Jungian Analytic Training with BJAA

Theory – The training in Jungian analysis, based on the work of Jung, and the post-Jungians and its integration with psychoanalytic ideas, provides a rich and challenging theoretical and clinical programme in which to develop the skills necessary to become a Jungian analyst.

Personal analysis – In order to be able to work in depth with the emotional life of individuals seeking analysis, it is essential that trainees undergo their own depth analysis. Engaging with the unconscious enables trainees to develop the capacity to better understand and reflect on their own states of mind, their shadow aspects, the tension of opposites within and to deepen their own personal development. This depth analysis lies at the heart of the training. It necessarily requires a commitment of time and a readiness for deep thoughtfulness.

Seeing training patients – Training in Jungian analysis involves seeing patients three times a week, using either the couch or the chair. This frequency, together with the analytic setting, allows for a therapeutic relationship of substance and complexity to develop, in which both analyst and patient are deeply participating.

Psychiatric Placement  –  Engagement with the experiences of psychiatric patients and the treatments offered in UK psychiatric services is an essential part of the training. For applicants who do not have prior psychiatric experience a six-month placement will need to be undertaken in the first year of training.

Infant Observation – This can be undertaken before or during the training.Ideally the two-year Infant Observation will have commenced before the start of the training. An Infant Observation must have been started for at least one year before the trainee is ready to work with training patients in the second year.

Seminars take place on Saturdays and Tuesday evenings, with four additional Saturday mornings per year for special interest workshops. The length of training varies: four years would be the minimum.

The Jungian Analytic Training requires:

• Personal analysis with a BJAA approved Training Analyst, at a frequency of at least three times a week until qualified.
• Attending a four-year programme of theoretical seminars covering Jungian, post-Jungian, psychoanalytic and contemporary analytic theory delivered on 9 Saturdays per year. These are taken alongside trainees from the Jungian psychotherapy training as well as IPCAPA trainees on the Jungian pathway.
• Attending weekly clinical seminars led by a senior BJAA member.
• Attending reflective group meetings with trainees from all adult and IPCAPA training routes at the end of each of the 9 training Saturdays to reflect upon their experience of the day. These meetings are facilitated by a group analyst.
• Attending three extra Saturday morning workshops on special interest topics open to trainees from other Jungian analytic trainings. Additionally, every year one Creative Workshop is provided in-house, usually on one of the early July Saturdays (e.g. sandplay work, working with sound/music in the consulting room, etc.).
• Jungian analytic work with two individuals seen 3 x weekly until qualification, for which weekly supervision is a requirement.
• Attending meetings and being in regular contact with the trainee’s Training Tutor.
• Completing a two-year infant observation course that focuses on the development of the emerging self from birth until the child’s second birthday (unless this has already been completed beforehand and meets BJAA requirements). This involves observing a baby within the family home for an hour every week over two years. Detailed written observations are then presented for discussion in weekly seminars run by a BJAA-approved specialist in Infant Observation. These seminars take place throughout the academic year and the day and time of the seminars will be determined by which group the trainee joins.

Observing a baby intensively provides trainees with the first analytical experience of their training: It brings the observer into contact with early, primitive states and raw emotions, requiring the use of one’s self and feelings in understanding the complexities and nuances of what seems to be occurring – within the baby, in the baby’s relationships and in the intimate dynamic between the observer and the observed. At the end of the two-year observation, a final paper of 7,000 words is written.

A New Approach to Theory

In 2022/3 the British Jungian Analytical Association launched a new approach to teaching theory that encourages the understanding and constructive critique of the theory and practice of analytical psychology and psychoanalysis as first developed in the early part of the twentieth century, and theory as it continues to evolve and inform contemporary clinical practice. This includes acknowledging and engaging with the colonial, heteronormative and gender biased roots of traditional psychoanalytic and Jungian analytic thinking.

This new approach is consistent with the well-established developmental Jungian approach in the BJAA training that puts Jung’s ideas at the heart of theoretical teaching while also drawing on psychoanalytic traditions to inform theory and practice.

The four-year programme is delivered on nine Saturdays each year. A Platform Year is run every year for those beginning their training. This begins with introductory seminars giving historical, philosophical, political and social context to the emergence of psychoanalysis and analytical psychology, as well as a brief overview Jung’s model of the psyche. The remaining three years are a rolling programme.

The theory programme has been designed so that trainees can engage with core and primary texts as well as current debates and the application of theory to clinical practice. The seminars are also attended by trainees on the Jungian Psychotherapy training and trainees on the Jungian pathway of the BPF Child and Adolescent training.

The curriculum recently won the Diversity in Training Award 2023, awarded by the British Psychoanalytic Council.

Theory Seminar Programme for Analytic and Psychotherapy Trainings

The four-year programme is delivered on nine Saturdays each year. The Platform Year is run every year for those beginning their training. The remaining three years are a rolling programme.

Platform Year: What is ‘psyche’ in analytic thought: being a body and having a mind

This year begins with a broad introduction to Jung’s model of the psyche and a framework for criti- cal evaluation of key concepts. Psychoanalytic thinking is introduced by tracing the development of the psyche in psychoanalysis from individual intrapersonal models to inter-relational models and more recent ideas about what emerges when two minds meet. Jung’s concept of the objective psy- che in and beyond the individual, an understanding of the mind-brain system as a bridge between neural and psychological processes, and analytic theories on the body-mind relationship deepen understanding of the notion of ‘psyche’.

1.Analytical psychology in historical and philosophical context

2.Structure and dynamics of the psyche in Jung

3.Analytical psychology in social and political Contexts

4.Intrapsychic perspectives: Freud, Jung, Klein

5.Inter-personal perspectives: Bion, Winnicott, Jung

6.Relational and social-constructivist perspectives: Mitchell Benjamin, Stack Sullivan,

7.The objective psyche: archetypes and the collective unconscious

8.Neuroscience and attachment theory (inc. Solms, Panksepp, Damasio, Shore)

9.Body-mind relationship: the bodily mind and the body-mind conflict

What am I saying when I say ‘I am’: the creative self. 2023/4

This year we explore analytic theories about the development of the personality as this leads to the emergence and creation of a sense of self. We will see how Jung and major psychoanalytic thinkers account for this creative function of the psyche and how, in different ways, they all place at the centre of this process the capacity for symbolisation, fantasy, imagination, and the ability to man- age tension and tolerate uncertainty.

1.Development of the psyche in Freud and Klein

2.Development of the psyche in Winnicott

3.Beyond Object Relations: development of the psyche from Bion to Fordham

4.The relations between the I and the unconscious

5.The integration of the personality – shadow, anima/animus and the conjunction ofopposites

6.The transcendent function and symbolic capacity

7.Psychological types and their relation to individuation

8.Alchemical metaphor and its relation to individuation

9.Analytic field / analytic third

The mind that ails, the work that heals. 2024/5

In this year we focus on questions about how psychological difficulties have been thought about

analytically and how analytic practice has evolved in response to what patients present. We aim to

trace the development in analytic thinking about what goes wrong with the mind, looking at con- cepts such as psychosis, depression and anxiety – and the defences against them. The increasingly complex difficulties presenting for treatment have required corresponding developments of ana- lytic practice, which we shall trace. Recent advances in thinking about and treating complexity will be considered.

1.Analytic explanations of pathology and the capacity for change (inc. neurosis, psychosis, depression, narcissism, transgenerational influences)

2.Modes of defences and their manifestations in therapy (inc. core complex)

3.Complex patients: personality disorders, addiction, trauma, ‘perversion’

4.Jung as a clinician

5.Analytic attitude / analytic third/field

6.Analytic approaches: transference and counter-transference

7.Analytic approaches: active imagination / amplification (inc. fairy tales, myth)/ constructive method

8.Analytic approaches: dreams, interpretation, narrative linking

9.Analyst/patient relationship and analytic aims: affect regulation, capacity for symbolisation and mentalisation, a sense of self agency, construction of new sense of self

Illness as metaphor: the ‘I’ in the world. 2025/6

Our intention throughout the whole training is to acknowledge and address the fact that the con- sulting room is not a sealed space but is located within a social and political context. The aim of this year is to deepen an understanding of aspects of that context within which analytic work takes place. Through consideration of processes in the cultural collective – both conscious and uncon- scious – the aim is to gain further insight into how societal dynamics such as those relating to race, class, gender and sexuality impact on our work as clinicians.

1.Madness and civilization: The idea of health and illness in cultural context

2.Otherness and relations of power

3.Race

4.Gender, Sexuality and Relationship diversity, Queer perspectives

5.Religion and spirituality (inc. Jung’s Red Book)

6.Cultural unconscious/ cultural complex and its manifestations

7.Society and the individual (including groups)

8.Ethical implications of individuation: relations between the individual + the collec- tive

9.The linguistic turn in psychoanalysis OR psychoanalysis as a science

Each trainee’s development is supported and assessed by the Training and Post-Graduate Committee, as well as the trainees themselves. The membership competencies serve as guidelines for determining the qualities and capabilities expected in order to qualify.

The following written work is required. Writing workshops and seminars are available to support trainees where helpful.

• Essay assignment – At the end of year one trainees complete a 2,500 word essay assignment where they demonstrate their ability to integrate theoretical concepts with clinical application. Satisfactory completion of this assignment is one of the training elements used to assess readiness to embark on the clinical component of the training.
• In the summer term of the Platform Year, various assessment processes are put into place to ascertain if the training is going according to expectations on all sides. On top of the 1st year essay mentioned above, this may involve a conversation with one of the original interviewers. Training tutors and various seminar leaders will also be asked to feed back on the trainee’s work. These are important steps to be taken before training patients are sought.
• Final Infant Observation paper – At the end of the observation a final 7,000 word paper is completed.
• Six month clinical reports – Trainees complete 2,000 word six monthly reports until they have fulfilled the requirements for the clinical component of the training and they are ready to write the final paper
• Final clinical paper – Once trainees have fulfilled all of the above requirements they complete a final 6/7,000 word clinical paper based on the work with one of their Training Patients. The paper should demonstrate a high level of integration of theory with clinical work, and report on the work of one training case. The paper is considered by two readers/assessors who meet with the trainee to discuss it, conduct a viva, and who subsequently make a recommendation regarding qualification to the BJAA Training and Postgraduate Committee.

On qualification, a newly qualified member will:

• become a member of the British Jungian Analytic Association of the bpf
• be registered as a Jungian Analyst with the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC)
• become a member of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP)
• have access to post-graduate seminars, scientific meetings and courses run by the bpf
• have the opportunity to advance to senior membership and training analyst/supervisor status of the BJAA

All qualified members are expected to continue with a programme of continuing professional development (CPD) in accordance with BPC guidelines.

Training as a Jungian analyst is a stimulating and rewarding experience. Being ready to apply is an individual process with which we can offer help and advice once you have read the rest of the information on the website. The bpf usually offers Open Days throughout the year that can help with preparing and understanding what training entails.

Advice and support is available for potential applicants who would like to consider how to prepare to meet the following requirements:

1. Academic Qualification: First-degree level (in any subject) or equivalent.
2. Relevant Work Experience: Experience of work in a setting where adult individuals present for help with emotional or mental health difficulties is an advantage but we welcome applications from those with a variety of backgrounds. Those with no prior experience in such settings will need to gain experience of at least a year in working one to one with adults on emotional difficulties either professionally or on a volunteer basis before applying. The Foundation Course is designed to help with gaining this experience.
3. Psychiatric Placement: Engagement with the experiences of psychiatric patients and the treatments offered in UK psychiatric services is an essential part of the training. For applicants who do not have prior psychiatric experience a six-month placement will need to be undertaken in the first year of training.
4. Infant Observation: This can be undertaken before or during the training. Ideally the two-year Infant Observation will have commenced before the start of the training. An Infant Observation must have been started for at least one year before the trainee is ready to work with training patients in the second year.
5. Personal Analysis: You will need to have been in analysis 3 times weekly with a BJAA approved training analyst for at least one year before commencing the training. Personal analysis continues until qualification.
6. Aptitude: You will need to show a potential to think and work analytically as outlined in this Entry Level Competencies guide
7. Finance: You will need to have a way of financing your training. The section on cost outlines what you can expect.
8. Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Enhanced Check (previously known as CRB): This is essential for working with vulnerable people.

A fee of £170 is payable on making an application for the training.

Currently the annual fee for the BJAA training is £4120 p.a. for the first four years of training. In the event that the clinical component has not been completed in this time the fees are reduced to £1936 p.a. until completion.

The trainee’s fees for their own personal analysis are negotiated with the training analyst on an individual basis. Similarly, when beginning to see training patients the cost of supervision will be discussed with each training supervisor. Trainees will need to provide an appropriate setting to see training patients which may involve room rental costs.

The bpf runs Infant Observations seminars that cost £1605 p.a, plus £170 to cover 2 interviews. The Infant Observation seminars run for 2 years. A trainee who has already been accepted on a BJAA training would require one interview. A trainee can also elect to complete the Infant Observation component of the course with an external course provider, the fee for which would be negotiated separately.

Trainee membership of the bpf is currently £144.45 per annum. This includes a subscription to PepWEB and eligibility to attend all bpf scientific events, including the monthly events put on by the Jung Forum.

Jungian Terms Explained – Helen Morgan and Christopher McKenna’s clear glossary of some Jungian terms

Jung’s Influences – Ann Casement’s article explores the philosophical, religious and scientific influences in Jung’s psychology

Entry Level Competencies Guide

Pre-course reading list

Attend our Virtual Open Day to watch a presentation about this course.

What’s it like to be a psychotherapist? Psychoanalytic psychotherapist (youtube.com)

What’s it like to be a psychotherapist? Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist (youtube.com)

What’s it like to be a psychotherapist? Jungian Analyst (youtube.com)

Why become a psychotherapist? (part I)

Why become a psychotherapist? (part II)

The building has limited access. Please contact the Training Co-ordinator to discuss your needs.

We welcome enquiries from anyone interested in training, whatever their background, and whatever stage of interest.

We recommend a conversation with the Training Advisor and Selection Coordinator in the first instance. The Selection Coordinator’s email is: [email protected]

General questions can also be directed to: [email protected].

When you are ready to apply, please download, complete and submit the BJAA application form to: [email protected] by the closing date— 21st April of each year. If you meet the entry requirements you will be invited to come to two separate one-to-one interviews with senior BJAA analysts, after which the BJAA Selection Committee will make a decision.

The bpf is committed to diversity and inclusivity in all the work we deliver. We are fully dedicated to promoting, maintaining and supporting equality of opportunity in all aspects of our organisation and, as such, the bpf welcomes applications from all sections of society.