Not Just Anything Goes: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Competencies in Psychology Doctoral Programs

Although the field of professional psychology has moved to an increased emphasis on assessing trainees' clinical competencies (Roberts, Borden, Christiansen, & Lopez, 2005), the field of psychoanalysis has lagged behind. A few psychoanalytic competency models have begun to emerge (e.g., Barsness, 2017; Cabaniss, 2008; Lemma, Roth, & Pilling, 2008; Morris, Javier, & Herron, 2015; Tuckett, 2005); however, these models primarily focus on full analytic training in postdoctoral institutes, tend to not set benchmarks of what competencies may be expected at different developmental points across a training sequence, and are often described at a level of detail that renders the model impractical for regular use in evaluating student learning. As such, the current article addresses this important gap in the literature by specifying a competency model of psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy that may be used in conjunction with existing American Psychological Association competency benchmark documents (e.g., Fouad et al., 2009), and may serve as a tool for psychoanalytic psychotherapy training in doctoral programs in clinical and counseling psychology.