ATP Candidate Portal

Analyst Training Program

In our age of anxiety, questions of life’s meaning, concerns about an attitude to life, and the search for deep soulful connections are often at the heart of emotional struggles. The Analyst Training Program (ATP) of the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago recognizes the nature of these issues in many individual’s lives and trains experienced clinicians to be able to work interpersonally with people on such a search. It envisions the transformation of the clinician into a person who is well connected to their own emotional life, has a grounded perspective on the nature of psychic life, and can relate empathically to the pain, struggles, delights and joys of other’s lives.

This five to seven year training program is grounded in the theoretical perspective of Analytical Psychology, which was initially conceptualized by the psychiatrist, C. G. Jung and was further developed by various international clinicians. It asserts the complexity of our cognitive and emotional life, our individual psyche. It recognizes the energetic dynamic of the personal and the collective unconscious. It respects and engages the affects and powers of the archetypal/spiritual world so clearly acknowledged by world religions. Symbols and images as they appear in dreams, fantasies, drawings, sand-trays and reverie are seen as dynamic communications from the unconscious that when embraced transform consciousness. It also recognizes the interference of personal complexes in living a mature, embodied life and identifies various ways to enable consciousness to mitigate their negative influence. Analytical Psychology provides a perspective unique to clinical training for work with complex psychological dynamics that requires the engagement with unconscious dynamics.

The Program is designed to make analytic training available to all qualified applicants. The one-weekend-a-month structure allows training to fit into one's professional life. Our location in "the loop" has convenient access to public transportation, both O'Hare and Midway airports, and Union Station (Amtrak/Metra trains and long-distance buses) and we have discount rates at Club Quarters Hotel. All classes and events are accessible.

The course instruction in the first four years of training occurs in nine (9) monthly meetings from Friday at 10:00 a.m. through Sunday at 1:30 p.m., at the Institute. One of the classes includes an additional 2 hours of video-conference meetings between monthly meetings. Each month a total of 22 hours are instructional. This schedule is designed to enable the practicing clinician to train, even when living at some distance from Chicago.

Upon completion of the training, the clinician is certified as a Jungian Psychoanalyst. ATP graduates are eligible for membership in the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts (CSJA), the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP), and the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP).

The application deadline for beginning in September is the preceding January 15. For additional information, please see the Apply/Contact tab.

Continuing Education credit is available for course work. The Institute is approved by the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation to provide CE credits for psychologists, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and professional counselors. The C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Elements of the Training Program

The Analyst Training Program aims for the transformation of the clinician through a multi-year training experience which includes at least weekly personal analysis, weekly consultation (supervision), a personal evaluative process with monitoring committees throughout training, four years of classroom work totaling 700 hours, three sets of exams, two final analytic process write-ups of 30-50 pages each, and a final thesis of 50 to 100 pages.

Personal Analysis: The heart of the transformation and the training to be an analyst is the personal analysis. Here the clinician experiences the workings of the psyche and the ability of the Self in analytic work to bring new life and energy. Here too the clinician discovers and clarifies the dynamics of his or her complexes, embraces vulnerability, and engages deep feelings. In analysis she or he becomes more authentically human as a person and a future analyst. Personal analysis can be done with any member of the International Association for Analytical Psychology.

Consultation (Supervision): In consultation, the interpersonal relationship of the candidate with her or his client/analysand and both individuals’ relationship with unconscious archetypal energies, including the Self, are closely observed, since these relationships are at the heart of the change process. Consultation is required weekly, beginning with practice consultation and moving toward control analysis in which two or three cases are followed weekly over a two or three year period. It is in the consultation that the theory of Analytical Psychology comes alive.

Evaluation: A monitoring committee at each stage of training evaluates with the candidate her or his progress, noting the changes attained and the challenges requiring additional work. The focus is the personal growth of the candidate towards an analytic way of being. It is in the work with the monitoring committees, that the candidates often feel more clearly seen and accepted for their strengths and their weaknesses. Both positive and negative shadow material, which was not previously seen, becomes known, enabling a more authentic presence in all relationships.

The Curriculum: Unique to the Chicago training program is a focus upon a systematic reading of the writings of Carl Jung, much of which are contained in The Collected Works, various published seminars, and Jung's extensive correspondence. By the end of four years, most of his writings will have been read and how he developed his theory will be known. A second section of courses comprise the Theory & Practice Section of the Curriculum. This is a four-year sequence of courses on the foundational and core concepts in Analytical Psychology. A third section of the curriculum deals with various topics that are of interest to candidates and analysts at the time. Finally each weekend includes a case colloquium and a process group. Because the same 10-15 candidates are in most courses, the learning environment is very personal and collegial. Often relationships are built that continue for the rest of their professional lives. (See the Curriculum tab).

The Process of Analytic Training: It is cognitive and affective, informative and transformative, developing and deepening. Upon certification as an analyst, each person will have an appreciation of the symbolic attitude within the interactive field of analysis and a working understanding of transference dynamics within the analytic relationship. All graduating analysts will be different than when they began training.

Class sizes are small, held in our beautiful smart conference room in the historic Monadnock building. Click here to take a virtual tour.

Admissions Requirements

Admission to the Analyst Training Program: Applications for the Analyst Training Program are accepted any time up to the January 15 deadline for admission the following September. The Admissions Committee reviews and assesses all applicants on the basis of their personal maturity, psychological readiness, and academic ability to successfully engage professional training for the practice of Jungian psychoanalysis. Admissions requirements, which must be fulfilled by the application deadline, include:

1. A minimum of 100 hours of in-depth personal analysis with an IAAP-certified Jungian analyst within the past five years (25 of those hours must be face-to-face*; 75 hours may be via electronic media), and continuing analysis throughout the application period;

2. A basic knowledge of Analytical Psychology through reading and lectures;

3. Clinical experience practicing long-term psychotherapy beyond licensure;

4. State licensure in mental health in the jurisdiction in which the applicant practices, e.g., clinical psychologist (PhD or PsyD), psychiatrist (MD or DO), clinical social worker (LCSW), clinical professional counselor ( LCPC), marriage and family therapist (LMFT), or psychiatric nurse (MSN).

*Due to COVID-19, we have temporarily suspended the requirement that at least 25 hours of analysis must be face-to-face.

Certification Requirements

1. Weekly personal analysis with an IAAP-certified Jungian analyst through all the years while in the ATP, including leaves of absences;

2. The completion of the Analyst Training Program’s four-year curriculum involving a minimum of 700 hours of class time;

3. Completion of a Candidacy Paper;

4. Weekly consultation throughout training totaling a minimum of 200 hours. Of those hours, 100 are required to be during the Control Stage. Fifty (50) hours of Control Analysis are to be dedicated to a single case with a single Control Analyst, and 25 hours are to be with a Control Analyst other than the one with whom the candidate has consulted most during the Control Stage (see Section 5 of the Analyst Training Program Handbook for the acceptable distribution of hours using electronic media). The other 25 hours may be with either of those Control Analyst, or with a different Control Analyst;

5. Attendance at all Analytic Process Colloquia, including attending 10 in person and the others by video conference, unless excused by the Director of Training;

6. Presentation of your analytic work with three analysands at three Analytic Process Colloquia while in the Control Stage;

7. The successful completion of an intermediate five-part exam (two written and three oral) on the theory and practice of Analytical Psychology, called the Propaedeuticum Exams;

8. The approval by each monitoring committee and the Training Committee that 1) their expectations of the candidate as articulated in their reports have been met satisfactorily and 2) the candidate is advanced to the next stage;

9. The successful completion of the analytic process exam and the thesis exam;

10. Payment of all required fees;

For additional details, see the Analyst Training Handbook.