ISTDP Core Training
Pre-Core Training
ISTDP Pre-Core Training is an opportunity to begin building a basic understanding of the principles of ISTDP and to find out if a 3-year Core Training program is something you are interested in pursuing. This 3-day training offers an immersion into the understanding and practice of ISTDP through session video analysis and skill-building exercises. In day one we explore the metapsychology of the unconscious, and how to use this understanding to develop an effective focus for the treatment. This provides a framework for understanding the cause of mental health problems and symptoms. In day 2 we build on this foundation, learning to recognize the three patterns of anxiety discharge in video examples. After gaining a better understanding of the causality of problems, how to create an effective therapeutic focus and addressing anxiety, the third day covers defense mechanisms and understanding how avoidance of painful material contributes to mental health symptoms and problems. The ISTDP Core Training is the training experience of a lifetime. Therapists gain a deeper understanding of their work with clients, become more effective, and learn about their own anxiety and defenses emerging with a new appreciation for and understanding of self. Attend this Pre-Core Training to get a true sense and experience of what the training has to offer.
Next Scheduled Date: 1/18/2025 - 1/20/2025
Core Training
ISTDP Core Training is a deeper dive into the complex components reviewed in Pre-Core Training and much more. It is a 3-year program that meets 4 times per year, for 3 days each time. Training will take place in person over a weekend Fri-Sun. Each 3-day meeting is a separate training module and includes a PowerPoint presentation and video examples as well as skill-building exercises. The program includes a lecture portion on the first part of the first day followed by skill-building exercises and each student receiving 80 minutes of supervision of video of their work. In this way, all students learn together and from one another. The last hour of each training day will be a group process hour in which we have an open discussion about anything coming up that therapists want to share or discuss in service of their growth as therapists.
Group culture insists upon safety in sharing and the recognition that we are all mistake-makers. It is our primary responsibility to engage in self-compassion and to help fellow group members if they are having difficulty with self-compassion. When we review video, we will not be critiquing the therapist’s intervention, but instead focusing on patient response to intervention and what supervision the patient response provides us such as “yes, keep going”, “now I am resisting closeness with you”, “I think I am here to please the therapist” or “I am too anxious right now“ for some examples. This will help us to more and more quickly and accurately recognize feelings, anxiety and defenses so that we can form the next hypothesis to test.
This training costs $2,400 per year. If this presents a hardship, please inquire for reduced-fee participation.