Object Relations Theory and Practice Program

Program Chair: Paul Koehler, M.S.W.
Dean of Students: Walton Ehrhardt, Ed.D.
Chair, Clinical Application Program: Sheila Hill, M.S.W.
Chair, Supervision Program: Sheila Hill, M.S.W.

Program Overview

The Two-Year Object Relations Theory and Practice Program provides a concentrated immersion in object relations theory and therapy in the Washington DC area. The program is designed in a modular, block training format to accommodate both local professionals and those who commute to Washington.

The two-year program consists of two summer institutes and eight three-day weekend conferences over the course of two years.

Summer Institutes

The summer institute takes place in July, On even years, the focus is on the integration of infant studies and object relations theory in application to clinical work and on the use of countertransference. On odd years, the program offers an immersion in Kleinian and British Independent group theoretical constructs and technical approaches to psychotherapy. We read Balint, Bion, Bowlby, Guntrip, Segal, Sutherland, Winnicott and more recent contributors, Bollas, Casement, Joseph, Mitchell, Ogden, Tustin, and Scharff and Scharff. The curriculum is taught by faculty who also lead small group discussion and by additional guest presenters. The summer institute is restricted to those who enroll for the two-year program.

Weekend Conferences

Each weekend features a guest contributor of international note whose work is at the leading edge of contemporary object relations theory. Advanced program participants are encouraged to prepare themselves as teachers by giving theoretical discussion papers and clinical presentations. At each weekend conference, the membership of the large group of the two-year program is enriched by the addition of weekend-only registrants who then participate in their own one-weekend-only small groups and plenary review meeting.

To see some of the Weekend Conferences and Summer Institutes that IPI has offered in the past, see Past Weekend Conferences and Summer Institutes.

Come study and learn from experience with internationally acclaimed object relations experts, IPI faculty, and other program participants. You’ll get lectures, videos, case presentations by faculty and participants, and a small Affective Learning Group that maintains the same membership for two years.

The Affective Model and the Small Group

The Affective Learning Model is an educational format derived from object relations principles. Faculty and students learn together from didactic material and from experience to integrate cognition and affect, theory and technique, intrapsychic and interpersonal dimensions.

For more information about the Affective Learning Model, you can download The Affective Model for Teaching and Learning Psychoanalytic Concepts, by Jill and David Scharff. (This download requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader. For the latest version of the Reader, visit this site.)

Small learning groups are an essential element of the Affective Learning Process. Participants meet in groups twice daily during Weekend Conferences and Summer Institutes in order to integrate intellectual and emotional reactions to the material, and to apply it to their clinical situations. The small affective group retains the same membership and leader over the two years of the program. This ensures a committed, intense integrative experience for which participants need to be physically and emotionally resilient.

The small group is the place where participants discuss, argue, wrestle with, experience personally, and take in the concepts that become a natural part of their way of working.

We ask for participants’ attendance at all meetings of their small groups, because group support and consistency are important in facilitating internalization of new concepts and methods. The learning may be stressful, and so we ask that participants have enough physical and emotional resilience to cope with the level of commitment and intensity of experience. The aim of the small group is to develop the therapist self as a flexible therapeutic instrument with new knowledge and enhanced skill that applies to the clinical situation.

Supervision and Personal Therapy

While supervision and therapy are not required for the two-year Object Relations Theory and Practice Program, supervision is recommended and available individually or in groups in cities with IPI faculty or anywhere by telephone or videolink. Participants often undertake personal therapy by choice. Supervision and therapy are required for the Clinical Application Program, which many students elect to add to the two-year Object Relations Theory and Practice Program.

Selection of Applicants

Participants are mental health professionals or students who are accepted on the basis of interest in object relations theory and commitment to group learning. We recruit a diverse body of participants at various levels of experience and from all mental health disciplines. Participants who also wish to enroll in the Clinical Application Program must be licensed or license-eligible.

Certification

The Theory and Practice Certificate is earned upon completion of the national two-year core program in Object Relations Theory and practice (approximately 200 credit hours).

Fees

(Summer institute and 4 weekend conferences annually beginning July, 2007) Annual tuition for 2006-2007 is $4,390, and includes full IPI Membership.

Application

Applicants should submit a current C.V., a completed application form, and an application fee of $100 for the Object Relations Theory and Practice Program. IPI does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, nationality, religion, age, gender, sexual preference or physical handicap. See General Information for an application form and complete details about the application process.