Professional Diploma in Psychoanalytic Supervision
Course Features
Ongoing experience of one’s own psychoanalysis: this is the cornerstone of training and practice in the psychoanalytic field. Ongoing engagement in one’s psychoanalysis is verified by the programme. The student arranges payment for their psychoanalysis outside of the Professional Diploma fee payment.
Supervision of supervisory practice: in-person individual and small group supervision of supervision of the supervisor's practice with psychoanalytic supervisees. The supervisor-in-training has to be in a position to arrange to have supervisees attending.
Theoretical content: interrogation of the psychoanalytic literature for reliable material with which to respond to the question: what is it to practice supervision in accordance with the principles of Freudian-Lacanian psychoanalysis?
Students produce a Clinical Supervision Paper which is assessed in terms of leaving the reader in no doubt but that the writer is practising supervision in accordance with the principles of Freudian-Lacanian psychoanalysis.
Course Overview
To date, practitioners providing clinical supervision have done so on the basis of their own commitment to their personal psychoanalysis, clinical experience, and peer recognition of suitability. With the emergence in our culture of expectation of formal regulation of qualifications, professional bodies within the Irish Council for Psychotherapy (ICP) have introduced the requirement that clinical supervisors on psychotherapy training programmes are required to have a formal qualification in supervision. It is expected that the launch by CORU of a State register for the title Psychotherapist will also require a University / QQI awarded qualification in supervision. This UCD programme offers the first opportunity for experienced practitioners in the field of Freudian-Lacanian psychoanalysis to take a formal programme that can recognise their work as supervisors of psychoanalytic practice. As importantly, if not more so, it provides the Freudian-Lacanian field here in Ireland with a locus to interrogate its understanding of supervision practised in accordance with the principles of Freudian-Lacanian psychoanalysis. What it is to practice supervision in accordance with the principles of Freudian-Lacanian psychoanalysis is not extensively elaborated in the literature but there are key texts that provide guiding questions for the programme. For further details regarding the content of the programme please see the Module content information under ‘What will I learn’ below.
Modules
Supervision Practice: this practice is the core content of this experience-focussed programme.
Supervision of Supervision:students undergo regular one-to-one supervision of their supervisory practice with a recognised practitioner whose practice and supervision is based on their own very extensive engagement in their own psychoanalysis. Based on these meetings, the individual supervisor of supervisory practice will be asked to submit a report on the work and indicate if they can say that the supervisee's supervision is psychoanalytic. It may be agreeable to the student's existing supervisor of practice to include the 12 sessions in their arrangement for work. In other words, for at least 12 meetings the supervision would be occupied by the supervisee's supervisory practice. There will also be 6 small group supervision meetings where the students will speak about their supervisory work. A report will also be submitted by the supervisor leading the small group supervision. The small group supervisor will also indicate if they can say that the supervisee's supervision is psychoanalytic.
Supervision and the Freudian Unconscious: a theoretical discussion of the practice of supervision in the Freudian field. The format will be a participative seminar. Use will be made of material from the literature relevant to the discussion of supervisory practice.
Clinical Supervision Paper:students submit a 5,000-word paper in late July. This paper will be read by two readers who are psychoanalytic practitioners and supervisors. They will assess if the paper is written by a practitioner whose supervisory work is psychoanalytic in the sense of being based on the practitioner's own extensive engagement in their own psychoanalysis and on the psychoanalytic discourse as launched by Sigmund Freud and elaborated by Jacques Lacan and those that follow their principles.
The small-group supervision and theoretical components of the programme are delivered over six Saturdays, 9 am - 2 pm between September and May; the clinical paper and supervision practice and one-to-one supervision of supervision runs a full academic year from September to August.
The programme was launched in Autumn 2023. In due course, formal accreditation will be sought from the appropriate professional body.
Experienced psychoanalytic practitioners who practice supervision and see the benefit of having a formal qualification recognising this work.
Experienced psychoanalytic practitioners who practice supervision and see the benefit of taking time over a year to articulate what supervision practised in accordance with the principles of Freudian-Lacanian psychoanalysis should involve.
Students on the programme will have (or be in a position to put in place) their own supervision practice. This can be one-to-one or small group or, ideally a combination of the two.
Applicants must have a Master’s level minimum four-year training in psychoanalysis / psychoanalytic psychotherapy, or equivalent.
A minimum 4 years supervised practice experience from the time of qualifying at the Master’s level minimum four-year training in psychoanalysis / psychoanalytic psychotherapy, or equivalent.
Evidence of commitment to ongoing engaging in their own psychoanalysis
Suitability to engage in supervision of clinical practice based on endorsements from two appropriately qualified referees.
Applicants will be invited to participate in an admissions interview.
It is required that each student on the programme continues in their own psychoanalysis for the duration of the programme.
Deadline: Preferably by the end of June 2024. Later applications may be considered at the discretion of the programme team.
Application for this programme must be made on-line at www.ucd.ie/apply.
For more information on the application process please visit the UCD Registry website here.
