The ABPsa is celebrating its 5th anniversary in June 2019! Since becoming a national independent Certification Board in 2014, we have certified over 575 psychoanalysts in Adult and Child & Adolescent psychoanalysis through grandparenting and examinations. Grandparented analysts previously certified by APsaA, ABPP, and BCD-P, as well as others who met our expanded criteria make up a strong base of ABPsa Fellows. Twice yearly, we’ve enjoyed a hearty group of applicants including both new graduates and seasoned analysts esteemed in their local institutes who were certified for the first time by the ABPsa.

After successfully establishing a strong and sustainable organization, with financial stability and clear policies and procedures, we are now excited to turn our energy and resources to an area especially vital to the strength of the profession of psychoanalysis. Through our Competencies Initiative we'll ensure that we continue to offer you ‘Standards you can trust.’

Our Competencies Initiative is a comprehensive review of these standards: the core competencies and our methods of assessing them. Following best practices, as defined by the agencies that accredit certification boards, we have initiated a thorough review of our current competencies to ensure they remain relevant and applicable to psychoanalysis today. Our researchers have begun collecting information from key members of the profession – analyst educators, supervisors, candidates, curriculum chairs, and more – information that will be used to inform and revise our examination as needed, to ensure the relevance and clarity of the competencies and the consistency and transparency of the examination processes.

In coordination with the Competencies Initiative, we are anticipating the launch of a Subject Matter Experts group, which will be made up of a diverse group of recognized national experts in psychoanalysis today. These SMEs from different theoretical backgrounds will be chosen for their expertise in particular aspects of psychoanalytic theory, technique, research, and clinical work.

Over the past five years, you have laid the groundwork for this exciting new project. Thank you for the many ways in which you have contributed to our success.

The February 2019 examination was held in New York, NY with 8 applicants in Adult or PreGrad part 2 Psychoanalysis of which 7 passed for a 87.5% pass rate, and 1 applicant in Child Psychoanalysis of which 1 passed for a 100% pass rate.

We would like to congratulate the following individuals for passing the certification examination and becoming a Fellow of the American Board of Psychoanalysis.

Adult Certification

• Susan Chance, PhD - Emory
  
• Sara Gardiner, MD - Oregon
  
• Linda Gold, LMSW - Michigan
  
• Kelly Hill, MD – Cincinnati
  
• Jill Ragozzino McElligott, LCSW - Philadelphia
  
• Stefanie Speanburg, LCSW, PhD - Emory
  

Child & Adolescent Certification

• Anthony Bram, PhD – Boston

The American Board of Psychoanalysis is pleased to welcome Dr. Leslie Jordan, who will assume the role of Chair of the Research and Development Committee in February 2019. Dr. Jordan is a psychoanalyst and educator at the Denver Institute who has an abiding interest in research.  She was a research fellow at the IPA Research Training Program in London taught by analyst-researchers from around the world. She has been involved in the evaluation of learning for many years (see Jordan, L & Emde, R (2006) "How do we Evaluate Learning from the Curriculum?" JAPA 54:231-249). She is currently Chair of the Research Committee at the Denver Institute and co-directs the Colloquium Project for evaluation of learning.

The ABPsa wishes to express its deep appreciation to Dr. Sydney Anderson for her valuable contribution as Chair of RDC since 2015.

The June 2018 examination was held in Chicago, IL with 7 applicants in Adult Psychoanalysis of which 5 passed for a 71% pass rate.

We would like to congratulate the following individuals for passing the certification examination and becoming a Fellow of the American Board of Psychoanalysis.

Adult Certification

• Tiziano Colibazzi, MD - Columbia
  
• Robin Gomolin, PsyD – Pine
  
• Giovanni Minonne, Ph.D. - Michigan
  
• Maureen Pendras, MSW - Seattle
  
• Alison Philips, MD - Boston

The February 2019 certification examination will take place at the New York Hilton, in New York City. Examination dates are Saturday February 2nd - Monday February 4th.

To be eligible to sit for the ABPsa Certification Exam an applicant must:

• be a graduate (or candidate, see pre-grad information) from an Institute that is either approved or accredited by the IPA, APsaA or ACPE
  
• have a current license to practice or if in a state that does not require licensure to provide additional information
  
• submit cases and be prepared to discuss at the examination, cases that meet the following criteria: 
• • patients of different genders
  • patients seen at a frequency of three to five times a week
  • at least one case must be terminated and the other must be at least in the middle phase of analysis
• be able and prepared to discuss a third patient
  
• comply with ethical standards.
  

In addition to the eligibility items above, for Child & Adolescent Certification, the applicant must submit a:

• case of a child in the latency phase
  
• case of an adolescent
  
• brief child report on a third child/adolescent patient (five pages)
  

The Handbook for Applicants , Handbook for Pre-Grad Applicants, and more information can be found on our website.

The February 2018 examination was held in New York City with 11 applicants in Adult Psychoanalysis of which 5 passed for a 45% pass rate, and 1 applicant for Child & Adolescent Psychoanalysis that passed for a 100% pass rate.  

We would like to congratulate the following individuals for passing the certification examination and becoming a Fellow of the American Board of Psychoanalysis.

Adult Certification

• Kim Boyd, MD – Boston
  
• Carol Coutu, PhD - Boston
  
• Bruce Radisch, MD – Emory
  
• Victoria Todd, MSSA - Cleveland
  
• Lyn Yonack, MSW - Berkshire

Child & Adolescent Certification

• Kim Boyd, MD - Boston
  

The ABPsa Board recently approved a Fellow Emeritus status. This new registration category was created in response to Fellows’ desires to maintain their ABPsa registry listing upon retirement and to support the value of standards. Fellow Emeritus status is available to ABPsa Fellows who, regardless of whether they remain licensed in their mental health discipline, have and remain completely retired from the practice of psychoanalysis, as well as any other psychotherapeutic activity, with patients. Their licenses and other professional affiliations must be in good standing upon retirement and remain so.  The American Board of Psychoanalysis does not certify Fellow Emeritus in the active practice of psychoanalysis.

Eligible fellows can apply for the Fellow Emeritus status by completing an application and submitting a one-time fee.  Further details and the Fellow Emeritus application is available on our website www.abpsa.org.

We migrated over to a new website platform that should make navigating our site and renewing your certification even easier!

Also note, that our phone number has changed to (303) 676-8008.

The Board of Directors approved an increase of fees for 2017-2018.

• Renewal Fee will be $150
• Application Fee is $200
• Examination Fees
• • Adult Examination $750
  • Child & Adolescent Examination $750
  • Pre-Grad I Examination $250
  • Pre-Grad II Examination $750
  • Continued examination fee is 2/3 of the full examination fee (example, in 2017-2018 the fee to continue in Adult would be $500)

These fees go into effect immediately for the 2017-2018 renewals, applications, and examinations.