SFCP Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Training Program

Why Study Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis?

Psychoanalysis is one of the most powerful tools we have to facilitate an individual’s psychological and emotional growth. Its mutative power can be exponentially increased by intervening early in a child’s life. For children and adolescents who have complex, internalized problems, the analytic process is often the best method to liberate them from maladaptive behaviors and painful states of mind, and to help them resume a healthy developmental process.

As child analysts, we are uniquely positioned to identify the underlying motivations and beliefs which determine patterns of behavior, attitudes, and states of mind. We can observe, firsthand, the forces which mold a given individual and the ways a child or adolescent copes with the challenges life has presented. Most significantly, we are in position to build a powerful supportive and transformative relationship with them and within their other immediate relationships.

Education in child and adolescent analysis prepares the dedicated and curious clinician to practice psychoanalysis, to work dynamically with individual patients and their families in psychotherapy, to consult with community agencies, and to teach development to future practitioners.

In addition, analytic training can deepen the work of adult analysts and help them to understand the “child” and “adolescent” in their adult patients. What follows are reflections by adult analysts who trained at SFCP about the value of their exposure to child and adolescent analytic thinking and practice:

“Hearing cases at different stages of development helps generate a model of the mind, while hearing only adult cases creates pressure to impose a preconceived model.”

“…the illustration of the unconscious as it appears in play is very evocative and illuminating.”

“…in the context of today’s emphasis on sensitivity to cultural differences, child material illustrate that child-rearing practices vary dramatically from culture to culture…(and) are very observable and significant to the subsequent development of the adult.”

“Work with children necessarily emphasizes action, rather than words. Seeing how child analysts address the action helped me make the difficult but crucial shift to attending to what the patient is doing with the analyst in the transference, rather than simply listening to the narrative content.”

“The cases presented were full of life and honest expression. Nothing was off the table: child cases held overt conflict, love, inhibition, frustration, excitement, sex, aggression…they were messy and uncomfortable and painful, yet they felt real and there was a delight..in experiencing that realness. Children bring an honesty that other theory or adult classes couldn’t match. And what I heard play out in child clinical hours demonstrated many, if not all, of the key concepts and principles of psychoanalytic theory that were in Freud’s writings.”

Upcoming Events

Saturday, June 14, 2025
Dialogues in Contemporary Psychoanalysis
Listening Into Being: An Actor’s Invitation
Robin Weigert in Conversation with Kristin Fiorella
Fridays, September 5, 2025 to May 29, 2026
Extension Education Programs
2025-2026 East Bay Yearlong Program: Tuning into the Unspoken: Navigating the Landmarks of Unconscious Experience
Eric Miller, PhD; Elizabeth Stuart, MD; Graeme Daniels, LMFT; Marty Mulkey, LMFT; Chandra Rai, LMFT; and Luciane De Mello, LCSW
Saturday, September 6, 2025
Dialogues in Contemporary Psychoanalysis
Event title to be announced
Hannah Zeavin (presenter)
Fridays, September 26, 2025 to May 8, 2026
Extension Education Programs
2025-2026 San Francisco Yearlong Program: Continuous Case Conference
J. Marc Wallis, LCSW; Paul Alexander, PhD; Genie Dvorak, PsyD; Bronwen Lemmon, LMFT; and Walt Beckman, PhD (case conference group leaders)
Saturday, September 27, 2025
Transformation, Creativity, and the Aesthetic Experience
Notions of Psychoanalytic Transformation in the Clinical Setting: Case Presentations from a Jungian and Contemporary Object Relations Perspective
Henry Markman, MD; and Sandy Pepper, MD (speakers)
Mondays, September 29 to October 20, 2025
Coalition for Clinical Social Work
CCSW mini-Module: Working with Parents: A Complex and Essential Component of Child Psychotherapy
Lea Brown, LCSW, and Amy Wallerstein Friedman, LCSW (instructors)
Saturday, October 4, 2025
Scientific Meetings
THE RADICAL OTHERNESS OF MASUD KHAN
Ilene Philipson, PhD, PhD (presenter); Charles Fisher, MD (moderator)
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)
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