Our Training Programs are designed to support psychoanalytic work in a community setting

Supervision

Supervision is the heart of training at WILA. Trainees meet weekly with each assigned supervisor throughout the training year. The nature of the supervision depends ultimately on the Trainee/Supervisor dyad, but supervision at WILA is largely guided by psychoanalytic principles. This means that supervision focuses on understanding the inner world of the patient, the therapist, and the dynamics occurring between them. All WILA faculty members have completed postgraduate training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, most are also graduates of psychoanalytic institutes. All trainees are assigned a primary individual supervisor who is a member of WILA’s Core Faculty. Full-time trainees are assigned two additional individual supervisors while half-time trainees are assigned one additional individual supervisor drawn from our Teaching and Supervisory Faculty.

Didactic Seminars and Case Conferences

WILA is a training and educational institution first and foremost. Our primary mission is to train competent, caring, and socially conscious mental health clinicians. As such, didactic seminars and case conferences are a core component of the training experience with trainees participating in anywhere between 6 and 8 hours of coursework per week. Our training year is divided into four academic quarters: Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer. Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters follow a structured schedule with each course meeting once a week for two hours over a ten-week period. The summer quarter is somewhat looser in structure offering a diversity of courses for varying periods of time. All courses are held Mondays from 10am-2:50pm and Tuesdays between 10am-4:50pm (course schedules vary so trainees must be available during these times throughout the year). Our curriculum is formulated developmentally into first year and second year offerings. First year courses tend to be more general focusing on technique and practice while second year courses move into specific theorists and subtopics. Trainees wishing to stay a third year work with the Director and Clinical Director to individually design a course schedule to address continued training needs and desires.

Clinical Work

All trainees conduct psychotherapy with patients drawn from WILA’s Hedda Bolgar Psychotherapy Clinic. The Clinic is one of the few settings in Los Angeles offering affordable open-ended psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy. Our patients reflect the diversity of Los Angeles in terms of age (18+), culture, and presenting problems. Trainees receive training and supervision on the conduct of initial telephone screenings as well as assessments using clinical interviewing methodologies. Full-time trainees carry a caseload of 18-20 hours of psychotherapy per week while half-time trainees carry a caseload of 10-12 hours of psychotherapy per week. There are no pre-determined limits put on a patient’s length of treatment. Additionally, many patients are seen intensively on a two or three session per week basis offering a deepening experience for both patient and trainee.