Psychotherapy Training at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute

In 1979, The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (BPSI) developed the first program in the country to teach the fundamentals of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. For the past thirty years, our program has served as a model for many similar psychotherapy training programs at psychoanalytic institutes throughout the country. Today, we offer two training programs for mental health professionals: a one-year Fellowship in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and a three-year Advanced Training Program in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (ATP). (These two programs are focused on psychotherapy of adults. BPSI also offers training in Child and Adolescent psychotherapy, which is described elsewhere on our website.)

A rich array of courses in psychoanalytic theory, technique, and therapeutic action exposes the student to a variety of historical and current perspectives. The faculty for both programs is carefully selected from the entire BPSI community, allowing for a wealth of experiences and viewpoints. Instructors are drawn from senior faculty in the psychoanalytic training program, experienced ATP graduates, and advanced analytic candidates.

In addition to the formal curriculum, students are offered many additional learning opportunities as members of the vibrant BPSI intellectual community, including scientific meetings, community wide lectures, and workshops on a wide variety of relevant topics. BPSI is the largest component society of the American Psychoanalytic Association, with the result that its diverse membership generates and offers a very extensive array of programs, courses and other forms of psychoanalytic learning.

One Year Fellowship in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

The fellowship curriculum combines a didactic survey of classic and modern psychoanalytic thought applied to intensive psychotherapy with clinical discussion seminars that apply these concepts to the clinical reality of actual psychotherapy sessions.

The didactic sequence uses readings from primary and secondary sources, lectures and discussion to survey three topics:

  • Psychoanalytic theories of the mind (10 weeks) — This sequence highlights the main theories of mental structure and function and how these develop: conflict theory, ego psychology, object relations theory, self psychology, relational theory, and attachment theory. The mental process of defense is viewed from through the lens of the different theories of the mind.
  • Psychoanalytic theories of technique (10 weeks) – This section covers the fundamentals of conducting psychoanalytic psychotherapy: assessment; setting the frame for treatment; how to listen; interpretation; and working with transference, counter-transference, and projective identification.
  • Theories of therapeutic action (10 weeks) – this component uses reading, discussion, and some videotaped therapy sessions to explore different theories for how psychoanalytic psychotherapy works.
  • In companion clinical seminars that take place on the same night as the above course work, students apply the ideas presented in the didactic sequence to their own clinical work. Students are divided into small groups where a safe and engaging environment makes possible intimate sharing of clinical experiences, questions and dilemmas. Senior clinicians serve as discussion leaders. As each group works with several different senior consultants during the year, so students receive exposure to the variety of ways of thinking and working that characterize the diversity of the BPSI community.

Our Fellowship students complete their year of study with a working understanding of the basic principles of psychoanalytic theory and how they can be applied in psychotherapy. Perhaps just as importantly, throughout their year of study they have become part of a thriving psychoanalytic community, where they get to know and learn with many BPSI members and faculty. This exposure provides a sense of what the psychoanalytic world has to offer, what a career as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist can be like, and for many students, it serves as a welcoming introduction to a continuing community of like minded clinicians, friends and mentors.

For more information on our Fellowship, including an application and admission information, please click here.

Advanced Training Program in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (ATP)

The Fellowship year serves also as the first year of the three year ATP sequence. The ATP then builds on the first year fellowship, and, in two additional years, deepens the student’s understanding of and competence in the conduct of intensive, long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy. In addition to a combination of didactic seminars, reading, and seminars on clinical process, the ATP adds two more experiences essential to one’s growth as a psychotherapist: personal treatment (either concurrent with one’s training, or an experience that preceded joining the ATP) and supervised clinical work. Students are required to conduct twice-weekly psychotherapy with two suitable patients, each treatment continuing for a minimum of two years. Students are able to select their supervisors from a wide list of psychoanalyst members and experienced ATP graduates of BPSI.

The didactic seminars deepen and broaden the exploration of many concepts addressed in the first year fellowship. Courses cover topics such as: Neurosis and Neurotic Character, Child Development and Adult Psychopathology, Borderline Psychopathology and Personality Disorders, Resistance, Character Pathology and Clinical Dilemmas, Transference, Dreams, and Termination. Students also develop their skills in writing about their clinical experience, culminating in the written presentation of a treatment or some other topic of psychoanalytic interest. Support and instruction in clinical writing are woven throughout the curriculum.

Our ATP graduates complete their studies with an extensive, and intensive, experience of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. They appreciate its unique capacities to deepen their patients’ understanding of themselves, and to enrich their patients’ relationships with others. ATP graduates enjoy full voting rights in BPSI and representation in its governance. There are also opportunities for ATP graduates to teach, to supervise the clinical work of students in training, and to participate actively in the organizational life and leadership of BPSI. Some ATP graduates continue on to yet another level of training at BPSI, to become psychoanalysts. Those who do so generally feel that their training in the ATP provided a superb foundation for subsequent full psychoanalytic training. All ATP graduates are welcome to continue as active members of the BPSI community, which for many of us serves as a lifelong professional home and a place of enduring friendships and continuous learning.

For more information on the ATP, including an application and admission information, please click here.