Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Consultation Program

Online course aimed at honing the consultation and supervision skills of psychodynamic clinicians. The course includes discussions of readings and clinical case material conducted in individual and group supervision settings.

Application Form – Deadline to apply is August 23, 2024.

The PPCP will close admittance to the program when 8 participants apply and meet the requirements, which include a zoom interview.

Prerequisites to apply:

  • Must be licensed to practice independently
  • Must be currently providing supervision to at least 1 supervisee
  • Must have completed IPI’s Object Relations Theory and Practice program or have equivalent training

 

Come study online with the IPI to learn psychoanalytic psychotherapy consultation and supervision skills.  Class teaching employs a secure video platform (Zoom), limiting class size to 8 participants to optimize a close-in study of theory and technique of psychoanalytic psychotherapy consultation. A certificate is provided upon the successful completion of the course (25 CE Credits).  Readings are provided to all students for group discussions. Participant vignettes are utilized to apply new skills with individual mentoring provided to all participants to prepare for the seminar. Students will also gain an experience of the Group Affective Model throughout the program to integrate the affective and cognitive dimensions of learning at an unconscious level.

Who should apply?

Graduates of IPI’s Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Program (PPP) who are already supervising others would be ideally suited for this course.

This educational program is designed for licensed mental health professionals practicing as psychoanalytic psychotherapy consultants and psychoanalysts who wish to consult to psychotherapists at various stages of development (beginner, intermediate, and advanced), and who offer consultation and supervision in private practice, advanced university programs, and mental health settings.

This program is intended for psychoanalytic psychotherapists who serve as consultants and supervisors to psychodynamic therapists and who wish to sharpen their consultation and supervision skills.

While this course may be helpful to psychoanalysts wishing to hone their skills as supervisors or consultants, the course does not credential psychoanalysts as supervising psychoanalysts.

Although this program does not require the student to have obtained a prior or current personal psychoanalytic psychotherapy or psychoanalysis, it is recommended that participants experience their own psychotherapy or psychoanalysis in order to resonate most effectively with the unconscious field operative in such consultative and supervisory work.

Program Chair

Suzanne St. John, PhD

Program Date(s):

October 20, 2023 - March 4, 2024

Program Components

Participants will attend a one-day intensive institute by a two-way secure video link, requiring only a computer or laptop and internet access. The intensive institute will include 2 classes and 2 Group Affective Model group experiences. Classes will include readings, class discussion and a faculty and participant vignette.

Following the intensive one-day institute, participants will attend 8 additional classes and 8 GAM groups. All classes will include readings, faculty instruction, participant vignettes, and class discussion.

All participants will present a consultation vignette. All participants are expected to meet with their assigned faculty mentor to prepare for their consultation vignette presentation prior to their presentation.

One-Day Intensive Institute Schedule

Friday Oct 20, 2023 9:00am-3:30pm US ET

20 Oct
Introduction to Object Relations and the Analytic Field of Transformations in Consultation
9:00-10:30am US ET
Charles Ashbach, Ph.D.
20 Oct
GAM Group 1
10:45-11:45am US ET
Suzanne St. John, Ph.D.
20 Oct
Containment, Establishment and Maintenance of the Frame in Consultation
12:45-2:15pm US ET
Karen Fraley, LCSW, BCD
20 Oct
GAM Group 2
2:30-3:30pm US ET
Suzanne St. John, Ph.D.

Course Schedule

Monday Evenings at 7:00pm US ET

30 Oct
Principles of Attachment and Bonding in Consultation
7:00-8:30pm US ET
Suzanne St. John, Ph.D.
06 Nov
GAM Group 3
7:00-8:00pm US ET
Suzanne St. John, Ph.D.
13 Nov
Systems of Internal Objects Unconsciously in Therapy and Consultation to Form the Dynamic Field
7:00-8:30pm US ET
Karen Fraley, LCSW, BCD
20 Nov
GAM Group 4
7:00-8:00pm US ET
Suzanne St. John, Ph.D.
27 Nov
Self and Object: Therapist and Consultant in a System of Mutual Projective and Introjective Identification
7:00-8:30pm US ET
Charles Ashbach, Ph.D
04 Dec
GAM Group 5
7:00-8:00pm US ET
Suzanne St. John, Ph.D.
11 Dec
Assessment of Patient Symbolic Function in Therapy and Consultation
7:00-8:30pm US ET
Matthew Rosa, MD
18 Dec
GAM Group 6
7:00-8:00pm US ET
Suzanne St. John, Ph.D.
08 Jan
Confrontation in the Bionian Model of the Analytic Field in Consultation
7:00-8:30pm US ET
Charles Ashbach, Ph.D.
22 Jan
GAM Group 7
7:00-8:00pm US ET
Suzanne St. John, Ph.D.
29 Jan
Resistance: Unconscious Elements that Protect the Patient/Therapist and Therapist/Consultant
7:00-8:30pm US ET
James Poulton, Ph.D.
05 Feb
GAM Group 8
7:00-8:00pm US ET
Suzanne St. John, Ph.D.
12 Feb
The Role of Consultant and Finding One’s Subjective Voice as Consultant
7:00-8:30pm US ET
Kelly Seim, LCSW
19 Feb
GAM Group 9
7:00-8:00pm US ET
Suzanne St. John, Ph.D.
26 Feb
Review of the Essential Elements of Consultation
7:00-8:30pm US ET
Charles Ashbach, Ph.D. & Suzanne St. John, Ph.D.
04 Mar
GAM Group 10
7:00-8:00pm US ET
Suzanne St. John, Ph.D.

Program Faculty

Course Requirements

  • Participants will require the necessary telemetric equipment to attend via the video link (computer, web camera, internet).
  • An application will need to be submitted and approved prior to commencing the course.
  • Participants will be expected to have obtained the fundamental knowledge of Object Relations Theory and Practice
  • 100% Attendance – Participants will need to attend all classes and GAM groups in order to obtain a certificate of completion and earn CEUs. (no recorded sessions will be available).
  • Each participant is responsible for researching and verifying the scope of their practice license and applying their skills within the regulations of their relevant licensing.
  • Each participant must be consulting at least 1 hour per week to fully participate in this program.

The program certificate is NOT a license to supervise or consult. The course cannot meet the requirements of all states since those vary from state to state, and it is up to the participant to research the requirements of their own state or states. We are not training supervisors of record for unlicensed clinicians nor is any IPI registrant who takes the course authorized to meet licensure requirement for an unlicensed clinician.

Educational Objectives

Overall Program Objectives

Participants will:

  • Develop skills and self-evaluate consultant competence in performing the professional of psychanalytic psychotherapy consultant.
  • Develop consultant metacompetence at recognizing the limits of your knowledge and skills.
  • Develop self-monitoring skills in role as consultant to psychotherapy clinicians.

Class Learning Objectives:

Introduction to Object-relations and the Analytic Field of Transformations in Supervision.

  • Identify the two types of psychic objects from the perspective of Bion’s model of the mind
  • Describe one example of a “transformation” or what is preventing a “transformation” in a treatment case with one of your consultees.

GAM Group #1:

  • Identify one example of the small of the group experience impacting the “analytic field “of the learning experience.

Containment, Establishment and Maintenance of the Frame in Consultation

  • Identify the three spheres of the precursors of thought (B elements) which can bypass the mind as identified by Britton.
  • Describe an example of a function of containment or a failure of containment in the clinical vignette.

GAM Group #2:

  • Drawing on the small group experience, identify one example of the group leader offering containment rather than returning a projection.

Principles of Attachment and Bonding in Therapy and Consultation

  • Describe what happens when the patient has experienced problems or failures in attachment with the primary love object and what happens in the treatment that the therapist and consultant need to recognize as a result.
  • Identify how the consultant is challenged to help the therapist understand the creation of the historical bad object in the relationship with the therapist.

GAM Group #3

  • Describe one element of the attachment process within the group experience.

Systems of Internal Objects Unconsciously in Therapy and Consultation to Form the Dynamic Field.

  • Describe one example of the therapist and consultant collaborating in identifying 3 key characters in the therapeutic field of treatment.
  • Give one clinical example using Ferro’s concepts of a deconstructing and de-concretizing communication leading to transformation in dreaming in the consultation process.

GAM Group # 4.

  • Describe an example of a transformation or what was preventing a transformation within the Gam group process.

Self and Object: Therapist and Consultant in a System of Mutual Projective and Introjective Identification.

  • Describe one example of patient, therapist and consultant in a system of mutual projective and introjective identifications that form a “triangular” or “parallel process”.
  • Identify an example of consultant and therapist collaborative process of the detection of splitting and projective identification in the treatment setting to be understood in consultation.

GAM Group #5

  • Identify an example of the use of projective and introjective identification within the group process.

Assessment of Patient Symbolic Function in Therapy and Consultation

  • Describe one way in which the lack of a capacity to symbolize experience creates an impasse in the treatment resulting in the need for an additional mind in the person of the consultant.
  • Describe how the capacity for “reverie” in both the consultant and the therapist facilitates the development of symbolic expression in the form of a narrative that can give authentic expression to symptomatic and un-representable “proto-emotions” in the patient.

GAM Group #6:

  • Describe one example that the small group helped to integrate your understanding of symbolic functioning in consultation.

Confrontation in the Bionian model of the analytic field in consultation.

  • Describe an example of the use of confrontation to facilitate integration in the supervisee and as a result in the treatment process.
  • Identify an example of the consultant using confrontation to deepen the containment function of the supervisee.

GAM Group # 7.

  • Identify one example of how the group experience contributed to your learning of Bionian concepts in consultation.

Resistance: Unconscious Elements that Protect the Patient/Therapist and Therapist/Consultant.

  • Describe one example of how the consultant can identify resistance for the therapist through understanding of the emergence of an evacuation element in the patient’s treatment.
  • Identify one example of the role of “reverie” in the consultant in which images can lead toward the therapist’s and patient’s hidden unconscious world.

GAM Group # 8.

  • Describe one example of a “reverie” in the group affective experience.

The Role of Consultant and Finding One’s Subjective Voice as Consultant

  • Identify one example of the consultant use of their emotions and imagination to expand the links between the conscious and unconscious states to support the therapist.
  • Describe the difference between “doing” and “being” in the supervisory role and how “ being” contributes to the development of a supervisory style that is uniquely one’s own.

GAM Group #9

  • Identify one example of how the Gam group contributed to your development as consultant or did not contribute to your emotional and intellectual learning as consultant.

Review of the Essential Elements of Consultation

  • Describe what theories and clinical examples have impacted your work as consultant.
  • Describe an example in your consultation work that has not been understood as a result of taking this program.

GAM Group # 10.

  • Evaluate your emotional and intellectual learning of the course objectives as a result of your vignette presentation experience, didactic material, class discussions and the GAM group.

 

Application

Application Form – due August 25, 2023 (class size is limited to 8 participants)

Applicants will also need to submit the following documentation:

  • Resume or C.V.
  • copy of Clinical License(s)
  • copy of Malpractice Insurance policy (if available in your country/location)
  • Letter of reference – from a recent supervisor familiar with your work

Prerequisites to apply:

  • Must be licensed to practice independently
  • Must be currently providing supervision to at least 1 supervisee
  • Must have completed IPI’s Object Relations Theory and Practice program or have equivalent training

 

Admissions Committee:
Charles Ashbach PhD
Karen Fraley LCSW, BCD
Matthew Rosa MD
Kelly Seim LCSW
Suzanne St. John PhD (chair)

Continuing Education Credit Hours

This course provides 25 CE credits

  • 10 classes at 1.5 hrs
  • 10 GAM groups at 1 hr

Attendance Policy
The IPI is an APA-approved provider (sponsor) of continuing education (CE) credit that specifies standards by which CE credits can be awarded for learning activities. The APA only awards CE credit for actual instructional time, and variable credit for partial attendance may not be awarded. IPI expects 100% attendance for a student to receive CE credit. A student enrolled in the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Consultation Program (PPCP) would not receive full credit for the program unless the student were to attend all of the classes and GAM groups. Attendance records are maintained by the PPCP faculty at each class. In the very rare instance when a student would have to miss a class, that student would be expected to complete a make-up assignment demonstrating their understanding of the class objectives through the reading and consultation examples in order to receive the CE credits for the missed class and program certificate, as part of IPI’s adherence to APA standards for awarding credit.

Tuition and Fees

Regular tuition: $755

IPI Member tuition: $640

 

If you are not a current member, you can sign up as an associate member and pay the member tuition ($845 total)

the additional $90 will get you all of the IPI associate membership benefits for an entire year including PEPWeb, and reduced fees for all of our other training events.

Limited scholarship funds are available for this training: https://theipi.org/scholarships/

Membership Benefits

Become a member of IPI at the “Associate Member PLUS”, or “Full Member PLUS” level and you will receive an IPI Zoom Pro account as one of your member benefits.
HIPAA compliant Zoom video accounts are provided for all IPI Associate Member Plus and Full Member Plus memberships. IPI has a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement with Zoom, which provides a HIPAA compliant platform for our accounts. HIPPA compliance is strongly recommended for all internet-mediated clinical work and clinical teaching. The “PLUS” add-on to the IPI membership gives the user the ability to host online meetings with multiple people at the same time. [Current members can upgrade to the “Plus” account and only pay the difference in price from your current membership level.]
Click for IPI Membership and Zoom Account information


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

Suzanne St. John, PhD - ccadmissions@theipi.org

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.

NBCC logoAPA