Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program (SF-PPTP)

OVERVIEW OF FOUNDATIONS / SF-PPTP CLASSES

The SF-PPTP curriculum offers two years of didactic seminars and case conferences, aimed at integrating of theory and practice. Each first-year cohort is comprised of first-year SF-PPTP trainees alongside Foundations trainees. Each second-year cohort is comprised of trainees who originally applied to SF-PPTP and have completed the first year, alongside trainees who began the program in Foundations and then transferred to SF-PPTP prior to the beginning of second-year classes.

Courses are held on Tuesday evenings from 6:15 pm to 9:30 pm at SFCP in San Francisco (444 Natoma Street),  from Late August through mid-June. Each evening is comprised of a 90-minute didactic seminar, a 15-minute break, and a 90-minute case conference.

Year 1 seminars review foundational principles of clinical work, with a special focus on thinking psychoanalytically about the relationships between personal experience, society, and culture.  Year 2 seminars develop a deeper understanding of psychoanalytic models of the mind, the dynamics and challenges of treatment, and creative practice. The ongoing case conference series provides the space to discuss clinical sessions with seasoned SFCP clinicians, as well as opportunities to explore how the concepts studied in seminars may be integrated into clinical work.  

Throughout the curriculum, SF-PPTP coursework aims to help trainees hone their attention to ways in which sociocultural contexts influence and interact with subjective experience, within and beyond the dyadic practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

FIRST-YEAR COURSEWORK (SF-PPTP & Foundations)

Psychoanalytic Stance
12 weeks: Sep 10, 17, 24; Oct 1, 8, 15, 22, 29; Nov 12, 19; Dec 3, 10, 2024
Introduces basic psychoanalytic tenets, ethics, and attitudes as they come alive in the clinician’s ways of listening, intervening, and relating.

The History of Psychoanalytic Thought  
12 weeks: Dec 17, 2024; Jan 7, 14, 21, 28; Feb 4, 11, 18, 25; Mar 4, 11, 18, 2025
Presents major psychoanalytic theories and their implications for practice.  Special attention will be paid to the historical context in which these theories developed.

Sociocultural Processes 
12 weeks: Mar 25; Apr 1, 8, 15, 22, 29; May 6, 13, 20, 27; Jun 3, 10, 2025
This course provides a framework for working across difference in its various aspects (gender, sexual orientation, class, race, religion, politics, etc.) within the psychoanalytic modality.

Case Conference Series
4 conferences, 8 weeks each, alongside above seminars
Case conferences provide a forum for in-depth consideration of trainees’ clinical work and for the application and further extension of ideas explored in the didactic seminars. The sequence is designed to expose trainees to different perspectives on therapeutic action and practice.

SECOND-YEAR COURSEWORK (SF-PPTP only)

Conceptualizing the Patient’s Inner World 
9 weeks: Sep 10, 17, 24; Oct 1, 8, 15, 22, 29; Nov 12, 2024
Offers a deeper investigation of clinically-relevant psychoanalytic models of the mind, building upon and extending models introduced during the first year.

Conceptualizing the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Situation 
9 weeks: Nov 19; Dec 3, 10, 17, 2024; Jan 7, 14, 21, 28; Feb 4, 2025
Presents principles of understanding and working with transference, countertransference, and other psychological processes at play when patient and therapist engage in psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

Clinical Challenges in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy 
9 weeks: Feb 11, 18, 25; March 4, 11, 18, 25; Apr 1, 8, 2025
Presents principles of understanding and working with obstacles to change in psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

Creative Practice in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy 
9 weeks: Apr 15, 22, 29; May 6, 13, 20, 27; Jun 3, 10, 2025
Explores innovative approaches to engaging with patients in psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

Case Conference Series
4 conferences, 8 weeks each, alongside above seminars
Case conferences provide a forum for in-depth consideration of trainees’ clinical work and for the application and further extension of ideas explored in the didactic seminars. The sequence is designed to expose trainees to different perspectives on therapeutic action and technique.