Programs in Adult Psychoanalysis
Guidelines for Admission and Training

Revised: April 2006


I. Application and Admission Process

A. Inquiries are to be made to the Chair of Admissions or the Administrative Director.

B. An application packet is sent, containing an application form, analyst form, form letters of recommendation, and a request for a $50.00 fee, to be returned to the Chair of Admissions.

C. The Chair of Admissions arranges for two or three interviews with members of the Admissions Committee. Their reports are carefully reviewed by the Admission Committee and the applicant is informed of the Committee's decision.

D. Applicants who are accepted are informed that they are required to begin a four-time-per-week analysis with a Training Analyst from the NYFS at the start of the first year classes. A list of Training Analysts, as well as a list of those Training Analysts who are willing to conduct low-fee analysis, will be sent to the new candidate. A longstanding analysis with a Training and Supervising Analyst outside of the NYFS may be considered by the NYFS for an approved training analysis. Additionally, candidates outside of 75 miles of DC or NY are eligible for a GRTA (Geographic Rule Training Analyst) approval. They may require approval of an analyst who is not an IPA Training and Supervising Analyst.

E. A list of NYFS members who offer low fee supervision on psychotherapy cases will be available to the new candidate.

F. The Progression Committee will take under consideration, requests to postpone training analysis for up to one semester if a candidate is terminating a longstanding analysis. Special requests will be considered on an individual basis.

G. Each candidate is assigned to a member of the Progression Committee who will contact the new student at the beginning of training to discuss over the phone any administrative questions or concerns. Each candidate is also assigned to an Advisor who will be available as a liaison between the candidate and the Training Institute throughout the candidate's training.

H. New candidates are invited to an informal meeting with members of the Progression Committee during the Fall semester to review policies.

I. All candidates are members of the Candidate Organization in New York or Washington, DC. Candidates pay a yearly $15.00 fee to the Candidate Organization. In early September the Candidate Organization holds orientation meetings for new candidates. Additional meetings are held during the academic year. Candidates are encouraged to address questions and concerns to representatives of the Candidate Organizations.


II. Registration Procedures

A. Registration for the Training Institute of the NYFS occurs twice a year for the candidates in New York and Washington, DC. In June, registration for the Fall semester involves all candidates who are taking courses, as well as those on leave and those who have completed their courses, but have not fulfilled other requirements. Candidates who are on a leave of absence must reapply for admission to the Admissions Committee if the leave of absence exceeds two years.

B. December registration is only for those candidates enrolling in Spring courses.

C. In June, the course grid and registration material is sent out for the Fall courses. A Candidate Progress Update form is also distributed at this time. All Candidates must register, including those not taking classes. A late fee of $75.00 will be charged for registration and matriculation fees filed after the deadline. Students are asked to speak with the Institute Director regarding a deferred payment plan, if necessary, or scholarship requests. These inquiries should be made well in advance of the registration deadline.

D. The Candidate Progress Update form is included with registration material to help document the supervision, training analysis, and course requirements of the Institute. The Candidate will receive a form to be given to their analyst to record the start/termination date (if applicable) and the number of times a week the training analysis is being conducted. Registration will be considered incomplete until all parts of the registration packet, including the Candidate Progress Update and Training Analyst Confirmation forms, have been received.


III. Training Policies

A unique aspect of our training program is our Progression Committee (PC), which was established to foster communication with the candidates and ensure that their specific training requirements are addressed. Upon admission to the training institute, each candidate is assigned a PC Liaison, who follows the candidate until graduation and keeps the Progression Committee informed of the candidate's progress. This allows for the development of a deep understanding of each candidate and individualized attention to the candidate's training needs. The policies listed below are currently in practice and may be subject to change. The Progression Committee will keep advisors, training analysts and candidates informed of any changes.


A. Coursework:

1. Candidates are required to take two courses per semester, unless an alternative plan has been arranged through the Progression Committee. In New York, classes are held on Monday nights. Some year-long sequence courses are divided into trimesters or other combinations for a thirty week academic year. Electives and the Child and Adolescent Program meet at other predetermined times.

2. In Washington, DC, classes are held on Saturdays from 9:00 - 5:00, usually for 12 sessions per academic year.

3. Students are expected to be present for all classes. The candidate must inform the instructor if a session will be missed. If a student is absent, in order to receive credit for the course, the student will be required to write a paper which meets the approval of the instructor.

4. A written paper will be required if a candidate in New York misses more than two classes of a fifteen session course or more than one session of a ten session course, or any sessions of courses which are of shorter duration.

5. A written paper will be required if a Washington, DC candidate misses more than one session of a six session class or any sessions of courses which are of shorter duration.

6. If the instructor must miss a session, the instructor must first notify the Chair of the Faculty Committee and then arrange with the candidates for an appropriate make-up class.

7. Courses are evaluated by the Faculty and Curriculum Committees on an ongoing basis. A crucial part of this evaluation is the confidential evaluation form that candidates must complete at the end of each semester. The evaluation forms will be given to candidates by the instructor at the end of the 2nd to last class with sufficient time for the candidates to fill them in. One candidate will be chosen to collect the evaluations and place them in a "voting style" envelope to be mailed to the Administrative Director, who will forward copies to the Chair of Faculty. Course credit will be contingent upon receipt of these forms for each course.

8. Faculty evaluations of candidates will be submitted immediately after the semester ends. A copy will be sent to the Administrative Director, who will forward copies to the PC Member and Advisor assigned to the candidate to review with the candidate. As of 2004 candidates have direct access to the instructors' evaluations.

9. Questions regarding curriculum or faculty should be directed to the respective Chair of Faculty or Curriculum.


B. General Administrative Procedures:

1. Candidates are required to give written notification to the Chair of the Progression Committee regarding any change in analyst, control supervision, or candidate status.

2. All candidates are required to be engaged in a training analysis during a portion of their control work.

3. Requests for leave of absence are to be submitted in writing to the Progression Committee. The policy of the Progression Committee is to allow no longer than two years leave of absence, after which the candidate must re-apply for training to the Admissions committee.

4. Prior to RFC, the candidate is not required to be in supervision, but supervision with a NYFS member on psychotherapy cases is encouraged. Candidates treating patients from the Referral Service must have malpractice insurance and must be in supervision with a member of the NYFS.

5. Each member of the Progression Committee is personally responsible for monitoring a certain number of candidates. The Progression Committee Liaison will speak or meet yearly with each assigned candidate. In this way, we hope to establish and maintain a close communication with and an understanding of each candidate. It is our goal that training problems will come to the attention of the Progression Committee as a whole through each appointed person.

6. Each candidate is also assigned an Advisor. The Advisor serves as a link between the Progression Committee and the candidate. The yearly meetings between the two are confidential, but the advisor maybe called upon by the Progression Committee or the candidate to help in the event of a problem. Candidates have the right of refusal in advisor assignments.

7. At the end of the first year of courses, the PC member assigned to a candidate will arrange for a meeting of the candidate, PC member and Advisor to review instructor evaluations and discuss the first year experience.


C. Clinical Component:

1. Readiness for Control (RFC):

a) A Readiness-for-Control interview with three members of the NYFS is required of all candidates in order to begin to see control patients in supervised analysis. While RFC may be held during the candidate's first year of course work, typically not before the first semester of classes is completed, candidates are expected to request RFC by the end of their second year of course work. For those candidates needing additional clinical experience, request for the RFC interview may be delayed.

b) Candidates will make a written request for RFC to their Progression
Committee representative and the Chair of the Progression Committee. The Progression Committee will evaluate this request.

c) A year of training analysis is required prior to beginning to see control cases.

d) The candidate's request for early RFC in the first year of training should detail course work and training prior to matriculation at the NYFS training program. It is strongly recommended that the candidate be in supervision with a NYFS member for a psychotherapy case in preparation for RFC, as the RFC evaluation will include the presentation of some psychotherapy case material. Once approved for RFC, the Chair of Evaluations will assign three NYFS members to serve on the candidate's RFC committee.

e) After the RFC presentation, and the candidate's receipt of the letter outlining the findings and recommendations of the Progression Committee, the candidate is encouraged to direct questions about their RFC evaluation to the Chair of the Evaluation Subcommittee. The candidate may meet with the Chair of his or her RFC committee.

f) If the RFC committee recommends to the Progression Committee that the candidate is not ready to proceed with analytic control cases, the Progression Committee will review the candidate's status and progress in the program. The Progression Committee will consider a variety of recommendations for the candidate, which may include rescheduling the RFC interview when it is believed that the candidate is ready, or in some situations, requiring that the candidate withdraw from the training program. Such recommendations will follow careful review of the RFC report, instructor evaluations, admissions interviews, and updates from the Progression Committee member assigned to the candidate.

2. Clinical Control:

a) In order to receive credit for control cases, candidates are to have conducted a minimum of two control (supervised, analytic) cases seen for at least four times per week, in person. The cases are to be under the supervision of two different NYFS Training Analysts. Supervision is to be on a once a week basis (or double sessions every other week for the candidates considered at a geographic distance). Yearly case summary reports are required of all candidates on all control cases that have been in supervision for at least one year.

b) A minimum of 200 hours of supervision between the two cases is required. Candidates will receive credit for a case that has been in a supervised, reported and reviewed psychoanalysis for at least one year. At least three years or approximately 150 hours of supervision with one control case is required in order to demonstrate an understanding of analytic process at Case Presentation. Exceptions to this requirement may be considered by the Progression Committee. Annual supervision reports, signed by both supervisor and candidate, are required for all control cases.

c) When control supervision is begun, the Progression Committee should be notified in writing. The candidate sends this notification to the Chair of the Progression Committee and PC member assigned. All changes in the status of control cases must be discussed with the Progression Committee member assigned to the candidate.

d) A candidate who is already conducting an analysis under the auspices of a psychoanalytic training institute he or she previously attended is expected to consult with his/her PC person.

e) Each candidate is eligible for two $50.00 supervision fees. Training Analyst Supervisors are required to offer a $50 fee to no less than two candidates for supervision at any given time.

f) At the end of the first six months of treatment, after collaborative review with the candidate, the supervisor will submit a note ascertaining whether an analytic process is developing or may be possible with the control patient. What comprises an analytic process might include some discussion of the patient's capacity to self reflect, the candidate and the supervisorsÕ initial diagnostic impressions of the patientsÕ resistances and defensive structure and how that affects the expression of transference and countertransference responses. Divergent points of view are to be noted. Both the candidate and the supervisor will review and sign the note prior to submission to the Administrative secretary. The Administrative secretary will distribute one copy to the Progression Committee member assigned to the candidate, one copy to the candidate's advisor and will submit one copy to the candidate's folder.

g) Supervisors are required to write yearly evaluations of the analytic work of their supervises. This reporting process will enhance the development of the candidate's work and provide the Progression Committee with an ongoing record of progress. The evaluation reports are to be reviewed, and then signed by both candidate and supervisor before they are returned to the administrative secretary, who will file them in the candidate's folder and also forward them to the appropriate people on the Progression Committee. Reports on control supervision with a duration of less than one year are also required.

h) Yearly case summaries are required of the candidate's on their control cases. The reports should be utilized as an aid in organizing the candidate's ongoing thinking about a case. Reports should be reviewed with each supervisor.

i) In New York, the candidate is required to submit copes of the case summary to the PC person assigned to the candidate as well as to the Advisor and the administrative secretary. As of NYFS Board passage in 2003, the PC member will inform the Chair of Evaluation that the candidate needs to be assigned a case summary reader. The Chair of Evaluation will call the candidate with the name of the assigned case summary reader and the candidate will send a copy of the summary to the case reader. Case readers will be assigned from a pool of volunteer members who have graduated eight years prior to assignment. The case readers will only have access to the particular case summaries assigned and will not have access to any other information about the candidates.

j) In New York, after discussing the summary with the case reader, the Progression committee member assigned to the candidate will arrange for a yearly meeting with the candidate and case reader to discuss the written clinical work. The candidate may invite his advisor and/or supervisor to attend the yearly meeting if he/ she wishes and if they are interested in attending.

k) After discussing the impressions of the meeting with the case reader, the PC person will present impressions of the meeting to the Progression committee.

l) The PC member will send a written letter, approved by the PC, to the candidate and supervisor describing the main points discussed in the meeting.

m) In Washington, the candidate will meet on a yearly basis with the PC member assigned to review the yearly case summaries.

n) The candidate is encouraged to take on more than two supervised cases and able to proceed according to their demonstrated competence recognizing the time and expense of additional supervision. At the same time, the ultimate judgment about the level of supervision is reserved for the progression committee. The possibility of reduced supervision on a third or fourth case allows more use of out-of-town supervisors and therefore a means of integrating the Washington and New York training programs. Weekly face-to-face supervision is required on two control cases until completion of training. (Double sessions on an every other week basis are allowed in the case of long-distance candidates. Also, candidates outside of 75 miles of DC or NY may request phone supervision after a year of face-to-face supervision. Quarterly face-to-face supervision meetings are then required).

If the candidate begins a third case, the case should initially be supervised on an every week basis. The candidate may request reduction of supervision on the case once the analysis is ongoing. This reduction in supervision needs to be acceptable to the supervisor, judged to be appropriate to the quality, autonomy and maturity observed in the candidate's analytic work, and then approved by the progressions committee. The supervisor is required to submit a letter outlining support of this reduction in supervision. The progressions committee would review the candidate's request and information from the supervisor in the context of the candidate's overall progression in the program including an update from other supervisors and render a decision about the candidate's request. The same procedures apply to a fourth control case. On a third or fourth case the candidate may also request the use of phone supervision sessions again following the same procedure as above. However, with this arrangement, quarterly face to face supervision meetings are required. A different supervisor for each control case is strongly recommended. However, a candidate may request that supervision on a third or fourth case be supervised by one of his or her present supervisors for an abbreviated time. A letter from the supervisor who would supervise the two cases updating the progression committee about the candidate's work is required if the candidate wants to make such a temporary arrangement. The progressions committee would also seek additional information about the candidate's progress from other supervisors at this juncture.

If one of the first two control cases is ended, and a third case is ongoing with a reduced level of supervision, the candidate needs to resume a weekly face-to face supervision to meet the weekly supervision requirement of two control cases outlined above.

o) When a candidate and supervisor believe that the candidate is ready to graduate, the candidate informs the assigned PC person of the candidate's interest in presenting a case for "final case presentation." Supervisory reports must be up to date. If not stated in the report, the supervisor will be asked by the PC to submit a brief note offering an opinion about the candidate's readiness to graduate. Up to date case summaries must be reviewed on all control cases before the PC can evaluate whether the candidate is ready to graduate and thus present a final case.

p) Based on a careful review of the supervisory reports, reviewed annual case summaries and instructor evaluations, the Progression Committee will recommend whether the candidate is ready to present a case for final case presentation.

q) Upon recommendation of the Progression Committee, the Chair of Evaluation will assemble a five member Case Presentation Evaluation committee. The individuals who sit on the case presentation committee are comprised of the two case readers who have followed the candidate's control work and three individuals who are not familiar with the candidate's work. One reader has followed the case to be presented in yearly meetings with the candidate and PC person and knows the case that is presented, but has no other contact with the candidate. The second reader is not familiar with the case to be presented, but has reviewed the candidate's work with another case on a yearly basis. The other three individuals would be appointed by the Chair of Evaluation and have had no knowledge of the candidate's control work. One of the three new individuals would chair the case presentation committee. The candidate has the right of refusal of fifteen names on the list of members who have volunteered and been appointed by the Chair of Evaluation.

r) The Case Presentation Committee will hear and evaluate the candidate's presentation of his or her case. The candidate's folder will not become part of the Case Presentation Evaluation. Then, with the careful consideration of the Case Presentation Committee's detailed report, the Progression Committee will meet to determine whether the candidate is ready to work independently as an analyst without supervision or his/her own psychoanalysis, and therefore is ready to graduate. The candidate will not be apprized of this collaborative decision until the Progression Committee is in receipt of the Case Presentation Committee's report and has met to discuss the findings. Every attempt will be made to facilitate this process as soon as possible.

s) After a Case Presentation Committee recommends to the Progression Committee (PC) that a candidate has successfully met the requirements for presentation and the PC recommends that the candidate is ready to graduate, the candidate will be called informally by a representative of the PC and informed that he/she has graduated. The candidate will be informed in writing by the Chair of Evaluation. The Director of the Institute will present the candidate to the NYFS Board for inclusion into membership. The candidate will be sent a letter signed by the Director of the Institute and the NYFS President as soon as possible congratulating the candidate on fulfilling all the requirements for graduation and inviting the candidate into membership. The candidate will receive a certificate at the next graduation ceremony.

t) Appeal Process:
If a candidate does not agree with the recommendations of the Progression Committee after the case presentation review, the candidate may appeal to the Director of the Institute, who will carefully review the findings of the Case Presentation Committee and the Progression Committee with the President of the NYFS. The review may include meeting individually with each person involved with the ongoing progression of the candidate's work, reviewing all minutes of the PC regarding the candidate, consulting with the supervisors and instructors, as well as meeting with the candidate. The NYFS President and Institute Directors' decision will be binding.

u) A candidate has the right to a second case presentation interview. The timing of the second presentation will take into consideration Progression Committee and supervisory recommendations. If the Evaluation Committee for the second presentation decides that the candidate has not demonstrated a capacity to conduct a psychoanalysis independently and the PC concurs, the candidate cannot appeal this final decision.

v) The Progression Committee may suspend or terminate a candidate's training in the case of failure to meet standards for reasonable progress toward graduation, or for violation of ethical precepts for the practice of psychoanalysis. Reasonable progress toward graduation shall mean continued satisfactory reviews by instructors, supervisors, timely completion and Institute review of the required case summaries, as well as immersion in the practice of psychoanalysis. The candidate has a right to appeal this decision under the appeal process described in Paragraph "t" above.

The following documents are available, upon request, from the Administrative Director, Connie Stroboulis:

- Leave of Absence Policy
- Case Summary Guidelines
- Requirements for RFC Interview
- Guidelines for Case Presentation
- Guidelines for Supervisory Reports
- List of Training Analysts
- List of NYFS Members who offer Low Fee Supervision for Psychotherapy
- Description of PC Member, Advisor and Case Summary Reader Roles




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