The Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy of the Austen Riggs Center has launched a new nine-month, fully online IOP psychodynamic psychotherapy training certificate program for licensed, doctoral-level mental health professionals beginning in March of 2025.  

Participants in the certificate program will receive stipend of $3,900 and can expect to:  

• Increase their professional and clinical expertise in helping patients negotiate developmental tasks of young adulthood  
• Develop the ability to make psychodynamic formulations and to use these formulations to frame the task of intensive short-term therapy  
• Experience and learn the benefits of working within a psychodynamic team approach 

The program features five hours a week of psychotherapy training and didactics related to treating a young adult population using a developmental and psychodynamic team approach. Participants carry a caseload of one patient enrolled in the Online IOP whom they see twice weekly for a minimum of six weeks (and up to several months).  

Participants receive weekly individual supervision from a doctoral-level licensed staff clinician on the Online IOP team, join one 50-minute team meeting per week, and attend a weekly course seminar taught by Austen Riggs Center staff. In addition, participants present their work with their patients at case conferences, utilizing supervision support to formulate the case and present the therapy work.  

Training Seminars will cover the following:

• Key concepts in Psychodynamic Theory
• Beginning treatment: Boundaries, role, and the frame 
• Psychoanalytic diagnosis: How development interacts with character structure, conflicts, and defenses
• Technique + supporting research 
• Psychodynamic formulation and therapeutic action 
• Psychodynamic team approach to integrated treatment  

All meetings are conducted over Zoom. Seminars take place on Monday from 5:30-6:30 p.m. (Eastern). Team meetings are on Wednesdays at 11:30 a.m. and patients are seen on Tuesdays and Fridays at a mutually workable time. Supervision times are determined by the participant and their supervisor.   

Participants may elect to attend group supervision on Fridays at 9:30 a.m. and have access to the Austen Riggs Center online library. Participants are eligible to receive continuing education credits from the seminars and a program certificate.

Participant applicant requirements:  

• Must be a doctoral-level clinician licensed in Massachusetts  
• Must have malpractice insurance  
• Must have an interest in psychodynamic psychotherapy, young adult populations, and a team approach to treatment 

To apply please submit the following:

• Completed online application
• Letter of interest
• Curriculum vitae
• Three references
• Graduate Transcripts
• Copy of professional license
• Copy of malpractice insurance