of contemporary child and adolescent work from contemporary theoretical and clinical lenses such as Contemporary Freudian, Neo-Kleinian, Middle School, Winnicottian, Bionian, and Field Theory. Candidates are given the opportunity to compare and contrast the different perspectives, and to integrate them as they develop their own analytic approach.

In our program, we reconsider diagnostic categories, with attention to different clinical ways of considering and approaching patients who have been historically diagnosed as neurotic, borderline, or psychotic.  We investigate processes of trauma, adaptation, addiction, autistic and narcissistic functioning in children and adolescents, always relating conceptual material to actual cases with which we are working. We consider alternate approaches as we seek the best treatment for any given family and child.

Upcoming Events

Wednesdays, October 15, 2025 to May 27, 2026
Extension Education Programs
2025-2026 Seasoned Clinicians Program
 Jeffrey Sandler, MD; Clara Kwun, LCSW; Mark Swoiskin, MD; Jeanne Harasemovitch, LCSW; Michael Wagner, PhD, MFT; Joanna Wise-Bradman, LCSW, Dorian Newton, PhD; and Catherine Mallouh (leaders)
Saturday, October 18, 2025
Transformation, Creativity, and the Aesthetic Experience
Notions of Creativity in the Clinical Setting: Case Discussions from Jungian and Contemporary Object Relations Perspectives
Jan Ole Luuk, LLM (presenter); Robert Grossmark, PhD, ABPP; and Paul Watsky, PhD, ABPP (discussants)
Saturday, October 25, 2025
Child Colloquium Series
Learning to Surf: Analyzing Adolescents
Mary Brady, PhD (presenter); Jill Sallberg, PhD, ABPP (discussant)
Saturday, November 1, 2025
Scientific Meetings
LEADERSHIP IN THE PSYCHOANALYTIC MOVEMENT
Harriet Wolfe, MD (presenter); Brett Penfil, LMFT, MPH (interviewer)
Sunday, November 2, 2025
Committee on Groups
Deepen the Dialogues: Conversations Across Difference
The Committee on Groups
Saturday, November 8, 2025
Child Colloquium Series
The Play of Eros: The Story of an Adolescent Boy, his Body and his Analyst’s Body
Bruce Reis, PhD, FIPA, BCPsa (presenter); Terrence Owens, PhD (discussant)
Thursday, November 13, 2025
Psychoanalytic Education Division
Psychoanalytic Training Informational Evening
Please join SFCP Faculty and Candidates for Dinner, Drinks, and a Discussion of Psychoanalytic Training at SFCP.
Saturday, November 15, 2025
Transformation, Creativity, and the Aesthetic Experience
Transformation, Creativity, and the Aesthetic Experience: Comparative Psychoanalytic Perspectives within the Jungian and Contemporary Object Relations Traditions
John Beebe, PhD, ABPP; Diane Elise, PhD; Henry Markman, MD; and Paul Watsky, PhD, ABPP (presenters and panelists)
Saturday, December 6, 2025
Dialogues in Contemporary Psychoanalysis
Event title to be announced
Donald Moss, MD (presenter)
Wednesdays, January 7 to 28, 2026
Psychoanalytic Student Seminars
Becoming a Couple: An Introduction to Psychoanalytic Couple Psychotherapy
Dana Iscoff, MFT (instructor)
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