A Deeper Experience of Psychoanalytic Training
Child & Adolescent Therapy Program:
Level 2
CATP Level 2 gives graduates of PPSC’s Child & Adolescent Therapy Program the opportunity to continue their studies within PPSC’s analytic training program alongside analytic candidates.
Students may take one or two semester-long courses, each offering a deeper exploration of psychoanalytic developmental theory and its application to clinical work with adults.
For CATP graduates who later enter PPSC’s analytic training program, this course may be applied toward their training requirements.
Program At a Glance
1 or 2 Semester Course
Mondays
Remote
18 CEs per semester*
* CEs available to eligible participants
About the Program
Bring a developmental perspective more fully into your clinical work.
Level 1 provides a foundation in development from infancy through adolescence. Level 2 builds on that foundation by asking participants to think about development not only as a sequence of stages, but as a way of understanding what is happening in the clinical encounter.
Through classic and contemporary psychoanalytic theory, participants explore developmental capacities including affect regulation, dreaming, desire, object use, mourning, object constancy, play, mentalization, triangulation, and guilt.
Throughout the course, theory is paired with clinical application, helping participants consider how developmental thinking can inform assessment, intervention, the therapeutic relationship, and moments of impasse.
What You’ll Study
Across the two semesters, the curriculum explores development through the capacities that shape psychic life and through the transitions and reorganizations that continue across the lifespan. Throughout, psychoanalytic theory is connected to clinical listening, formulation, and intervention.
Developmental Capacities
Explore capacities including affect regulation, dreaming, desire, object use, mourning, object constancy, play, mentalization, triangulation, and guilt, and consider how they emerge within patients and the therapeutic relationship. The first course is explicitly organized around these capacities and their clinical application.
Development Across the Lifespan
Consider personality development from latency through later life, including the psychological tasks, tensions, and reorganizations that accompany developmental transitions. Development is approached as an ongoing, nonlinear process shaped by relational, cultural, and somatic experience.
Clinical Understanding and Application
Across both courses, clinical material brings developmental theory into the treatment room, helping participants deepen the ways they listen, formulate, understand therapeutic relationships, and make clinical decisions.
How You’ll Learn
CATP Level 2 students participate in courses within PPSC’s analytic training program, learning alongside candidates and experiencing the depth and collaborative environment of analytic training firsthand.
Across both semesters, psychoanalytic theory is paired with clinical application. Readings, clinical material, and discussion invite participants to consider development not as a fixed sequence of stages, but as an ongoing process that can deepen understanding of patients and the therapeutic relationship.
Ready to Apply?
We welcome master's- and doctoral-level applicants who want to strengthen their understanding and work with children, adolescents, and parents. Applicants without these credentials who bring relevant experience, a strong interest in the field, or a demonstrated commitment to this work are also encouraged to apply.
Please submit the following to Ruth Wyatt (ruthwyattlcsw@gmail.com) and Sue Sherman (drshermsusan@aol.com) via email no later than August 15, 2026:
Completed Application (download form below)
Your CV
2 letters of reference
Please also submit a $50 application fee via Zelle to ppsc@ppsc.org.
PPSC does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, age, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, national/ethnic origin, or analytic orientation in the administration of its admissions and education policies.
