Accepting Applications for 2024-2026

Click here to apply

Application deadline is July 15, 2024, but please submit your application as early as possible to allow time for the admissions process.

Preconference days for 2024-2025

Thursday November 7, 2024 9am – 4:30pm ET

Topic: TBA

Monday April 28, 2025 9am – 4:30pm ET

Topic: TBA

We welcome a diverse group of participants for these one-day experiences.

Certificate Program

Who is invited to apply?

The International Psychotherapy Institute offers a high quality, combined training program in child psychotherapy and child psychoanalysis.  This 2-year, 2-hours-a-week, distance learning and training course is for adult analysts and advanced child psychotherapists who wish to learn child analysis, and for child and adult psychotherapists who wish to deepen their work with children.

How will the program be delivered and what does it include?

The new 2024-2026 class of learners will be completely online, engaging in didactic instruction, case conferences, and group discussion on secure Zoom for two hours on Fridays.  Additionally, both groups attend two online summer institutes and four weekend conferences over the two years, plus individual weekly online consultation with child program faculty, individual personal treatment, and completion of an infant observation course as components of the training.

The first year begins with a summer institute addressing object relations theory as it applies to child and family work. This summer institute features didactics on theory, clinical case presentations, demonstrations of psychoanalytic technique with children, and experiential learning through activities and IPI’s signature group affective model. It is intended to be a highly interactive online experience to build cohesion with the entering cohort of learners and to prepare participants for work in their clinical settings. In the fall, the learning continues for 2 hours weekly online on secure Zoom on Fridays between 11:00 am – 2:00 pm East coast time in combined and separate classes for psychotherapists and child analysts.  The two first year online seminar courses cover ethics, the treatment situation, and child development. Readings for coursework include classic and contemporary writers.

The second year begins with another summer institute, and continues weekly online on secure Zoom on Friday afternoons from 11:00 am – 2:00 pm East coast time. The second-year online seminar courses address psychopathology and wellness in childhood and the literature of child psychotherapy or child analysis. After each seminar are ongoing clinical case conferences and GAM groups to help internalize the learning and develop an ethical stance.

Program Chair

Janine Wanlass, Ph.D.

Program Dates:

The program begins with a summer institute from Monday, August 19, 2024 through Friday, August 23, 2024.

Weekly classes start on Friday, September 6, 2024.

First immersion and weekend conference occur on November 7-10, 2024.

Program Faculty

Program Components

• Weekly seminars on topics including child and adolescent development, assessment and the treatment situation, work with parents and families, childhood psychopathology and wellness, and literature of child psychotherapy and child analysis featuring consultation to schools and agencies, multicultural awareness, gender considerations, etc.
• Student presentations in a clinical case conference format, highlighting 5 or more sessions of the student’s clinical work and discussed with the cohort and a faculty member.
• IPI’s signature GAM groups (small discussion groups using the Group Affective Model), attending to the development of the therapist/analysts’ identity and ethical stance.
• Individual weekly consultation with program faculty on two cases. (Three cases for analytic candidates wishing to become supervising analysts.)
• Personal treatment with a psychoanalytic psychotherapist or psychoanalyst, conducted in the office or on secure video conference.
• Two summer immersion institutes incorporating theory, clinical applications, and experiential learning.
• Four IPI weekend conferences with invited guests over the two years, including attendance at an immersion day prior to each conference.

Completion of the Infant Observation Program or equivalent, including direct observation of a baby.

The weekly seminar is built on an Object Relations foundation:

The proposed readings reflect classical and contemporary psychoanalytic literature, including theories of A. Freud, Klein, Winnicott, Bornstein, Solnit, Abrams, the Sandlers, Tustin, Bick, Aberastury,  Pichon-Riviere, Gaddini, Harris, Fraiberg, the Tysons, Laufer, Pine; the research of Stern, Emde, Fonagy, Target, Coates, and Salomonsson; and the contemporary work of Ferro, Gilmore, the Novicks, Lemma, Yanof, O’Shaugnessy, Pick, Chused, and the Scharffs.

Friday Afternoons

Separate child psychotherapy track continuous case conference & GAM Group
11:00-12:00 (US ET)

Combined didactic theory
12:00-1:00 (US ET)

Separate child analytic track continuous case conference & GAM Group
1:00-2:00 (US ET)

In the first year, a combined curriculum.In one shared weekly hour, child psychotherapy trainees and child analytic candidates study together in combined theory courses in childhood psychopathology and wellness, theory of child development, attachment theory, the basic psychoanalytic situation, techniques to establish and maintain a relationship with a child, provisioning the office setting, theory of play, using play creatively, transference, countertransference, relating to parents, families, co-workers, agencies, teachers and pediatricians, sensitivity to diversity, ethics, the use and impact of technology, and research techniques.

In the other weekly hour, child psychotherapy and child analysis trainees study in separate tracks for their respective clinical case conferences and GAM groups.

In the second year, a separate curriculum.In both hours, child psychotherapy and child analysis trainees study separately in specialized psychotherapy or psychoanalysis theory, literature, advanced technique courses, and clinical case conferences.

The GAM group is a special feature of this IPI child psychotherapy and child analytic training program. In the Group Affective Model for teaching and learning child analytic psychotherapy and child analysis, trainees meet in GAM groups with the task of integrating their emotional responses to the challenging primitive material encountered in work with young children and adolescents, confronting diversity with sensitivity, studying the social unconscious of the group, developing an ethical analytic stance, and securing their identity as either child analysts or child psychotherapists.

Course Requirements

Educational requirements

Satisfactory attendance at weekly online classes, two online summer institutes, four IPI weekend conferences over two years (including preconference days), and infant observation program for one year.

Until case requirements for the child psychotherapy or child analytic training program are met, the child program participants will progress into the third year to attend the appropriate weekly child case conference, immersion days, or IPI weekend conferences as directed.

Clinical Requirements Specific to Child Psychotherapy

Child psychotherapy trainees will undertake two cases (a pre-oedipal child, latency child and/or adolescent not all the same gender) in 1 or 2 times per week child psychotherapy. One case will be for one year, and one case will be for 18 months for a total minimum of 220 hours of child psychotherapy (including sessions with parents/family).

The training cases will be discussed with different faculty consultants (one for each case) once a week for a total minimum of 105 hours of consultation.  Consultant and trainee will conduct annual review of the consultative process in a mutual review process and complete evaluation forms and a short report of the treatment (1 page is sufficient).

Those who do not finish in two years will join the first-year clinical case conference and/or immersion days/weekend conferences in subsequent years. Before graduation, child psychotherapy trainees will have presented their work in a clinical case conference in the child program or at IPI.

Given the challenges in conducting child work, child psychotherapy trainees will participate in their own weekly psychoanalytic personal therapy/psychoanalysis (non-reporting). (Note:  This requirement may be met prior to training; however, trainees are encouraged to remain in treatment for at least part of the training.

 

Clinical Requirements specific to Child Analysis

Child analytic trainees will meet requirements for two child analytic cases (treated 3-5 times a week), weekly child analytic consultation, and (non-reporting) personal analysis if made necessary by the challenges of working with children.

One case will be conducted with a play-age child (of different developmental stages and characteristics including, but not limited to gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, race, ethnicity, culture, disability and socioeconomic status) meeting 3-5 times a week with the child alone, plus parent work or family work at a frequency that is clinically indicated, and the other case will be an adolescent or a child at an earlier developmental phase than latency.   Parent and family work will count toward the total clinical hours.  The candidate will have two training cases and discuss them in weekly consultation with two separate consultants.  Each case will be seen and consulted to for a minimum of one year.

Two training cases are to be treated and reviewed in consultation for at least one year for a total minimum of 400 clinical hours and 150 hours of consultation.

We have a strong preference for at least a part of one analysis to be conducted at the more intense level of 4 or 5 times a week.  When the case enters the termination phase, we strongly recommend that the candidate (or graduate) who has met requirements return to consultation of termination.  After determining the candidate’s total amount of experience and degree of growth in consultation, more may be required and exceptions may be granted.  For instance, those with limited prior child experience and those who aspire to be consulting child analysts in future will be advised to have three cases, each for a year, or one of their two cases will need to be in a mature analytic process or in a late phase.

Those who do not finish in two years will join the appropriate clinical case conference or immersion days/weekend conferences in subsequent years. Before graduation, child analytic candidates will have presented their work in a clinical case conference in the child program or at IPI and will have taught a class.

Educational Objectives

GENERAL LEARNING GOALS FOR THE CHILD PROGRAM

Participants will be able to:

• Demonstrate a knowledge based of historical and contemporary theory applicable to clinical work with children, adolescents, and their families
• Write in detail and present process notes
• Engage in discussion of case material non-defensively
• Demonstrate the factors conducive to therapeutic action in child psychotherapy and child analysis
• Apply concepts of the setting, analytic observation and listening, play, use of countertransference and interpretation, and working through in individual child treatment
• Work collaboratively with parents
• Develop a reflective, ethical stance

 

1 Learning Goals for the Continuous Child Case Conference

• Listen, wait, wonder, and speak respectfully to the presenter
• Observe resistance, transference and countertransference
• Develop a capacity for being in uncertainty
• Track the effect of an interpretation

1 Learning Objectives for Continuous Case Conference: Participants will be able to:

• Delineate 1 aspect of therapeutic action
• Give one example of a countertransference used to construct a transference interpretation

2 Learning Goals for the GAM group

• Listen respectfully to others’ experience
• Collaborate to achieve understanding
• Distinguish cognitive learning from affective learning
• Develop an ethical analytic stance

2 Learning Objectives for GAM group: Participants will be able to:

• Demonstrate 4 principles of ethical behavior in clinical application
• Present one criticism in a constructive voice

3 Learning Goals for Child/Adolescent Treatment Situation:

• Establish a secure setting in which a child can be expressive
• Assess the child’s needs and match them to the appropriate recommendation for psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, or other
• Play constructively and creatively with a child
• Engage the parents in taking a developmental history and supporting treatment

3 Learning Objectives for Child/Adolescent Treatment Situation

• Name three toys that are useful for Oedipal play
• List two defenses seen in an adolescent’s dream

4 Learning Goals for Family and Multicultural Awareness

• Name specific features of one culture other than their own primary cultural identification
• Address the impact of family dynamics on the emerging personality of the child and vice versa

4 Learning Objectives for Family and Cultural Awareness

• Give 1 clinical example of transgenerational trauma
• Describe 3 features of the social unconscious 

5 Learning Goals for Development

• Describe the developmental stages from pre-birth to adolescence and note their relevance to adult analysis
• Distinguish pre-oedipal anxiety from Oedipal conflict
• Trace the roots of sexual and aggressive expressions in children and adolescents to the individual and family histories
• Explore the cultural context in each child’s development
• Describe bodily and mental transitions of early and late adolescence

5 Learning Objectives for Development

• Describe one play activity typical of an anxious adolescent.
• Identify two typical defenses of latency
• List three instinctual responses of infancy

6 Learning Goals for Research and Writing: Participants will

• Discuss the need for research in child treatment and describe one methodology
• Identify a suitable topic for qualitative or quantitative investigation or literature review
• Conduct research on that topic
• Write their research findings and present them to their classmates

6 Learning Objectives for Research and Writing

• Select one aspect of their learning and describe it concisely in a 2-page paper
• Co-teach one topic from child analytic literature applied to child psychotherapy

7 Learning Goals for Psychopathology & Wellness of Childhood:

• Recognize a healthy child
• Recognize and distinguish between neurotic, conduct disorder and psychotic behaviors in children
• Provide an accurate diagnosis
• Provide a psychoanalytic formulation
• Distinguish between anxiety and depression

7 Learning Objectives for Psychopathology and Wellness of Childhood

• Describe three features of a resilient child
• Select one of the ICD-10 categories and compare it to that aspect of the PDM 2
• Choose one typical symptom presentation from a child or adolescent and develop a psychoanalytic formulation
• List two kinds of childhood loss and two kinds of childhood trauma

8 Learning Goals for Advanced Child Analytic Technique

• Place current child analytic practice in the historical context of child analysis
• Contain anxiety as work deepens in the mid-phase of child analysis
• Detect and demonstrate transference with directness and empathy
• Detect, analyze and use countertransference effectively
• Explain the role of insight in therapeutic action
• Distinguish between the concepts of construction and reconstruction
• Vary analytic technique appropriate to infants, toddlers, school-age children and adolescents
• Adapt technique using modifications and parameters when indicated

8 Learning Objectives for Advanced Child Analytic Technique

• Discuss 3 concepts relevant to the development of analytic process
• Describe 2 phenomena typical of termination in child analysis

9 Learning Goals for Literature of Child Analysis

• Compare and contrast the work of Anna Freud and Melanie Klein
• Define Fairbairn’s concept of dissociation in child sexual abuse
• Distinguish between holding and containment
• Be proficient in working with drawings, dreams, and play
• Relate the concept of aggression to the pleasure principle
• Describe sexual development from infancy to adolescence
• See the confusion of sexuality and aggression in erotic transference
• Discuss contemporary approaches to gender non-conformity
• Engage in discussion of theory and technique with analysts trained in various analytic traditions

9 Learning Objectives for Literature of Child Analysis 

• List two sequelae of trauma
• List two components of Bion’s concept of containment
• List one concept identified with Melanie Klein
• List three concepts identified with Winnicott.

10 Learning Goals for Plenary

• Review and assess their learning experience
• Communicate their difficulties in learning and respond to others’ difficulties respectfully

10 Learning Objectives for Plenary

• Propose one programmatic change that could improve the course
• Identify one overlooked topic and suggest two relevant readings to address it

---

LEARNING OBJECTIVES FOR YEAR 1 and YEAR 2 CHILD PSYCHOTHERAPY PROGRAM

1 Learning Goals for Continuous Case Conference

• Write and present process notes
• Engage in discussion of case material non-defensively
• Demonstrate the factors conducive to therapeutic action in child psychotherapy
• Apply concepts of the setting, analytic observation and listening, play, use of countertransference and interpretation, and working through

1 Learning Objectives for Continuous Case Conference

• Delineate 1 aspect of therapeutic action
• Give one example of a countertransference response used to construct a transference interpretation

2 Learning Goals for GAM group

• Integrate cognitive and affective aspects of learning
• Develop an ethical stance as a child psychotherapist

2 Learning Objectives for GAM group

• Present one criticism in a constructive voice
• Define cognitive learning and distinguish it from affective learning
• Demonstrate 4 principles of ethical behavior in clinical application

3 Learning Goals for Child/Adolescent Treatment Situation:

• Establish a secure setting in which a child can be expressive
• Assess the child’s needs and match them to the appropriate recommendation for psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, or other
• Play constructively and creatively with a child
• Engage the parents in taking a developmental history and supporting treatment
• Compare the techniques of mentalisation and interpretation of resistance in the opening phase

3 Learning Objectives for Child/Adolescent Treatment Situation

• Name three toys that are useful for Oedipal play
• List two defenses seen in an adolescent’s dream
• Name 1 ethical principle that applies particularly in work with children

4 Learning Goals for Family and Multicultural Awareness

• Name specific features of a culture other than their own primary cultural identification
• Address the impact of family dynamics on the emerging child and vice versa
• Describe the transmission of trauma across generations

4 Learning Objectives for Family and Cultural Awareness

• Give 1 clinical example of transgenerational trauma
• Describe 3 features of the social unconscious

5 Learning Goals for Development

• Describe the developmental stages from pre-birth to adolescence and note their relevance to adult psychotherapy
• Distinguish pre-oedipal anxiety from oedipal conflict
• Identify two typical defenses of latency
• Trace the roots of sexual and aggressive expressions in children and adolescents to the individual and family histories
• Take account of the cultural context in each child’s development
• Describe bodily and mental transitions of early and late adolescence

5 Learning Objectives for Development

• Describe one play activity typical of an anxious adolescent.
• Identify two typical defenses of latency
• List three instinctual responses of infancy

6 Learning Goals for Research and Writing: Participants will be able to

• Discuss the need for research in child treatment and describe one methodology

6 Learning Objectives for Research and Writing

• Select one aspect of their learning and express their ideas concisely in a 2-page paper
• Co-teach 1 topic from child psychotherapy literature in the second year

7 Learning Goals for Psychopathology & Wellness of Childhood:

• Describe the features of a healthy child in terms of resilience
• Amplify the categories of the ICD-10 with reference to the PDM 2
• Distinguish between disorders of anxiety and depression
• Develop a psychodynamic formulation of 3 typical symptom presentations in childhood and adolescence
• Distinguish between the impact of childhood loss and childhood trauma

7 Learning Objectives for Psychopathology and Wellness of Childhood

• Describe three features of a resilient child
• Select one of the ICD-10 categories and compare it to that aspect of the PDM 2
• Choose one typical symptom presentation from a child or adolescent in treatment and develop a psychoanalytic formulation
• Distinguish two kinds of childhood loss and two kinds of childhood trauma

8 Learning Goals for Advanced Theory and Technique of Child Psychotherapy

• Vary psychotherapy technique appropriate to infants, toddlers, school-age children and adolescents
• Apply sensitivity to diversity in relating to children’s families, schools and agencies
• Utilize infant observation technique and attachment theory to assess sources of separation anxiety
• Describe the impact of temperament and type of sibling relationship on the development of the self
• Distinguish between holding and containment
• Discuss the role of sexuality and aggression in the development of the self and gender
• Detect and contain countertransference in work with Oedipal conflict

8 Learning Objectives for Advanced Child Psychotherapy Technique

• Discuss 3 concepts relevant to the development of therapeutic process
• Describe 2 phenomena typical of termination in child psychotherapy
• Give 1 example of addressing transference directly and with empathy

9 Learning Goals for Literature of Child Psychotherapy

• Compare and contrast the assessment protocols of A. Freud and Greenspan
• Demonstrate the effective use of drawings, dreams, and play in child psychotherapy
• Define transitional space and transitional object
• Define Fairbairn’s concept of dissociation in child sexual abuse
• Give an example of transference in psychotherapy of an adolescent
• Give an example of hate in the countertransference in psychotherapy of a latency child
• Discuss contemporary approaches to gender non-conformity

9 Learning Objectives for Literature of Child Psychotherapy

• List two sequelae of trauma
• List two components of Bion’s concept of containment
• List one concept identified with Melanie Klein
• List three concepts identified with Winnicott
• Give 2 examples of the impact of technology on the developing mind
• Describe 1 potential developmental impact of divorce or adoption on a pre-oedipal child
• Describe 1 phenomenon often noted in the termination process in child psychotherapy

10 Learning Goals for Plenary

• Review and assess the learning experience
• Communicate difficulties in learning so as to look for group solutions
• Propose programmatic changes that could help child psychotherapy trainees and faculty improve

10 Learning Objectives for Plenary

• Propose one programmatic change that could improve the course
• Identify one overlooked topic and suggest two relevant readings to address it

Continuing Education Credit Hours

Continuing education credit for the program is the sum of credit hours for the component parts over the two years:

• Online seminars provide approximately 64 hours each:  128 credit hours
• Attendance at two 3-day weekend conferences approximately 14.5 hours each:  58 credit hours
• Attendance at two 6-hour immersion days prior to each of the 3-day conferences each year: 24 credit hours
• Attendance at two, 5 day, 5 hour summer institutes: 50 credit hours

Prerequisites

You will have taken, or agree to take the one-year IPI course in infant observation, (separate tuition) or show that you have had equivalent preparation.

Tuition and Fees

Tuition includes membership in the IPI learning community, with access to PEPWEB and FREE participation in the Master Speaker Videoconference series, Foundations in Couple Therapy Videoconference series, and Special Topics lecture series.

Child Psychotherapy Training: Annual tuition $4,529

Child Analytic Training: Annual tuition $4,529

Tuition and fees will be negotiated for students who need to continue into a third year in order to complete program requirements.

Fees for child psychotherapy and child analytic consultation and for personal psychotherapy and psychoanalysis will be arranged individually with your faculty consultants and your therapist/analyst.

---

Should you have any questions about the program or the application process, please feel free to contact:

Jill Savege Scharff, MD, Child Analytic Admissions - jillscharff@theipi.org

---

Should you have any questions about the program or the application process, please feel free to contact:

Janine Wanlass, Ph.D., Child Psychotherapy Admissions - jwanlass@westminsteru.edu

Continuing Education Information

The International Psychotherapy Institute, IPI, is approved by The American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. IPI maintains responsibility for the program and its content. The International Psychotherapy Institute has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6017. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The International Psychotherapy Institute is responsible for all aspects of the programs. The International Psychotherapy Institute is authorized by the Board of Social Work Examiners in Maryland to sponsor social work continuing education learning activities and maintains full responsibility for this program. This training qualifies for Category I continuing education units. The International Psychotherapy Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0299.
Participants are responsible for verifying that IPI CE credit is accepted by the licensing boards in their own states.