Training Programs

About IRPP

Our programs are designed for therapists who have completed graduate training in psychology, social work, counseling, or psychiatry, who seek to deepen and expand their therapeutic work.  As a relational school, we have focused, from our beginning in 2007, on the ways in which each therapeutic encounter is inherently a meeting of two people; the heart of working in this way is a reflective co-participation. Both persons bring aspects of which we are unaware, which will be evoked in interaction, and our training is focused on fostering ongoing development of this capacity to reflect on what is happening in both people while being a part of what is taking place.  (Refer also to History embedded in About IRPP)

Like most psychoanalytic institutions, we are marked by persistent whiteness, and this makes us complicit in the insidiousness of racism in its many manifestations. This whiteness limits the contributions to how we think, the nature of our own community, and the people whom we serve.  We have been working to challenge ourselves, making changes to our mission and curriculum and working to increase the diversity of our community; however, we recognize we have a great deal more to do. We are engaged in a number of initiatives within the institute, and we invite applicants who are committed to this necessarily broadening vision of relational psychoanalysis. 

Training Model

Beginning with classes admitted in the Fall of 2019, we have introduced a revised training model.  Years One and Two can be taken as a stand-alone program in working relationally in multiple and varied contexts.  We anticipate that those with differing amounts and kinds of experience, as well as with differing professional training would be able to come together to create a learning environment that would be adaptable, responsive to the particular composition of each group.  In these first two years, we will offer a grounding in both theory and praxis of relational work with adults and children and their families, and interrogate together how multiple aspects of social, cultural, and clinical contexts influence the intersubjective field of the therapeutic engagement. 

At the conclusion of Year Two, candidates may: 

• Complete a third and final year in the Child and Family Training (with clinical supervision and personal therapy requirements described in the drop-down menu under Child and Family Training);

• Continue with full psychoanalytic training (minimum of two additional years of classes, in addition to supervision and personal analysis described in the drop-down menu under Psychoanalytic Training); or

• Combine both programs (minimum of two additional years of classes, supervision and personal analysis, described in the drop-down menu under Child and Family Training and Psychoanalytic Training).  

Those candidates who are not continuing in one of the formal tracks will be eligible for certificates of completion of the two-year program, and hopefully thereafter will participate in ongoing workshops, supervision, and/or study groups within IRPP.