The PsiAN Professions Team promotes programs and policies that support the teaching of in-depth therapeutic practice at all educational levels and across all mental health disciplines.

Therapies of depth, insight and relationship have helped millions of people to live more meaningful, fulfilling and productive lives, and there is abundant research showing their short- and long-term effectiveness.  Yet the practice of these treatments is often not taught -- or is not taught with sufficient attention and expertise -- in graduate and other training programs.  The PsiAN Professions Team is working to change the ways in which effective and inspired clinicians are born into and sustained in their professional lives.  

We promote training in therapies of depth, insight and relationships across disciplines, believing that the specific degree a therapist holds -- LCSW, PhD, MD, LCPC, PsyD, LMFT, etc., -- is less important than the breadth of their appreciation of the transformative power of these therapies.

Education and Accreditation

• Promote the teaching of depth therapies in undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate programs

• Challenge restrictions on the teaching of therapies of depth, insight and relationship in graduate programs, and in the criteria used to accredit them.

• Challenge policies from our professional organizations that are used to impede accreditation and adequate training in these methods

• Explore alternative avenues for certification and accreditation.  

• Support the creation of a Diplomate in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Equity

• Support initiatives to make clinical training accessible to people from marginalized groups, who otherwise cannot afford it, or who feel closed out of psychotherapy education as it is traditionally taught.  

• Explore models for funding psychoanalytic training that can accommodate persons with limited resources.

Early Career Professionals and Students

• Support early career clinicians who wish to practice in more enriched ways

• Invite students into the thriving community of practitioners who offer therapies of depth, insight and relationship.  

• Expose college students who are considering careers in psychotherapy to the practice of depth treatment.

Mentorship Program

The Mentorship Program helps undergraduates and graduate students develop their professional interests and identities. Students will be matched with a mentor, as well as be a part of a cohort of other students from around the country. Students will learn about therapies of depth, insight, and relationship, and how to embark on a career of depth-oriented clinical practice. Our program will help fill the gaps in many undergraduate psychology and graduate programs, which often lack information on these therapies and career paths.

Mentees will meet with their mentor on a monthly basis, and then with a group of their peers and other mentors on a quarterly basis.

If you are interested in participating as a mentee or mentor, please email us at hello@psian.org.