Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program (SF-PPTP)

ELIGIBILITY

Each applicant to SF-PPTP or Foundations must:

  • Be a California-licensed psychiatrist or psychiatry resident or have a California mental health practitioner license or registered trainee license (or a plan for one of these to be in place).
    .
  • Have an established plan to be practicing psychoanalytic psychotherapy with adults 1-2x/week while in SF-PPTP or Foundations classes.  
    • Applicants to SF-PPTP must have a plan to be practicing this kind of therapy for at least one year during the program’s two academic years of coursework.
    • Applicants to Foundations must have a plan to be practicing this kind of therapy for at least six months during the program’s one academic year of coursework. Occasionally, applicants are accepted into Foundations in the absence of such a plan.  Such applications should be submitted only after first consulting with Outreach Chair Adam Goldyne (click to email).

  • During the planned period of clinical practice described above, one of the following must be true: 
    • The trainee must  be licensed (psychology, marriage and family therapy, social work, nursing, or medicine) and have malpractice insurance; or
    • The trainee must  be practicing under the license and professional liability insurance of a supervising clinician or organization with whom they are training. 

Please see the tab to the left —  Deciding Whether to Apply to SF-PPTP or Foundations — for guidance in deciding whether SF-PPTP or Foundations would be a better fit for your circumstances. 

If your primary clinical work is with children and adolescent patients, please consider applying to SFCP’s Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program (CAPPTP).

Further questions about eligibility for SF-PPTP or Foundations may be directed to Admissions Chair Lucas Broster, MD, PhD (click to email).

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, December 3, 2025
Coalition for Clinical Social Work
Coalition for Clinical Social Work Clinical Evening Series: Psychoanalysis Under Attack: Practicing Psychoanalytically-Informed Work in Beleaguered Communities Abroad
Silvia Rivera, PhD (presenter); Dania Dandashli, MA, LPC-S (discussant)
Saturday, December 6, 2025
Dialogues in Contemporary Psychoanalysis
Malignant Nostalgia: the impulse to eradicate "the bitter experience of life.”
Donald Moss, MD (presenter) in Conversation with Mitchell Wilson, MD
Wednesdays, January 7 to 28, 2026
Psychoanalytic Student Seminars
Becoming a Couple: An Introduction to Psychoanalytic Couple Psychotherapy
Dana Iscoff, MFT (instructor)
Thursdays, January 8 to February 12, 2026
Coalition for Clinical Social Work
CCSW mini-Module: THERAPEUTIC RELATEDNESS
Sandra Gaspar, LMFT (instructor)
Saturday, January 10, 2026
Scientific Meetings
PSYCHEDELIC PSYCHOANALYSIS: TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE SELF
Megan Rundel, PhD (presenter); Ilene Philipson, PhD, PhD (moderator)
Thursdays, January 15 to May 21, 2026
Coalition for Clinical Social Work
Foundations of Psychodynamic Clinical Work in Community Mental Health Settings - Year 1
 Julia St. George, LCSW; Corey Datz-Greenberg, LCSW; and Beth Kita, LCSW, PhD (instructors)
Saturday, January 31, 2026
Child Colloquium Series
Specialized Parent Work: a Critical Element to Supporting the Health of Trans, Nonbinary, and Gender-Exploring Youth
Melissa Holub, PhD (presenter); Michelle Jurkiewicz, PsyD (case presenter)
Wednesdays, February 4 to 25, 2026
Psychoanalytic Student Seminars
Exploring the Unconscious – An Introduction to Jungian Dreamwork
Betty Tharpe, MFT (instructor)
Saturday, February 7, 2026
Dialogues in Contemporary Psychoanalysis
A Passion For Ever More
Dominique Scarfone, MD (presenter); Adam Blum, PsyD (discussant)
Saturday, February 21, 2026
Child Colloquium Series
Film Screening and Discussion: Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Reyna Cowan, PsyD, LCSW (discussant)
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