A Prospective Study of Psychoanalytic Practice and Professional Development

Abstract

In 2003 the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research began a prospective study of graduates designed to both describe and understand their professional trajectory. The study has two components: a quantitative component based on an anonymous comprehensive questionnaire given analysts yearly starting with their graduation, and a qualitative component comprising analyst interviews beginning at the end of the first postgraduate year and repeated every two years. Analysis of the first six years of the qualitative study shows that analysts will talk openly about their practice and careers and that when they do, practical issues are a dominant concern. Analysts both immersed and not immersed in four-times-weekly analytic cases experiment with adapting skills developed in training to treat cases in analysis seen less frequently. Analysts without four-times-weekly case immersion are engaged in analytic careers, participate as faculty at the institute, and report a high degree of career satisfaction. The major findings of this study compel changes in psychoanalytic training programs. The field would do well to address actual clinical practice experience in institute curricula and training programs, thus making analytic training more relevant.

Alumni Perspectives on Career Preparation during a Postdoctoral Training Program: A Qualitative Study

“…These included creating more opportunities for alumni to remain involved with the program and network with current fellows, providing a more structured approach to career assistance and helping fellows transition to their next job, and offering a broader range of placements outside the NCI and NIH, particularly in clinical settings. As noted by others, this type of feedback from interviews is important for future program-planning purposes and for ensuring the alignment of goals with outcomes ( Ali Zeilani et al , 2011 ; Cherry et al , 2012 ). This feedback will be incorporated into future modifications to the training program.…”

“…They found that, although alumni reported a positive impact of their mentors on their careers, many had limited use for some skills learned during their training. Cherry and coworkers collected in-depth interview data from alumni of the Columbia University Psychoanalytic Training Institute ( Cherry et al , 2012 ). Although most alumni reported positive program experiences that benefited their professional development, some alumni also had program improvement suggestions that led to curricular modifications.…”

Psychoanalytic training experience and postgraduate professional development – Part ii

“…Becoming an analyst at the beginning of one's career is an act of self-creation. Cherry et al (2009Cherry et al ( , 2012 in their studies of early postgraduates found that the postgraduate period is a time of transition and further adult development and that these analysts' decision-making about conducting more analysis is dominated by real-life practical issues about the feasibility of four-times-weekly practice. They also did a much more active experimentation with session frequency than was apparent from the quantitative data.…”

Professional and Personal Development After Psychoanalytic Training: Interviews with Early Career Analysts

“…In our initial review of these interviews, we noted that their postgraduate reflections on psychoanalytic training and future career paths resonated with developmental themes. This motivated us to use developmental theory as a lens through which to more closely examine the early postgraduate years, and we planned to study this in greater detail in the future (Cherry et al 2012).…”