Child, Adolescent, Parent Psychotherapy Training
Improve clinical skills working with children and families
Join a supportive professional community
The Child, Adolescent, Parent Psychotherapy (CAPP) Training Program offers two years of academic coursework and supervised clinical experience in working with children, adolescents, and parents. The program is guided by a psychoanalytically informed approach to psychotherapy and the belief that understanding the indelible contributions of parents to their children’s development requires consideration of family histories, family culture, and social forces. The curriculum combines essential readings with carefully curated clinical case materials to provide a rich learning experience.
The program equips trainees with the skills and knowledge necessary for individual psychotherapy with children and adolescents, with a focus on understanding each child’s temperament, unique strengths, and challenges. The program emphasizes collaboration with other professionals, such as medical doctors, neuropsychologists, and teachers. Central to the treatment approach is the inclusion of parents in the therapeutic process – both individually and at times with their children – with the aim of fostering greater awareness and empathy towards their child’s inner experiences. Additionally, the program offers practical guidance on strengthening family relationships and addressing common family issues, providing candidates with valuable tools for clinical practice.
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The CAPP Training Program is a two-year course of study exploring the clinical and theoretical aspects of the treatment of children, adolescents, and their families. There is some ability to self-pace the requirements related to the clinical component.
Program Directors
Jane Bloomgarden, PhD and Irene Studwell, LCSW
Admission
Admission is by application and interviews, on a rolling basis. Applicants must be licensed in NY or CT and have current professional liability insurance.
Applicants must be from one of the following professions:
Social Work: MSW or PhD in Social Work from an accredited university. State license is required.
Psychology: PhD or PsyD in psychology from an accredited university. State license is required to be procured by end of the two years.
Nurse Practitioner: NP from an accredited university. State license is required.
Psychiatry: MD from an accredited medical school and psychiatric residency. State license is required.
Other licensed MENTAL HEALTH professionals from accredited programs: Marriage and Family Therapist, Mental Health Therapist, Creative Arts Therapist. State license is required.
Requirements
COURSE WORK: The two-year academic program is organized as a trimester system with one course per trimester. The course meets via Zoom for 11 weeks on Tuesday evenings from 7 to 8:30 pm. On the twelfth Tuesday of the Fall and Spring trimesters candidates attend a Town Meeting where WCSPP candidates, graduates, and faculty assemble for discussion. NYS Continuing Education credits are granted for coursework, provided attendance requirements are met.
SUPERVISION: Weekly supervision takes place in supervisors’ private offices or by Zoom. Candidates are required to complete 40 hours of supervision with two different supervisors for each of two WCSPP Psychotherapy Service cases.
CLINICAL REQUIREMENT: Candidates, who must have a license allowing them to practice independently, work with patients from WCSPP’s Psychotherapy Service. Each patient must be seen for a minimum of 32 hours. It is strongly recommended that each candidate gain experience working with one child and one adolescent case.
While serving as a training case, patient fees are paid to WCSPP. After training concludes, there is the possibility of converting the patient to the candidate’s private practice.
PERSONAL PSYCHOTHERAPY: Personal psychotherapy is strongly recommended.
Program Courses
Candidates take one course per trimester. Over two years, candidates take six courses:
In The Beginning: Fundamentals of Working With Children, Adolescents and Parents
Salient elements of analytically oriented psychotherapy with children and adolescents are introduced in this course that examines the phases of treatment starting with the initial consultation and evaluation, and ending with termination. It also addresses central elements of treatment including attachment, the role of plan and symbolic processes, intergenerational processes, and mutative factors. Practical, clinical and theoretical considerations are woven throughout class meetings.
Approaches to Child Psychotherapy
This course uses a case study approach to understand the process of change in child psychotherapy. Readings include published case reports by therapists of different theoretical orientations as a foundation to study the nature of effective clinical work with children.
Working with Parents
This class focuses on the many different ways clinicians can engage with parents to promote better understandings of themselves and their children. Through readings and clinical material, a myriad of treatment decisions are considered that go beyond individual psychotherapies and are based on each family’s different needs, dynamics, stages of life, and constellations also keeping in mind the social contexts in which they live.
Human Development
This course emphasizes the use of psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theories of development to study the impact of patients’ personal histories. It follows the shift from the internal, instinctual focus of early theory to attachment theory and relational theory. It explores the impact of developmental perspectives on psychotherapy with children, adolescents, and adults.
Developmental Issues and Psychological Problems in Childhood
This course explores the problems of childhood that typically lead to a consultation. It encourages thinking about diagnosis from a developmental point of view. It includes the vantage points of attachment theory, neuropsychology and affect regulation. Readings are both theoretical and clinical, promoting discussions about the complexities of childhood problems, common scenarios, and treatment strategies.
Approaches to Adolescent Psychotherapy
This course examines the application of psychodynamic thinking and theories to the treatment of adolescents and their parents and the ensuing challenges that arise in the course of treatment. Concepts from neuroscience are integrated into an understanding of individual development. Cultural issues that impact adolescent development are also examined within a focus on gender, sexuality, and ethnicity.
Fees
Tuition: $575 per course per trimester, to be paid prior to the start of each trimester, plus a $75 administrative fee per trimester
Individual supervision of training case: $50 per session, paid directly to the supervisor by the candidate
Financial assistance may be available on a need documented basis, and individual payment plans may be arranged with prior approval.