Curriculum
The 2026-2027 sequence of courses follow:
Fall: Introduction to Relational Psychotherapy Integration: Theory, Practice, and Therapeutic Action I
Instructor: Lainie Goldwert, PhD
3 sessions: Sept. 14, 28, Oct. 5, 2026 (Monday, 1:00-2:50)
This introductory course is part of the PIP certificate program but is open to anyone interested in psychotherapy integration. Covering psychotherapy integration from a relational psychodynamic perspective, we review relevant history, basic concepts, and diverse approaches like common factors and assimilative integration. Ideas are clarified in relation to therapeutic action--the ways people change in therapy--and helps students develop a coherent, disciplined integrative practice. Note that the course does not teach specific techniques, but clinical examples are included along with works by leading psychoanalytic integrationists such as Bresler, Frank, Gold, Safran, Stricker, and Wachtel.
Integrating Somatic Modalities with Relational Psychoanalysis
Instructor: Zeynep Catay, Ph.D.
8 sessions: Oct. 19, 26, Nov. 2, 9, 16, 23, Dec. 7, 14, 2026 (Monday 1:00-2:50)
This course will focus on incorporating the body into relational psychoanalytic work. Synthesizing relevant research and theory from the fields of neuropsychology, infant development, relational psychoanalysis as well as research on interactional synchrony in psychotherapy the course we will review the significance of body-to-body communication in development and psychotherapy. We will explore how the body holds cues into the affective and relational world as well as past trauma and embodied social structures. Students will practice skills to track their own sensations, fine tune their interoceptive sense and use it as a tool to expand associative capacities and containment in the session. There will also be a focus on expanding observational skills and integrating various aspects of nonverbal expression into the meaning making process. Basic skills from somatic modalities will be practiced in class to strengthen students’ capacities to achieve grounding and regulation in the session as well as facilitating access to emotions and associations.
Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS)
Instructor: Nancy Bravman, LCSW
8 sessions: Jan. 11, 25, Feb. 1, 8, 22, Mar. 1, 8, 15, 2027 (Monday 1:00-2:50)
This course will introduce Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS), a model that offers psychoanalytically-oriented clinicians an unique perspective and set of interventions that can complement psychoanalytic work and expand our treatment options.
Like other modalities that work with self-states, ego-states and parts, IFS emphasizes the normal multiplicity of the mind. It facilitates a deepening connection between present-day difficulties and the historical injuries that prompt parts (self-states) to develop. IFS can be helpful for enhancing affect regulation, decreasing shame and healing attachment injuries.
Introduction to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Analytic Therapists
Instructor: Sheri Turrell, C. Psych.
8 sessions: TBD, 2027 (Monday 1:00-2:50)
This course offers an introduction to the theory and therapeutic processes of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT, pronounced as a single word)) for psychoanalytically oriented clinicians. Designed with real-world practice in mind, this course will demonstrate how integrating ACT and relational approaches can expand therapeutic action—particularly with patients who present with entrenched avoidance, high-risk or self-defeating behaviors, and difficulties regulating affect. Clinicians will leave with both a broadened conceptual framework and practical tools that can be immediately applied within ongoing analytic treatments. We will explore points of convergence with relational theory, including affect tolerance, enactment, and the co-constructed nature of the therapeutic relationship. Emphasis will be placed on how ACT’s functional contextual approach can illuminate longstanding analytic concerns, while offering concrete, in-the-moment interventions that deepen clinical work without sacrificing complexity.
Integrating AEDP into Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy
Instructor: Michael Mondoro, LCSW
Not currently offered
This 8-week course introduces clinicians to the core theory and practice of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), with a focus on integrating its experiential, somatic, and attachment-based methods into relational psychoanalytic work. Participants will learn to apply key interventions — including undoing aloneness, dyadic regulation, experiential focusing, Transformance detection and the metaprocessing of transformational affective experiences—within a relational frame.
The course emphasizes intra- and inter-relational portrayals (relational parts work), somatic tracking, and the co-creation of reparative emotional experiences. Through didactic teaching, clinical vignettes, video demonstrations, and experiential exercises, participants will gain practical tools to integrate AEDP’s healing-oriented approach into their work with depth and presence.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Analytic Therapists
Instructor: Lisa Lyons, Ph.D.
Not currently offered
This course will introduce students to theoretical and clinical elements of DBT and to the myriad ways it can be integrated into psychoanalytic, and more specifically Relational, work. To that end we will focus on learning basic elements of DBT, the overlaps of DBT and Relational clinical process, and the ways integration of these two complementary ways of working can greatly expand therapeutic action in work with patients who present with multiple and dangerous behavioral patterns and / or difficulties regulating affect.
Spring: Theory and Practice of Relational Psychotherapy Integration II
Instructor: Kenneth Frank, PhD
3 sessions: TBD
This course is offered to students who have studied two or more modalities. The course provides an opportunity to consider more advanced practical and theoretical considerations that arise from integrative practice.
Theory and Practice of Relational Psychotherapy Integration I and II are required courses in order to receive the PIP certificate.
Cognitive-behavior therapy for Analytic Therapists
Instructor: Jill Bresler, PhD
not currently offered
This course provides an understanding of the major CBT models and their relationship to psychoanalytic treatment, teaches specific CBT interventions, and prepares clinicians to use CBT techniques skillfully in psychodynamic work. We devote the majority of our time to learning how to employ commonly used cognitive and behavioral techniques. The course focuses on the treatment of anxiety phenomena, including generalized anxiety, phobias, panic disorder and obsessional thinking and obsessive rumination. Throughout, emphasis is on developing an ability to determine when and how CBT skills may be helpfully integrated into practice, and to evaluate the effects of these interventions. Readings will include work by J. Beck; Persons; Hayes, Strosahl and Wilson; Segal, Williams and Teasdale, and Wallin.