My Training as a Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist
I trained at the Tavistock and Portman Centre in London, which has an international reputation as a centre of excellence for training, clinical mental health work, research, and scholarship.
The training is graduate entry-level and requires substantial prior experience of working with children and young people.
The prerequisite pre-clinical element of the training is a minimum of two years and covers extended psychoanalytic observation through weekly observation of a primary carer and infant, from birth to two years, and a one-year, weekly observation of a young child, work discussion seminars, theoretical foundations (including psychoanalytic, attachment, neuroscience), and child development lectures.
The clinical training takes at least a further four years full-time. It includes intensive psychotherapy (up to four times weekly sessions) with children of various ages, conducted under weekly supervision by senior child psychotherapists who are often highly acclaimed experts in the field. The psychoanalytic learning from this experience is applied to other aspects of the work, such as brief and long-term psychotherapy, consultation, and work with families, groups, teams, and networks.
The training is validated by the University of Essex and is to doctoral level and can lead to the award of Professional Doctorate in Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (DPsych).
It is a requirement that child psychotherapists undergo their own four-times-weekly personal analysis for the duration of the training, with an analyst approved by the Tavistock, and many continue with their therapy post-qualification.
It takes a minimum of six to seven years to train as a child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapist and gain registration with the Association of Child Psychotherapists.
Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists are the only mental health specialists in the NHS whose training focuses exclusively on the 0-25 age group.