Extension Division Program: Year 1
Audrey Dunn, LCSW and Danny Yu, LCSW, Co-Chairs
Foundations of Psychodynamic Clinical Work in Community Mental Health Settings
This 18-week course is designed for early career and experienced clinicians practicing in diverse community mental health and social work settings who wish to strengthen their theoretical foundation. We welcome those who are interested in understanding how psychodynamic thinking can be applied in relevant ways to enhance effective and gratifying work. We also welcome those who are willing to question established notions of psychodynamic thinking so that we become more relevant to the communities we serve.
As clinicians in public and community settings, we often feel devalued and challenged by complicated circumstances in our clients’ lives and limited resources to help them. Many of our agencies cannot offer the space to think together, to support and understand our work experiences.
We offer this course as a space to think together about the clients and systems with which we work, and how a psychodynamic approach can be utilized in any public or community mental health setting. We will reconsider our ideas about our clients, what helps, and our expectations for helping. Finally, we will look at the places and culture in which we work and how the psychological milieu affects our sense of value and purpose as clinicians and providers of mental health services.
The Enrico Jones Fund for Equality and Excellence is offering a tuition credit for this program. It is available to licensed therapists and people working toward licensure who self-identify as a Person of Color for CCSW participants, at $300 per applicant. Visit the Enrico Jones Fund for Equality and Excellence webpage for details.
| Dates: | Thursdays, January 9, 2025 — May 8, 2025 |
| Time: | 07:00pm – 08:30pm |
| Sessions: | 18 sessions |
| Location: | Online via ZOOM |
| Program Fee: | $ 370.00 General Admission *If you are a university student, in a pre-licensure clinical training program, or in a residency program, Readers are not included in the program fee. For details, please refer to the Readers Fee information below. |
| CME/CE: | This program has been approved for a maximum of 25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ for an additional fee. The CME/CE credits fee is $10 per credit for SFCP members or $15 per credit for non-SFCP members. The cost of CME/CE credits is separate from the tuition fee and billed individually upon the request for credits at the end of the program. |
| Maximum Class Size: | 12 to 14 participants |
Clinical Sensibility
In this first seminar, we set the tone by sharing together the similarities and differences in experience as social workers. We will define and explore how a psychodynamic way of thinking can be applied, relevant, and helpful to any social work role – as clinician, case manager, supervisor, etc. We will critically examine what we mean by applied psychodynamic thinking. We intend to stimulate the social worker’s thinking and interest about one’s work and the setting in which one provides services.
Genevieve Vidal, LCSW
Thursdays, January 9, 16, 23, 2025
Who Is This Client? Diagnosis and Case Formulation
This seminar will focus on developing a multidimensional understanding of the unique aspects of each client. Formulation integrates the complex interplay of developmental history, trauma, conflict and the emergence of a unique personality. We will explore how a mind develops both as an adaptation to, and the expression of troubles in, a particular life lived. Discussion will attend to ways case formulation guides the services provided and helps shape goals of the work.
Sebastian Melo, LCSW
Thursdays, January 30; February 6, 13, 20, 27, 2025
What Helps?
This seminar will introduce and illustrate different modes of working with clients, each of which can be of help at the right moment. We will discuss the powerful urge to act on behalf of one’s client, and the pitfalls of attending primarily to behaviorally oriented interventions without keeping the whole person in mind. We will explore the importance of listening and the subtle aspects of the social worker-client relationship that foster psychological growth.
Julia St. George, LCSW
Thursdays, March 6, 13, 20, 27; April 3, 2025
The clients are the least of my problems:
Navigating the anxieties and defenses of public systems in community mental health work
Finally, we will engage in a detailed assessment of the agency settings in which we work and explore how the setting powerfully affects the work we do within it. Utilizing a structured outline and guided discussion, we will look at the agency culture and our relationship to it. We will consider how our own expectations and frustrations interact with the demands of the agency. By looking closely at our own agencies, we will develop alternative ways to relate to this under-examined yet highly complex relationship in our working lives.
Beth Kita, LCSW, PhD
Thursdays, April 10, 17, 24; May 1, 8, 2025
Wrap Up Meeting
A final meeting may be held on May 15th for a group gathering and to further rehash the course, and to discuss Year Two and options for further involvement.
Readers Fee
Charges for reading material required for the seminars are not included in tuition. Your readers will be prepared by CopyCentral, and costs are based upon copyright laws and charge based on the content of the readers. The SFCP Office will inform you when your readers are available to be purchased from CopyCentral’s website. Please note that CopyCentral may take 2 weeks to print and mail the readers to you, so we recommend you to purchase them as soon as they become available.
Refund Policy
- There will be a full refund if one requests to drop the program on or before December 8, 2024.
- There will be a 10% cancellation fee if one requests to drop the program on or after December 9, 2024.
- There will be no refund of classes in progress, and SFCP will provide a pro-rated refund of tuition for classes not yet begun.
CE Attendance Policy
Please see individual course listings for the number of CE credits awarded, if applicable. Courses offering CE credit meet the requirements for CE credit for Psychologists, LCSWs, LPCCs, LEPs, and MFTs.
APA requires psychologists and other mental health professionals participating in all programs, including in long-term programs (lecture series) to demonstrate 100% attendance in order to be eligible to obtain CE credit. All participants must sign in at the beginning of each class or program and sign out at the end of the class or program. If participants miss a class in a seminar that is part of a long term program, they may be eligible to do “make-up” work for the missed class. Participants can meet with the class via Zoom or another “face to face” platform, if they are unable to attend in person. Alternatively, they can arrange to meet with the instructor, in person, to make-up the instructional time or can engage with the instructor via the “face to face” technologies, i.e. Face-time, Duo, Zoom, or others. This work must be completed within two weeks of the end of a seminar. Credit for the seminar will be awarded once the instructor notifies the SFCP office the time has been made up and the participant completes a course evaluation. No variable credit will be awarded for partial attendance.
Accreditation Statement for CME/CE Sponsorship and Disclosure Statement
Educational Objectives:
Upon completion of this activity, the learners will be able to:
- describe the primary elements of a psychoanalytic model of clinical assessment, diagnosis, and treatment.
- examine their conscious and unconscious responses to clients, supervisors, work setting, and critical incidents in the environment through a cultural, socio-political, and social justice lens.
- apply the elements of a psychoanalytic model to any specific clinical situation, including those on sociopolitical and organizational levels, and implement ways to improve clinical support within their agency structure.
ACCME Accreditation Statement
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
AMA Credit Designation Statement
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this live activity for a maximum of 25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Disclosure Statement
The APsA CE Committee has reviewed the materials for accredited continuing education and has determined that this activity is not related to the product line of ineligible companies and therefore, the activity meets the exception outlined in Standard 3: ACCME’s identification, mitigation and disclosure of relevant financial relationship. This activity does not have any known commercial support.
PSYCHOLOGISTS: The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Psychologists attending SFCP events approved for CE credits may report AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ toward their CE requirements. Psychologists self-certify the number of hours they have completed on their renewal form (whether online or paper).
LCSWs/MFTs: The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis is a continuing education provider that has been approved by the American Psychological Association, a California Board of Behavioral Sciences recognized approval agency
Psychologists, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists will be awarded AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ on an hour for hour basis; see the program description for the maximum of credits awarded for each program.
Commercial Support: None