More than 95 participants attended the National Child and Adolescent Congress held in New York on January 13-14, 2014. This congress, sponsored by the American Psychoanalytic Association's Committee on Child and Adolescent Analysis (COCAA), was convened in response to concerns about the future of child and adolescent psychoanalytic training and practice in this country. A special feature of the congress was the inclusion of child training directors, child supervisors, child faculty, child candidates, adult faculty, and adult candidates from around the country. The impressive nationwide institute representation and the varied child experience encouraged a wide-ranging discussion.
In my opening remarks as chair of the Congress Organizing Committee, I noted that child and adolescent analysts face substantial challenges at every stage in their training and career development. The task of the congress was to further elucidate and define these challenges and begin to develop a plan for responding to them.
The topic of developing an identity as a child analyst was central to the general discussion that followed. In this regard, the group considered the sources of passion that child and adolescent analysts have for their work. Child analytic training provides multiple opportunities to work closely with children, adolescents and their parents in ways that meaningfully improve their lives. The nature of the analytic work and training with children and adolescents also enhances one's flexibility in clinical work and teaching. Openness and curiosity are important aspects of the analytic attitude. A thoughtful approach to training standards that balances flexibility with consistency is most likely to foster such an attitude in our candidates.
Other participants spoke to the anxieties associated with child analysis, including the anxiety generated by the low prestige accorded to professional work with children in our society; by the exposure to raw and intense affects; and by the stimulation of regressive experiences in the analyst and patient. In addition, there continue to be ways adult analysts marginalize child analysts and training programs.
Large group discussions of the issues of supervision of child and adolescent analysis and the potential value of an integrated child, adolescent and adult curriculum were important topics. Small group work sessions were held to enable more focused attention to several areas, including community outreach as a part of building a child practice, teaching and learning about parent work, the “widening scope” of child and adolescent analysis, distance learning, child psychoanalytic clinics in local institutes, and the child analyst's role in consultation, evaluation and case development. In an additional venue, participants met with others at similar points in their analytic careers (i.e., child and adult candidates; adult analysts and faculty; child faculty; child supervisors; and child and adolescent training program directors) to discuss areas of mutual concern.
In the final plenary session, there was general agreement the congress had played an important, vitalizing function by providing the opportunity for analysts from different backgrounds and locales to discuss their work in ways that led to a shared sense of intellectual stimulation and mutual support. This led to the recommendation for developing a listserv for child analysts to connect and continue to discuss issues of mutual interest about children and their treatment. Meetings to build on the momentum developed at the congress were also suggested. Others suggested developing work groups to focus intensively on specific topics (e.g., training standards, public relations, Internet presence) before reporting on that work at a future meeting.
A congress follow-up meeting has been scheduled in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association in Chicago on Tuesday, June 3, from 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Efforts supporting institutes in working together to develop shared educational efforts and clinical case seminars, finding additional avenues of financial support for child analytic training, helping child analysts learn about and build relationships with professionals in other modalities (e.g., occupational therapy, special education and psychopharmacology), and exploring ways of collaborating with other child analytic organizations, such as the Academy of Child Psychiatry, were all considered. One important proposal involved creating a National In-Residence Analytic Program in Child Psychoanalysis associated with a setting (the Lucy Daniels Center in North Carolina, for example) that would be uniquely situated to provide an intensive child analytic training program for early career child candidates.
A congress follow-up meeting has been scheduled in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association in Chicago on Tuesday, June 3, from 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The purpose of this meeting will be to further develop plans to build on the momentum from the January congress. This will be an open-ended meeting and all interested analysts and candidates are welcome.
Reprinted with permission from the Association for Child Psychoanalysis Newsletter
Charles E. Parks, Ph.D., is chair of APsaA's Committee on Child and Adolescent Analysis (COCAA). He serves as child and adolescent supervisor as well as adult training and supervising analyst at the Baltimore Washington Center for Psychoanalysis.