It is with a mix of emotions that we announce the conclusion of a remarkable chapter in the history of the American Board of Psychoanalysis (ABPsa).

After nine years of visionary leadership, our esteemed colleague and outgoing Chair, President, and CEO, Stacey Keller, stepped down from her position at the conclusion of the Board’s June 2023 meeting.

Throughout her tenure, Stacey exemplified the highest standards of professionalism, dedication, and innovation. As a founding board member, she played an instrumental role in shaping the ABPsa into the distinguished organization it is today.

Under Stacey’s transformative leadership, the ABPsa has flourished. Her vision and strategic guidance have paved the way for numerous accomplishments, including the establishment of research-based new and revised core competencies for psychoanalytic practice, the strengthening and enhancing of the certification exam and process, and the creation of a professional credential, Fellow of the American Board of Psychoanalysis (FABP), which reinforces the value of board certification and supports the field of psychoanalysis.

Beyond her professional achievements, Stacey has consistently demonstrated a deep commitment to her psychoanalytic colleagues, and particularly to women in the field. Her mentorship and guidance serve as an example for all of us to follow. As a natural leader, Stacey’s dedication to fostering an inclusive and supportive environment created a nurturing atmosphere for professional growth and camaraderie.

On behalf of the entire ABPsa community, we extend our heartfelt appreciation to Stacey for her vision, steadfast leadership, and dedication. We express our deepest gratitude for her invaluable contributions to the ABPsa and the field of psychoanalysis. We honor her as a trailblazer, visionary, and advocate for excellence. Her legacy will continue to inspire and guide us as we build upon the solid foundation she has established.

As we embrace this change of leadership, we are confident in the strength of our organization and the collective wisdom and expertise of our Board. Together, we will navigate this new chapter, build upon our accomplishments, and continue to advance the field of psychoanalysis with passion, innovation, and unwavering commitment.

Stacey has agreed to remain on the Board as a non-Executive board member. She will be one of three founding board members continuing their service to the ABPsa. Refreshing the board and inviting new perspectives is another example of Stacey’s leadership.

Please join us in expressing our deepest appreciation and warmest wishes to Stacey Keller, MD, as she concludes her remarkable tenure as Founding Chair, President, and CEO of the ABPsa.

With gratitude and anticipation,

Carmela Perez, PhD, FABP
Incoming Chair
American Board of Psychoanalysis

Our recent consultations with a wide range of our North American psychoanalyst colleagues have continued to provide useful data on practice patterns and challenges faced by analysts today. Some of these have led us to review the gender requirements for cases submitted by applicants in both adult and child/adolescent analysis, considering:

Summarizing what we have heard and learned from analysts across the country of different theoretical backgrounds and from those with expertise in gender and diversity, we believe analysts need to explore the impact of gender and sexuality in every case, no two of which are alike, even if the patients are of a single gender. Thus, it is possible for analysts to demonstrate this competency while presenting patients of the same gender.

The result of this multi-year effort is reflected in new case eligibility requirement for gender, as follows:

We strongly recommend that applicants present patients of different genders to provide the best circumstances for evaluation of the Gender and Sexuality Competency.

This replaces the previous “requirement of patients of different genders” for both adult and child/adolescent applications, as well as the 2022 modification of child/adolescent case requirements regarding gender.

This updated version will assist applicants in demonstrating their competency and more accurately reflects the practice of psychoanalysis today.

The June 2023 examination was held remote with 3 applicants in Adult Psychoanalysis of which 3 passed for a 100% pass rate and 1 applicant for Child & Adolescent who passed for a 100% pass rate.

We would like to congratulate the following individuals for passing the certification examination and becoming a Fellow of the American Board of Psychoanalysis.

Adult Certification

• Rachel Louden, LCSW - Denver Institute for Psychoanalysis

• Sangeeta Patel, MD - Denver Institute for Psychoanalysis

• Christopher Walling, PsyD - New Center for Psychoanalysis
  

Child & Adolescence Certification

• Frances Arnold, PhD – Boston Psychoanalytic Society & Institute

The January 2023 examination was held remote with 6 applicants in Adult Psychoanalysis of which 6 passed for a 100% pass rate and 1 applicant for Child & Adolescent who passed for a 100% pass rate.

We would like to congratulate the following individuals for passing the certification examination and becoming a Fellow of the American Board of Psychoanalysis.

Adult Certification

• Dhipthi Brundage, MD - Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas
• Cora Johnson, MD - Psychoanalytic Association of New York
• Brian Ngo-Smith, LCSW, BCD-P - Denver Institute for Psychoanalysis
• Susan Resek, LCSW - Psychoanalytic Association of New York
• Aneil M. Shirke, PhD, MD – Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research & Psychoanalytic Association of New York
• Jeffrey Tuttle, MD - Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute

Child & Adolescence Certification

• Jacqueline Langley, PhD - Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute

Review of the robust content generated during the diverse set of focus groups is underway—thanks to you! Our teams working on the Competencies Initiative have been making exciting progress since February 2022. The Focus Group Teams have conducted 13 two-hour focus groups with analysts across the country, each group coming from different training, theoretical, or demographic backgrounds and expertise. We appreciative the enthusiastic and enriching input from those of you who participated in this phase of the research.  

The next step is analyzing this extensive volume of data capturing the insights of many of you and your colleagues and organizing it into a core competency list. We’ve been grateful for the generosity of our donors, which has enabled us to have a skilled Research Team to analyze the data so that we may develop a cohesive and useful list of psychoanalytic core competencies.

In addition to the valuable information contributing to the development of the core competency list, the focus groups have helped to identify other related areas that we are able to address now. For example, to see how the Eligibility case requirements for child analysts have been modified, please see the <link to Website or announcement New Case Requirements>. Our Research Committee is also considering issues of frequency and remote treatment.  

We look forward to sharing our findings with you.  

ABPSa is conducting research into psychoanalytic competencies in order to update existing standards to accurately reflect current clinical practice. As part of this research, teams of analysts from ABPsa have met with a broad range of analysts from across the country to collect data about analytic competencies. While this research is ongoing, in some instances we have already responded to this valuable input from analyst colleagues. We are pleased to announce one outcome of this process. The Board of Directors, as of 11/13/22, has modified the case requirements for child and adolescent analysts seeking certification, as follows:

New Case Requirements for Child and Adolescent certification applicants:

Applicants are expected to submit three written reports - two of full length, and one brief report of five pages - of child and adolescent cases from different developmental phases, including adolescence. One case must include the use of play as a treatment modality.

ABPsa historically has required applicants for certification as child and adolescent analysts to present analytic cases of more than one gender. The gender diversity requirement for child and adolescent cases now may be satisfied in one of two ways:

The three reports include patients of different genders; or,

If all of an applicant’s three analytic cases are of the same gender, an applicant shall submit an additional case report of 2 to 5 pages, as the applicant deems sufficient, describing the applicant’s clinical work (psychoanalysis or psychotherapy) with a child or adolescent of a different gender. The case report should describe the nature of this clinical work to demonstrate the applicant’s sensitivities, knowledge, experience and ability to think analytically and work effectively with children or adolescents of different genders. Process notes are not required for this 4th case report.

In the interview, the applicant should be prepared to discuss this clinical work. This would be in addition to discussing the three analytic case reports. The oral examination time will be increased by 15 minutes to allow for this discussion.

Eligibility & How to Apply

The June 2022 examination was held remote with 4 applicants in Adult Psychoanalysis of which 4 passed for a 100% pass rate; there were no Child & Adolescent applicants.

We would like to congratulate the following individuals for passing the certification examination and becoming a Fellow of the American Board of Psychoanalysis.

Adult Certification

• Howard Bliwise, MD – New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute
• David Goldenberg, MD - New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute
• Natasha Lifton, Ph.D. – Boston Psychoanalytic Society & Institute
• Hannah Wallerstein, Ph.D. - The Austen Riggs Center

(Institute listed is graduated from)

Now in Phase 2, the Competencies Initiative is in full swing. Thanks to our generous donors, eight groups have been held, and six more are scheduled for the the next few months.

As we review our competencies to ensure that they are still relevant and reflect psychoanalysis today, we are using a focus group research model that helps us look at how analysts of ‘different stripes’ look at what makes for competent analytic work. To do this we are holding an extensive series of small group zoom meetings with analysts from various backgrounds where we discuss the competencies so that we can ensure that we have a wide range of perspectives reflective of the broader community of psychoanalysts.

In each group meeting, we ask analysts from one of the areas, such as one theoretical orientation, a standard set of questions designed to elicit information about what analyst consider to be essential for competent psychoanalytic work. To give you some examples, in our theoretical orientation focus groups, we have a group made up of only Kleinian analysts, one with relational analysts, and another with expertise in Bion. We are talking to groups of child analysts, early career analysts and analysts who’ve worked as certification examiners. Other groups have expertise in particular areas of diversity and inclusion, such as gender/sexuality or race and ethnicity. We have groups from various training backgrounds both inside and outside of APsaA, including NYU Post-Doc and the IIPT institute. Finally, these groups are made up of analysts who are certified and uncertified. So far, the experience has been a rich and stimulating one for both the research teams and the participants. We are looking forward to seeing what emerges from these groups – similarities, differences, and essentials from everyone’s perspective.

The February 2022 examination was held remote with 4 applicants in Adult Psychoanalysis of which 3 passed for a 75% pass rate, and 1 applicant for Child & Adolescent Psychoanalysis who passed for a 100% pass rate.

We would like to congratulate the following individuals for passing the certification examination and becoming a Fellow of the American Board of Psychoanalysis.

Adult Certification

• Lucinda Di Domenico, MD - Boston Psychoanalytic Society & Institute
• Brian Tobin, MD – Western New England 
• Erica Weiss, MD – Western New England

Child & Adolescence Certification

• Matthew Shaw, MD – Western New England

As we head into another winter of the pandemic, with many of us still doing some of our work remotely, we have been finding ways to accommodate to this “new normal” state of practice. Thanks to your support and a virtual HIPAA compliant platform, the ABPsa has been able to continue to offer the opportunity to sit for board certification in psychoanalysis. We are pleased to report that our applicants have found the virtual process to be both collegial and convenient.

Our Research Continues

The Competencies Initiative, our comprehensive review of the core competencies central to the board certification examination, continues. Using initial informal group feedback and results from an online interactive platform, we developed a small group process to collect information about psychoanalytic competencies from a broad and diverse sample of analysts representing psychoanalytic practice in our country.

The Next Set of Focus Groups

We’re still meeting with these small research groups, or “focus groups”—making certain that we have included the many perspectives that constitute today’s psychoanalytic landscape. To help us understand similarities and differences in ideas about psychoanalytic competence, each group will be devoted to hearing from analysts who belong to a particular category or demographic.

Some groups are composed of analysts from specific theoretical orientations, others are analysts of similar age and experience levels, from candidates/early career analysts to experienced educators. We’ll be talking with group of analysts from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, genders, and sexual orientations. We’re meeting with analysts who oppose certification, or didn’t choose to become certified, those actively promoting certification for our field, as well as analysts who’ve served as certification examiners. We are reaching out to analysts with various professional degrees, from different training backgrounds, institutes, and belonging to multiple national analytic organizations.

We’re Hoping to Hear from You!

We plan to use the intimate nature of the small group meetings to understand how those in our field define what is essential for a competent psychoanalyst. With this information we will review and refine our current Core Competencies list. Results from prior phases of the project suggest promising ideas for areas that may need to be fine-tuned, trimmed, or expanded. We hope you’ll be willing to participate and share your thoughts with our researchers, either in these focus groups, or in later phases of the project.