Both the psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis certificate programs offer specialized training in the psychoanalytic treatment of children and adolescents.

Certificate Program in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: Child & Adolescent Course
The certificate program in psychoanalytic psychotherapy child & adolescent course presents theories of development as they apply to children from preschool through adolescence, covers technical issues relevant to psychoanalyic psychotherapy with children aged preschool through adolescence and their parents, and examines published reports of psychoanalytic psychotherapy with children from infancy through adolescence and their parents.

Basic Concepts of Theory includes the study of psychoanalytic developmental theories and how they continue to develop; the impact of over stimulation and/or trauma; the assessment of developmental lines and progress; the relationships between symptoms, treatment, and developmental progress; and the place of parents, teachers, and the social environment in normal and abnormal development.

Basic Concepts of Technique focuses on establishing a treatment alliance with parents, children, and adolescents; the use of play; the place of verbalization; issues of confidentiality; working with with transference and countertransference; encouraging the deepening of the treatment; managing enactments; and deciding when goals have been achieved.

Applicants should be licensed practitioners of psychotherapy. Prerequisite is the PPSC/NC's Introductory Course, or Thinking Psychoanalytically: The Basics, or their equivalent. A personal psychoanalytic psychotherapy or psychoanalysis is required (either concurrent or completed).

Certificate Program in Psychoanalysis: Child & Adolescence Psychoanalysis
The psychoanalysis certificate program provides a training curriculum for all candidates and graduates of an American Psychoanalytic Association affiliated adult analytic training program who wish to specialize in the psychoanalysis of children and adolescents. Prior training in a child or family centered mental health field is recommended but not required.

In addition to the required coursework on growth and development (or parallel didactic experience) included in the adult curriculum, the child analytic curriculum includes courses covering the psychopathology of children and adolescents, the theory and technique of child and adolescent analysis, infant observation, and the use of the diagnostic profile. Child analytic courses may be taken concurrently with adult courses. Continuous case conferences on child and adolescent analysis also are part of the curriculum.

Graduation from the child-analytic program requires the supervised analysis of three child cases. One of these cases may be substituted for one of the three required cases in the adult program. Thus, candidates in the child and adult combined program may have a total case requirement of five. Of these, one child case will be an adolescent and one will be in latency. It is desirable that the third case be in prelatency. Both genders should be included among both the adult and child cases. A minimum of 150 hours of supervision of child cases is required. The first supervised child case may begin after the first adult case is underway. At least one child or adolescent case should be supervised through the termination phase.

Candidates in the adult training program may attend child analytic classes and seminars and may analyze a child or adolescent under supervision. These candidates must be enrolled in the child program if their child adolescent cases are to be considered part of their training as child analysts.