Training & Supervising Analysts

A personal training analysis offers two key benefits: a deeper understanding of one's unconscious mind and the resolution of personal issues that might impede effective psychoanalytic practice. We believe that understanding others' unconscious requires a thorough understanding of one's own.

This personal journey fosters self-reflection, empathy, and emotional regulation, essential for an analyst's ability to guide a productive analytic process.

At the Denver Institute for Psychoanalysis, we expect our candidates to be in an personal training analyses at a frequency of four or more times weekly, using the couch, and both significantly in-person and overlapping with the didactic case work during training.  The Institute recognizes that occasional, time-limited modifications of the frame, including changes in frequency and the use of the couch, may be necessary. 

Analytic supervision is a vital component of psychoanalytic training, serving as a bridge between theoretical knowledge and practical application. Through supervision, candidates learn to assess the suitability of psychoanalytic treatment for patients, distinguish between psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, and conduct effective analyses.

The supervisory relationship provides a space for candidates to explore the interplay between clinical practice and analytic theory, develop essential analytic skills, and benefit from the guidance and mentorship of experienced analysts. These experiences contribute significantly to the formation of a candidate's unique psychoanalytic identity.

Candidates at the Denver Institute for Psychoanalysis must work with at least three different supervising analysts.