OPI Admissions Eligibility

Classroom Reading and Peer Learning

OPI analytic candidates learn within and across a cohort of peers. The academic year consists of three trimesters, meeting on Fridays from 12:15-5:15 pm from September to June. Our curriculum is organized across four years of coursework devoted to the following five areas:

  1. Theory
  2. Psychopathology
  3. Development
  4. Theory of Technique
  5. Continuous Case Conference

Didactics are designed to be an active, adult learning experience rooted in practical, accessible clinical experience. Candidates present their work in continuous case conferences, prioritizing collegial and respectful linkages to current course readings. After completion of the four-year didactic curriculum, candidates continue to attend continuous case conferences until graduation to share their developing work as an analyst-in-training with colleagues.

One's Own Psychoanalysis

The cornerstone of training is one's own psychoanalysis. OPI aims to allow each candidate to create an immersive experience that fosters an understanding of unconscious forces, emotional growth, and curiosity with their analyst. The experience of each candidate's analytic process provides an essential reference for integrating theory, method, and technique as a developing psychoanalyst. OPI deeply respects and prioritizes the confidentiality and added dynamics of each candidate's training analysis.

Please see our list of Training and Supervising Analysts. Candidates are encouraged to interview and consider different analysts for their training analyst.

OPI recommends that a training analysis, meeting four or five times per week, begin as soon as feasible after candidates are accepted into training. Training analyses are expected to have started before the candidate's first classes in the Fall of the first year of training.

Supervised Clinical Work

Clinical supervision provides a wonderful opportunity to deeply consider one's approach to developing as an analyst-in-training. Candidates are encouraged to have as many concurrent cases as possible and to work with three or more supervising analysts. 

Graduation requires supervised psychoanalytic treatment for at least three adults developing a clear psychoanalytic process. Training cases should provide a diverse and complementary opportunity to practice and learn psychoanalysis.