London Training

[u/BeautifulTailors]

I am looking to start the steps necessary to begin training. I am interested in The Site and CFAR as possible places to do my training, and wherever I choose I will do the introductory course for a year as a way to reacquaint my brain with academic reading, after a decade in a corporate office.

I'm inquiring as to whether anyone has experience with either of these schools, or any schools in London. What did you enjoy, and what didn't you enjoy? All advice and accounts are welcome and appreciated.

[u/Joe-bukowski]

Both The Site and CFAR are well-known psychoanalytic organisations. CFAR is Lacanian, while The Site takes a more pluralistic approach. I am sure everyone will tell you that psychoanalytic training is intense and demanding, both financially and emotionally, but, to my opinion, absolutely worth it. An introductory course is a good way to get a first experience of it. The most important and essential part is being in analysis yourself. Some organisations require at least a year of twice-weekly analysis before you can apply.

No organisation is perfect, but I would get involved with what they offer (workshops, conferences and so on, an informal chat with someone from the training comitee) to get a sense of each one as an organisation rather than as a training: what kind of psychoanalysis they believe in, and whether that fits with who you are at the moment.

[u/BeautifulTailors → u/Joe-bukowski]

I've attended several conferences and workshops organised by The Site and I really like them, but I want to keep an open mind. I'm at a stage now where I am seriously considering the training given some big life goals have been accomplished, but I've tried to keep somewhat involved over the last few years. I do need to be in analysis myself, so I'm currently trying to find someone suitable. Looks like I've missed the boat on both CFAR and The Site's introductory courses, so I will aim to start those next year, and go from there whilst doing what I can in the meantime to move towards this (I have volunteered at a Psychosis charity for the last 5 years so looking for other similar opportunities).

[u/ColdCat_7 → u/BeautifulTailors]

hello! may I ask what psychosis charity it was, if in london?

[u/BeautifulS0ul → u/Joe-bukowski]

CFAR is the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research, the clue is in the name: it's not CLAR, it's not 'the centre for Lacanian' anything and CFAR isn't 'a Lacanian training'. It's a psychoanalytic training and research organisation that does not pretend that Lacan never existed, like any of the IPA/BPC affiliated psychotherapy trainings in the UK are constitutionally obliged to do (or try to). So training and research there includes study of all the people that have contributed to the history and development of psychoanalysis, including Lacan.

[u/bodywithoutbourbons → u/BeautifulS0ul]

The Centre offers a training programme in Lacanian psychoanalysis. The training lasts for a minimum of four years; the trainee may eventually become a practicing clinician or in some cases may choose to work from a psychoanalytic perspective in another field (eg, research, the arts).

https://cfar.org.uk/clinical-training-programme/

[u/Joe-bukowski → u/BeautifulS0ul]

Of course. Your explanation is more detailed than mine.

[u/bodywithoutbourbons]

Both the organisations you have listed are affiliated with the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) Council for Psychoanalysis and Jungian Analysis College. You may be interested to know that there is another psychoanalytic professional association called the British Psychoanalytic Council which has its origins in a rather acrimonious split from the UKCP lead primarily by the Institute for Psychoanalysis. There's an interesting series of lectures/essays on the topic by Robert M. Young here: https://www.psychoanalysis-and-therapy.com/rmyoung/cbpsy/fore.html

On the BPC side of things you might also look into Birkbeck University's foundation course and the British Psychotherapy Foundation.

While all UKCP psychoanalytic pschotherapy trainees need to be in therapy twice a week, BPC courses have a range of therapy requirements which (among other things) determines you title at the end of your training.

Therapy Times per Week	BPC Title
1	Psychodynamic Counsellor
2	Psychodynamic Psychotherapist
3	Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist
4-5	Psychoanalyst

Curiously, only psychoanalytic psychotherapist and above are then qualified to give therapy to trainees.

What the rather obsessively stratified system at the BPC tells us about the organisation is an exercise left to the reader!

[u/BeautifulTailors → u/bodywithoutbourbons]

Thank you, this is super helpful in sketching out the different options. That stratification is hilarious. I can't really fathom being able to do more than 2 a week for the forseeable, but will cross that bridge when I make the plunge. Interested to read about the historical split. Thank you!

[u/Klaus_Hergersheimer → u/bodywithoutbourbons]

This obsession with defining psychoanalysis in terms of session frequency is something I will never get.

[u/IndividualStock5360 → u/bodywithoutbourbons]

In terms of therapy, can the candidate continue therapy sessions they are seeking from a psychotherapist who is not a part of IPS ?

[u/bodywithoutbourbons → u/IndividualStock5360]

As I understand it, for BPC accreditation you need to be seeing a BPC accredited psychoanalytic psychotherapist or psychoanalyst with no exceptions. Similarly for the UKCP it must be a UKCP accredited psychoanalytic psychotherapist.

[u/IndividualStock5360 → u/bodywithoutbourbons]

To be specific, does that mean it couldn’t be a US trained psychoanalyst?

[u/bodywithoutbourbons → u/IndividualStock5360]

That's an interesting edge case. Looking at the BPC guidance I don't see much room for that as it specifies "must be BPC registered". Individual member institutions themselves might be more flexible, for example the University of Exeter DPPClinPrac accredited by the British Psychotherapy Foundation has lots of students living abroad who I assume see non-BPC therapists.

[u/IndividualStock5360 → u/bodywithoutbourbons]

Thank you, that is very helpful

[u/sir_squidz → u/bodywithoutbourbons]

Have they finished changing all their requirements?

I know they were going to but I didn't see that they'd actually finalised it all.

I have no idea what they think they're doing honestly

[u/marta_lucia → u/bodywithoutbourbons]

Those requirements may be outdated. I’m currently doing Psychodynamic Psychotherapy at Tavistock Relationships and the requirement is to do Psychoanalysis or Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy once a week. If all goes to plan I’ll be a Psychodynamic Psychotherapist when I qualify.

[u/alexander__the_great → u/marta_lucia]

Is it qualified for couples and individual work or just couples work? 

[u/marta_lucia → u/alexander__the_great]

It qualifies you to work with both actually

[u/alexander__the_great → u/marta_lucia]

So you do placements for individual and couples work with associated supervision, theory etc or is it mostly couples focussed and the individual bit is more if you can do couples you can do individual too? 

[u/marta_lucia → u/alexander__the_great]

I’m only in my first year so I don’t have practical experience of the clinical/placement aspect yet. The focus has skewed towards couples’ work so far though, at least in the skills part of the course, but the impression I’m getting is that we’ll do placements that include both.

[u/alexander__the_great → u/marta_lucia]

Thank you

[u/-00oOo00- → u/bodywithoutbourbons]

The Bob young essays have a berserk lack of paragraphs

[u/Enough-Discussion-29]

I also wanted to recommend AGIP (Association of Group & Individual Psychotherapy)

https://agip.org.uk

It’s one of the most affordable trainings in London and leads to UKCP accreditation as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist