Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Registrar Program and Supervision

The focus of this INSIGHT Psychodynamic Psychology Registrar Program is to support registrars advancing their clinical competencies through facilitating learning about unconscious and conscious processes. These processes, in the context of the patient’s milieu, may be associated with the patient's symptomatology and psychological organization. An understanding of the impact of these factors on the therapy process will be highlighted throughout the program.

INSIGHT is a unique registrar program preparing registrars to further their development as clinical or counselling psychologists and psychodynamic-informed psychotherapists.  

By the end of the program, registrars should be able to work with patients, going beyond a focus on symptoms, to enhance the patient’s self-understanding and the dynamics underpinning their relationships. They will assist the patient to gain a greater sense of agency through building a more cohesive sense of self and flexibility in their psychological functioning.

The program draws upon contemporary psychodynamic theory and practice and current research to provide for informed evidence-based practice. The theory and practice underpinning the supervision program emphasises collaborative learning in exploring early experience, the role of early adversity, and of course, the unconscious mind, in understanding people with a range of personal, relationship, and identity issues. 

The program draws upon the expertise of experienced clinicians and supervisors to provide newly qualified psychologists (Registrars) with opportunities to advance their knowledge and skills in working from a relational perspective.

 The program, drawing upon contemporary models of psychodynamic psychotherapy, provides a cohesive and integrated approach to learning, comprises individual supervision, a structured range of PD seminars, and potential for group supervision. 

In comparison to supervisory programs focussing on symptom reduction, registrars will develop their capacity to engage in a psychodynamic approach that fosters self-understanding as a mechanism of change.

Registrars will gain the capacity to help individuals make sense of their presenting problems by understanding how the patient’s history repeats itself in the present through the activation of implicit memories and unconscious relational processes.

Registrars will develop competencies around psychodynamic formulation and treatment planning.

The relationship between therapist and patient, and the ways in which this relationship contributes to change will be prioritised.

Supervisees will be introduced to interpersonal neurobiology research informing relational psychodynamic theory and practice. They will thus gain an understanding of the ways in which attachment theory is utilised in contemporary practice. 

The supervisory relationship will be collaborative in nature, making use of the intersubjectivity of supervisor and supervisee to provide a template for learning relational psychodynamic therapy skills. 

The program provides for a Primary Supervisor, as well as access to a range of secondary supervisors who may provide support in addressing specific learning-related issues.

The program will suit registrars seeking to advance their knowledge and training in relational psychodynamic principles and practice. The role of the person of the therapist, the quality of the therapeutic relationship and theory leading to self-understanding will be emphasised.