Training Analysis
Why Have A Training Analysis?
The goals of the candidate’s psychoanalysis are a crucial blend of the personal and the professional. These include a deepening awareness and appreciation of one’s unconscious mental life, motivations, fears, representations, identifications, conflicts, and ongoing power of the past in the present. The personal analysis develops greater capacities for self-reflection, empathy, and mature self-regulation of one’s emotional responses, all essential for an analyst’s role in creating an effective analytic process.
Of particular importance is the way the personal analysis helps the candidate understand counter-transferences and enactments in the work he or she is doing during training.
Finding A Training Analyst
If you have an interest in training at Columbia and are not yet in an analysis, we are happy to provide you with referrals to one of our analysts who have been trained and approved to treat psychoanalytic candidates.
Once you have applied to the Center, you may contact any one of our consultants directly to obtain a free and confidential referral. Your conversation with the consultant will be entirely private and will have no bearing whatsoever on your application to the Center. You may choose to meet with any one of the following three consultants:
- Brenda Berger, PhD
- Natasha Chriss, MD
- Nathan Kravis, MD
May I Continue Working With My Analyst?
We expect that candidates will select as their analyst a Columbia Psychoanalytic faculty member who has been trained and credentialed to analyze and supervise candidates (typically referred to as a training and supervising analyst, or TSA). Candidates who wish to work with a Columbia analyst who is not a TSA or with an analyst at another institute may apply for a waiver. A candidate may seek a waiver if they are already in a treatment they wish to continue or if they are not yet in treatment but believe they can find a better match outside the Center’s community of training analysts. Our goals in offering waivers are to allow productive ongoing treatments to continue whenever possible and to support candidate choice, while ensuring that our trainees receive analyses from qualified analysts whose clinical approach is reasonably consistent with the methods they will be learning at the Center.
All applicants should understand that waivers represent exceptions granted on a case-by-case basis. There is no guarantee that a waiver will be granted. Therefore, applicants should plan for what they may do if their chosen analyst is not approved.
To learn more, please read our guide to applying for a waiver. Applications for a waiver begin with both candidate and analyst completing and submitting waiver consent forms included in the above-linked document to:
- Madrid Poultney
Should I Continue Working With My Analyst?
If you are already in treatment, whether with someone who is a Columbia training analyst or someone who is not and will require a waiver, you may wonder if you should continue that treatment or start with a new analyst. When questions like this arise, seeking a consultation can be very helpful.
As with those seeking a referral to an analyst, once you have applied to the Center, you may contact any one of our consulting analysts (listed above) who will provide a free and confidential consultation on your ongoing treatment. Your conversation with the consultant will be entirely private and will have no bearing whatsoever on your application to the Center.
When And Where?
All candidates must begin their training analysis on or before the beginning of their first semester of classes and at least six months prior to starting their first psychoanalytic training case. Training analyses take place at a frequency of four times weekly, although we recognize that occasional, time-limited modifications of the frame, including changes in frequency and the use of the couch, may be necessary from time to time. At a minimum, it is expected that a candidate's personal analysis overlaps significantly with their clinical casework and continues throughout most of their years in training.
In the context of the pandemic, training analyses may be conducted remotely or in the office of the analyst, as decided by the analyst and candidate. Our training analysts have offices throughout Manhattan. A few are located in Westchester.
Training Analysis Fees
The setting of the fee for a candidate’s training analysis is conducted privately between the analyst and candidate and routinely involves thoughtful consideration of the candidate’s financial circumstances. Training analysts who are able to will typically reduce their fees significantly for candidates. Our current candidates’ fees range from $100 to $400 per session and are evenly distributed across that range. Some analysts may be willing to reduce their fees further for candidates if their own circumstances permit.
Insurance reimbursement plays a significant role in the affordability of a training analysis. Just under half of our trainees choose to enroll in Columbia University student health insurance, which reimburses students 70% of the reasonable and customary fees of psychoanalytic treatment. More information on our health insurance options can be found here.
Your Privacy Is Paramount
The personal analysis at Columbia is a fully confidential and completely private experience between analyst and candidate. The only information reported by the Training Analyst to the Center is a twice-yearly statement that the analysis is ongoing (or has terminated).