Upcoming Events

Networking, activities, workshops, open house, and more!

Externship/Practicum

Advanced students enrolled in doctoral psychology or social work programs have the opportunity to become intimately acquainted with psychoanalytic concepts and how they are implemented in practice.

Under the auspices of the IPTAR Clinical Center (ICC), psychology externs and social work practicants work with a diverse patient population and receive close individual and group supervision with senior members of the field.

In addition, externs and practicants attend an afternoon of didactic seminars, the “Invited Speaker Series: Theory, Technique, and Psychoanalysis Beyond the Consulting Room,” that take place at IPTAR. These seminars offer the opportunity for in-depth presentation and discussion of a wide variety of theoretical and practical applications of psychoanalysis.

Externs and practicants are also invited to participate in a wide range of programs and events that take place at IPTAR throughout the year.

Program Highlights

Clinical Experience

The IPTAR Clinical Center (ICC)

The IPTAR Clinical Center, located on the upper east side of Manhattan, offers high-quality, affordable treatment to adults, adolescents, and children with a wide range of psychiatric issues.

Externs/Practicants are expected to conduct intake interviews on a regular basis and are assigned a caseload of 3-4 patients for ongoing weekly psychotherapy at the ICC. In addition, psychology externs have the opportunity to conduct psychoeducational evaluations over the course of the academic year, including testing, scoring, interpretation, and report writing.

Psychology externs receive at least 1 hour of weekly individual supervision from a licensed clinical psychologist and additional supervision for psychoeducational testing as needed. Social work practicants receive at least 1 hour of individual supervision from a licensed social worker with SIFI certification. In addition, externs and practicants receive 1.5 hours of weekly group supervision as part of a rotating case seminar.

The Asylum Seekers Program

The Asylum Seekers Program provides psychological assistance to individuals and families in support of their application for asylum or stays of deportation. Externs/Practicants have the opportunity to conduct comprehensive psychosocial assessments and write reports that will be presented in court for judicial review and, when possible, provide ongoing psychotherapy. Additional supervision is provided to individuals who participate in this program.

Seminars

Clinical Case Seminar

At weekly meetings led by senior IPTAR analysts, students present the ongoing process of their treatment cases. Each 90-minute seminar allows for in-depth discussion of cases presented by students on a rotating basis.

Invited Speaker Series: Theory, Technique, and Psychoanalysis Beyond the Consulting Room

This seminar offers students a detailed view of the range of contemporary psychoanalytic concepts that guide technique, and the intersection of psychoanalysis and society at large. Previous presentations have covered technical aspects such as analytic listening, case formulation, transference and countertransference, resistance, enactments, and interpretation, as well as a comprehensive range of psychoanalytic approaches, including those of Bach, Ferenczi, Klein, Kernberg, Lacan, Laplanche, Loewald, Ogden, Winnicott, and others. Presentations have also covered topics as diverse as body trauma and poetry; psychoanalysis in literature, film, and art; psychoanalysis, race, and trauma; the parent/infant relationship and dyadic treatment; psychoanalysis and immigration; psychoanalysis and organizations; psychoanalytic research; and psychoanalysis in the schools.

Additional Learning Opportunities

Clinical Conundrums

Externs/Practicants may attend IPTAR’s Clinical Conundrums colloquium, which takes place on the 3rd Wednesday of each month. These meetings, open to clinicians of all levels at IPTAR, provide a forum for an informal discussion of problems, puzzling situations, impasses, or other concerns to clinicians. Inspired by close-process seminars held in France, and similar to Tavistock Clinical Groups, participants follow a close process reading of what is happening in the consulting room between clinicians and their patients, and then discuss how transference/countertransference dynamics, resistances, or other issues may be contributing to the impasse or conundrum.

LGBTQ2S+ Supervision Group

Externs/Practicants may attend IPTAR’s LGBTQ2S+ Supervision group, which takes place on the 3rd Friday of each month. This group, co-sponsored by the ICC and IPTAR-Q, provides a clinical context in which to think psychoanalytically about manifestations of sexuality and gender as they emerge in the therapeutic interaction. These meetings provide a chance to hear material from clinicians of all experience levels who are working with LGBTQ2S+ patients and/or who are bringing psychoanalytic theory and technique into engagement with queer studies.

Beyond the Basic Curriculum (BBC)

The BBC is a series of shorter (1 to 6 session) courses available to the entire IPTAR community on a rotating basis. Recent course haves covered a wide range of subject matter, including “Reading Ogden, Reading Bion,” “Cross-Cultural Dreaming,” “Contemplating Resilience,” “Hatred in the Clinical Encounter,” “Introduction to Italian Psychoanalysis,” “Introduction to Integrative Harm Reduction Therapy,” “Thinking Developmentally,” “Working with West Indians, and “Psychoanalytic Couple Psychotherapy.”

Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Program (CAP)

Students may also take classes through the CAP Program, which offers a contemporary psychoanalytic perspective on work with children, adolescents, and their families. The program focuses on psychotherapy, play therapy, and working with parents/caregivers, while integrating advances in the fields of child development, neuropsychology, trauma, diversity, and infant-parent research.

Application Process

Psychology graduate students apply to the Externship/Practicum Program through the NYNJDOT Externship portal. IPTAR follows all timelines and regulations as stipulated by the APA. Typically, applications are due in mid-January, interviews are held shortly thereafter, and decisions are made on match day in early March. Details are available on the APA externship website.

Social work students can apply to the Externship/Practicum Program through their school’s Practicum Field Placement Coordinator. Applications are due at the end of February, interviews are offered in early March, and placements are offered shortly thereafter.  As part of the application, students are asked to submit a) a brief statement describing their familiarity with or interest in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in general, and their interest in IPTAR in particular; b) a current CV; and c) two letters of recommendation, at least one from a clinical supervisor when possible.

Please note that all applicants are asked to send all materials directly to the Co-Directors of the program, in addition to uploading materials to any portals or departments as required by their graduate programs.

Please send your full application to:

Dr. Linda Jaffe Caplan

lindajcaplan@gmail.com

** and **

Dr. Tracey Strasser Vorus

traceysvorus@gmail.com