The CCP Certificate in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program provides a course of study in psychoanalytic theory and therapy for interested individuals – both clinicians and theorists – who would like to deepen their knowledge of the field.

Directed by Adina Bayuk Keesom, PsyD, the program has two tracks,  a clinical track and an academic track for those who wish to strengthen their backgrounds in psychoanalytic theory but who are not practicing clinicians. Students in the academic track will follow the same program as students in the clinical track, although their focus will be determined through discussion with their individual consultants.

For a detailed description of the Two-Year Certificate Program, and the additional offerings of a Third Year Bridge Certificate Program in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, please read below.

COMPONENTS OF THE THE TWO-YEAR PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY CERTIFICATE PROGRAM:

Weekly Seminars

During each eleven-week quarter, weekly seminars will alternate between theoretical study and clinical case conference. Classes are held on Sunday mornings, and/or Monday evenings.  We offer in person classes while continue to offer the option for virtual learning opportunities. 

FIRST YEAR CURRICULUM

Fall: Introduction to Psychoanalytic Theory - The Unconscious and Psychoanalytic Engagement
This course acquaints participants with key concepts in psychoanalytic theory and their application to clinical practice. The term “clinical” comes from the Greek term “klinike”, which translates to “bedside”. The meaning thus refers to individualizing knowledge and skill for the purpose of helping.

In keeping with this goal, this course begins with an introduction to the psychoanalytic situation with particular focus upon its distinguishing elements. Historical and contemporary variations in analytic approaches are touched upon.  Several theoretical constructs will be introduced, including but not limited to, understanding of the unconscious and its processes, the nature of self/other organization, psychoanalytic engagement including transference/ countertransference, enactment, and interpretation. Differences in personality organization will be used to highlight and illustrate these concepts.

Students are encouraged to present and discuss their own cases to illustrate theoretical and practice issues covered in class.

Winter: Theories of self, object, and relations
This course is the second of a three-course sequence on psychoanalytic theory. Building upon the foundation of the prior course, these classes will focus upon an introduction to three main areas:

• Self Psychology
• Object Relations Theory
• Relational Psychoanalysis

Readings will include major works by key authors. Students are encouraged to read beyond the assigned articles and are encouraged to present and discuss their clinical work to illustrate theoretical issues covered in the seminar.

Spring: Psychoanalytic Theories of Development, an integrative model- The Integration of Theory and Clinical Practice

In this class we will focus on the field of infant and early childhood mental health to explore its contribution to a psychoanalytic understanding of human development. Most psychoanalytic theories, no matter how historical or recent, contain explicit or implicit assumptions about human development – about innate versus external forces that propel development, about factors that facilitate psychic growth, and about factors that derail or stunt optimal human growth. 

We will explore research data focusing on the development of a sense of self and of relational structures from infancy through early childhood and beyond. This material will serve towards a deepening and critically evaluation of classic and contemporary assumptions and treatment models in psychoanalysis..

SECOND YEAR CURRICULUM

Fall: Freud for Thinking Clinicians: Lost & Found

In this case-based seminar, we will seek supervision from “Freud” himself, as we can glean his ideas from his writings.  Following an introduction to some of his fundamental clinical concepts in the first half of each meeting, we will juxtapose the close reading of each week’s selection(s) with case material in order to explore the ways that theory and clinical process inform, enhance and challenge each other.  The course will aim to provide an opportunity for participants to begin to articulate the clinical theories that are implicit in their own work with patients, and to use Freud’s ideas in the service of refining their own assumptions.  To encourage theory-building in each person’s particular clinical idiom, we may wish to bring in excerpts from Winnicott, Lacan or others in order to appreciate how differences in tone, emphasis and sensibility lead to new insights.  Readings will include Freud’s clinical papers as well as his more “political” writings, and we will maintain a focus throughout on the ways in which his ideas about loss, mourning and re-finding permeate his theories of mind.

Winter: The unconscious: Primary Process, Dreams, and Creativity

This seminar represents a continuation of the previous course’s overview of Freud’s clinical writings, but in this instance, our attention will move from Freud’s foundational Dream Book through to the transformations of his ideas by some of his most well-known descendants.  Following a discussion of the so-called Specimen Dream and a sample of its generative critiques, we will delve into the writings of Searles, Ogden, Phillips, Eigen, LaPlanche, Green and others to guide our clinical discussions.  Emphasis will be placed upon broadening clinician sensitivity to the potentialities for healing through exploration of patients’ fantasies and dreams in order to allow these authors to “supervise” participants’ case presentations.  We will end the seminar with a brief foray into literature in order to appreciate the conversations between clinical theories, patient’s fantasies and their application to the creative arts.  

Spring: An integrative model- The Integration of Theory and Clinical Practice

The basic assumption in this seminar is that psychoanalytic theories to which one consciously adheres do not necessarily lead to the way one practices psychotherapy. The students will explore how one’s own individual sufferings, losses, and disillusionments lead to compensatory ideals and values, which then inform the personal aspects of the way one practices. While retaining this notion that the self- examination of one’s moral assumptions and values is paramount to one’s personal and professional identity, the participants will examine the clinical tensions inherit in the values of: ‘freedom vs. loyalty’, ‘love vs. respect’, ‘knowing vs. experiencing’, ‘should vs. want, ‘self-knowledge vs. self- acceptance’, ‘the personal vs. professional’, in the clinical work

A Year-Long Seminar: Clinical Case Conference : 
Six quarters of clinical case conference will be integrated with the six didactic seminars.

Individual Clinical Consultation: Weekly Individual consultation or discussion meetings will be offered with a CCP faculty member at a time and location of mutual convenience.

Public Lectures Series - Fridays@CCP:The CCP Lecture Series, Fridays@CCP, features outstanding psychoanalysts from across the U.S., from abroad, and from the Chicago analytic community.

Final Project: A final project of the participant’s choice, on a psychoanalytically-relevant topic, will be required for graduation. All students will have the opportunity to discuss individual subject matter with a mentor.

TUITION: $3,600 per/year $1,200 per/quarter, due before the beginning of each quarter.

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP (required) : $175 Due upon receipt of invoice on September 1st.

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE: CCP believes that cost should not be a prohibiting factor in obtaining psychoanalytically-oriented training. For this reason, limited work-study opportunities are available for those who have an interest in participating in CCP’s Two-Year Certificate Program but do not have the resources to do so. Those applying for a work-study position should include a paragraph explaining their financial need.

APPLICATION AND REGISTRATION PERIOD: Application period ends on August 15, 2025. You can find the application form on this web page.  The $100 non-refundable application fee will be emailed shortly after receiving your application. 

THE PSYCHOTHERAPY PROGRAM - AN ELECTIVE THIRD-YEAR TO DEEPEN YOUR KNOWLEDGE: CREATING A BRIDGE TO THE PSYCHOANALYTIC TRAINING PROGRAM

The Psychotherapy Program is now offering a third year curriculum, which includes theory seminars, a case conference, and individual clinical consultation. Third-year students are free to register in one or all components of the program. Third year theory seminars can each be counted as one credit toward the elective seminar requirement of The CCP Psychoanalytic Training Program, should one be accepted into that program.

OPTIONAL THIRD YEAR CURRICULUM

Psychosis: an introduction

Despite enduring myths claiming to anathemize it, psychosis—both the concept and the clinical experience—has been a lynchpin of psychoanalysis since its origins. Beginning with Freud’s foundational papers and case study, and moving through other classic papers on the subject, this monthly course seeks to make sense of an enigma whose contours help to locate—or dislocate—many of the central objects of psychoanalytic experience: neurosis, reality, trauma, fantasy, transference, repression, aggression, symbolization, dreams, child development. Clinical material will be elicited (or introduced) to argue both for the salience of psychosis to psychoanalysis—and, more vitally, the salience of psychoanalysis for psychosis.

This course will meet monthly, time TBD, nine times per year for two hours.

Instructors:

Adam Weg and Nancy Burke 

Theory Seminar: The De-Centered Mind: Reading Object Relations Theories

The year-long course is designed to deepen students’ understanding of psychoanalytic theory. The work of Thomas Ogden is used as a skeleton upon which to organize the course. Ogden writes lucidly about pivotal psychoanalytic theorists such as Freud, Klein, Winnicott, Bion, and others, in a thoughtful and nuanced manner. Ogden’s work will permit us to study his work, and that of other theorists as we link, compare, and contrast them in their historical and contemporary contexts. These theories underpin current developments such as relational approaches and psychoanalytic field theory. Students will develop a more sophisticated understanding of such recent developments. Course participants will have the opportunity to engage theorists by selectively reading and discussing their original work.

The Uncanny:  Clinical/Literary/Artistic

Freud’s essay on The Uncanny brought to vivid life for generations of readers the uneasy familiarity experienced by those who encounter the return of repressed ideas and desires.  While the essay’s evocative portrayal of the process of coming face-to-face with oneself has been usefully put to clinical work, it also offers insights that transcend the disciplinary boundaries of the healing arts into the fields of literature and the visual arts.  In this course, we will explore together the possibilities inherent in the concept of the uncanny through encounters with writings by Phillips, Kafka, Bowen, Sebald, and Danielewski as well as in dialogue with artistic work in other film and visual arts.

Clinical Case Conference
Typically, a Case Conference Seminar focuses on one patient presented in detail to the group members followed by a discussion of the patient’s material and the clinical process. The third-year seminar does not serve to provide a group supervision to the presenter. Rather, we use the material presented by each student to focus on clinical moments that challenged them in their clinical work.

The seminar will be structured as follows:
First hour: The presenter will read detailed process notes of a session uninterruptedly for half-an-hour. The presentation will be followed by a half-hour group discussion, focusing on difficult moments, questions, and challenges, the clinician experienced during the session.

Second hour: The group discussion will focus on associations, struggles, and questions group members may have had in their own work during the week. We will address these moments to further enhance the participants’ derivative listening skills and look for possible clinical manifestations of the theoretical concepts discussed in the preceding Theory Class.

Weekly Individual Clinical Consultation is offered to the third year students.

TUITION: $3,600 per/year $1,200 per/quarter, due before the beginning of each quarter.

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP (required) : $175 Due upon receipt of invoice on September 1st.

For further information, please contact: 

Adina B Keesom PsyD- Director of the program at akeesom@ccpsa.org

Application:

Application and Registration

Click the button below to complete the application.  The form will open online and allow you to type in your responses.  You must submit the form and pay the application fee online.

Application Form