The Certificate program is designed to provide the postgraduate student with a broad foundation in the fundamentals of psychoanalysis. The mission of ACAP's Certificate program is to train individuals in the theory and practice of Modern Psychoanalysis. The program consists of academic coursework, supervised clinical practice and personal analysis to prepare students to enter the profession of psychoanalysis at the most advanced level. Students work with patients at the North Jersey Consultation Center (NJCC). 

Class Matrix Level 1 (A) & Level 2 (B)

Distance Learning students are welcome.

ACAP Course Descriptions Spring 2012

GPSA506 The Oedipal Stage Through Adolescence: Neuroscience and the Child The passionate emotional development of youth inspires much of mythology and great literature. Becoming oneself with at first just a fraction of one's brain mature enough to function is a drama in itself. The child's fate is affected by the traumas attendant on being human. Neuroscience confirms the damage wrought by stress
at any stage of life -- but talking cures.

GPSA510 History of the Psychoanalytic View of Women   This course examines the evolving views of women's psychic development and roles in society from both psychoanalytic and sociological perspectives. The work of Freud, Deutsch, Horney, Bonaparte, Klein, Jacobson, Thompson, Chodorow, Gilligan, and others will be considered.

GSPSA 522 Modern Psychoanalytic Theory In this course student will learn the basic concepts of Modern Psychoanalysis. We will study how psychoanalysis has expanded, in technique and theory, to include more severe emotional disorders. It will be an introduction to theory and interventions; students will learn how to apply these concepts in class via experiential learning.

GPSA534/699 Trauma and the Resilient Mind: Contemporary Theories This course is designed to introduce students to an understanding of the various types of trauma generating maladaptive, emotional stress reactions, a grasp of the developing concept of resilience, and the adaptive responses that promote it. Major theories and theorists investigating the developmental, relational, conscious and unconscious aspects of the trauma/resilience phenomenon will be presented. Methods for assessing trauma responses and current therapeutic interventions will be explored. Class discussion of case material, personal vignettes, required papers and weekly logs will provide an opportunity for hands-on application of strategic intervention design. In depth attention will be given to the study of PTSD theories, as well as Secondary Trauma, and Complex and Developmental Trauma.

GPSA542 Diagnostic Assessment: Character Psychopathology This course imparts a psychodynamic understanding of symptoms, core conflicts, and characteristic defenses in psychotic, narcissistic and personality disorders

GPSA557 Research Writing  This course is available to students in the process of writing their single case research paper. The course will meet every other week and students will discuss their writing and use it as a writing laboratory. Students sign up for this course concurrently with their meetings with their research supervisor.

GPSA 703 Externship: Psychoanalytic Theories of Cultural Diversity The fieldwork experience is conceived of as an opportunity to study serious psychopathology and to develop listening skills, as well as diagnostic and interviewing techniques. Students study these dynamics on site at hospitals or day treatment programs, observing patients for fifty hours each during the initial phase of the three Externship semesters.

In this course, a segment of the Fieldwork experience, students work with their clients, who represent a diverse population in terms of ethnic, sociological and psychopathological processes. They learn to observe their own reactions to their clients and to use this growing understanding as a clinical and technical tool for working successfully with them. They do this while studying internal unexamined perceptions as well as broader societal prejudices, societal trends and subgroups, interaction patterns, and the impact of differing lifestyles and maladaptive behaviors, including stress, abuse, and discrimination and their subjective responses.

GPSA703A — GPSA703L SGS: Supervised Group Studies Students enroll in Supervised Group Studies (SGS) for the duration of their Externship experience. Three students meet with a faculty member to process their experience with externship cases. Students present regular process notes. At least three semesters of SGS are required. Supervised Group Studies for the Consultation Center — Three students meet with a supervisor to present cases to understand their dynamics. Four semesters of Supervised Group Studies are required. Students regularly present process notes.

GPSA750 A & B Clinical Case: The Initial Diagnosis and Resistances  Prerequisite: Consultation Center Candidacy status. Students take this course for the duration of their Consultation Center work. It is designed to help students work psychoanalytically with patients, to recognize early resistances in treatment, and to understand induction and countertransference resistances and ethical issues in treatment. A minimum of four semesters of this course is required. In this semester we will learn about psychoanalytic assessment during the early stages of treatment, treatment destructive resistances, and deal with ethical issues that impinge on the treatment. How the first sessions are approached, how to deal with the silent patient, and the unwilling patient (child or adult) will be among the topics.

Section A Introduction to Clinical Case - For students in their first two years of Clinical Case. Section B Advanced Clinical Case - For students who have been in Clinical Case for two years.

GPSA758 Continuing Case: In-Depth Study of Three Difficult or Borderline Cases These days many of the people we see in our offices and in our lives are frequently described as difficult if not impossible, words that often go along with diagnostic categories of borderline, schizophrenic or psychotic. This course will explore what makes cases difficult -- is it them or us? To help in this study three cases described as difficult will be followed through weekly presentations of clinical material. Major issues in such cases are the preverbal emotional experiences of patients and clinicians and how these may interact in the treatment process. This course is for any level, but with agreement of the Fellow and the Training Committee may replace the Clinical Case Course once it is taken for 4 semesters.

Course Schedule Spring 2012