About this course

This course offers a unique opportunity for you to develop your clinical psychoanalytic skills in the context of inter-cultural psychotherapy. It will provide you with the clinical experience and theoretical framework necessary for working therapeutically in the NHS. You will learn through theoretical seminars, clinical seminars, infant observation, assessment workshops, training cases and clinical supervision.

Theoretical seminars

Theory seminars will deepen and enrich your understanding of psychoanalytic theory with an emphasis on developing a theoretical framework to understand how issues of culture, race, gender and sexuality manifest in clinical work.

Clinical seminars

Clinical seminars involve presenting training cases and exploring theoretical, technical and practice issues in the context of intercultural clinical work.

Infant observation

You will observe an infant in a home setting for a minimum of three terms and make detailed recordings of your experience. These are discussed in weekly small group seminars to explore the conscious and unconscious meanings of the events observed. Infant observation takes place in the second year of training – there will be a seminar in the spring or summer term of the first year to help trainees prepare for this component of the training.

Clinical workshop

This workshop is an opportunity to consider theoretical issues relevant to the assessment, initial stages of therapy, the process of establishing therapy – working through and endings for individuals in time-limited psychotherapy, along with issues of clinical technique. You will hear presentations of cases from experienced staff and, if appropriate, you may have the opportunity to undertake a supervised assessment of your own.

Training cases

You will see two training cases once a week, one for 18 months and one for 12 months. Permission to see a second training patient must be given by the first training supervisor. Usually one of the training cases will be within the adult department of the Trust, however this depends on the circumstances of the student and the level of clinical need within the department.

You will have fortnightly individual supervision, during term time, for both of your training cases – this runs in parallel with supervision provided at the clinical placement. Course supervisors are all senior clinicians registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council.

This course is taught in a systematic and rigorous manner by experienced clinicians in the psychoanalytic psychotherapy field. You will benefit from integrated theoretical and clinical teaching which will prepare you for high standards in independent clinical practice.

If you are considering transferring to this course from another institution, please email training@tavi-port.ac.uk for more information.