Riggs Training Program and Fellowship Earns Approved Institute of APsA Designation

After rigorous and thorough evaluation, the Erikson Institute of the Austen Riggs Center Adult Psychoanalytic Training Program and Fellowship in Hospital Based Psychotherapy has earned formal status as an approved institute of the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA). APsA is the oldest national psychoanalytic organization in the country with more than 3,500 highly trained members.

The Fellowship training program has been accredited by the Accreditation Council for Psychoanalytic Education (ACPEinc) for over a decade, so membership in APsA is further recognition of the high quality of our four-year Fellowship for post-residency psychiatrists and post-doctoral psychologists. With fewer than three dozen approved institutes, the Erikson Institute of the Austen Riggs Center’s Fellowship joins other APsA training programs focused on educating and training psychoanalysts by “maintaining the highest quality psychoanalytic education as currently outlined in APsA’s Standards and Principles for Psychoanalytic Education.”

“This represents major recognition of the value and quality of our training program, its trainees, and its supervisors and teachers,” remarked Riggs Medical Director/CEO Eric Plakun, MD.“This bolsters the Fellowship’s reputation and will help us continue to recruit top psychodynamic psychiatrists and psychologists, some of whom may continue their careers at Riggs and some of whom will bring their specialized knowledge to bear in other settings.” 

Formally housed in the Austen Riggs Center’s Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy, the Fellowship provides a truly unique psychoanalytic training opportunity for post-residency psychiatrists and post-doctoral psychologists in work with complex adult patients—many of whom have not found success with other treatments—in a completely open and voluntary residential setting. Since the late 1940s when its training program began, Riggs has graduated more than 200 Fellows, generally accepting between two and four new Fellows each year.

Staff Psychologist and former Director of Training, Jennifer Stevens, PhD, ABPP, noted, “As I have discovered over years of supervising outside of Riggs, our graduates are in possession of an increasingly rare psychoanalytic knowledge base and set of clinical skills necessary for treating complex patients and troubles.”

Psychoanalysis and related approaches grounded in psychoanalysis, like psychodynamic therapy, truly help those struggling with mental health issues. Hundreds of published, peer-reviewed studies, and our own outcome data, show psychodynamic therapy works for people with a range of specific disorders and people with complex and co-occurring disorders. When compared to other forms of therapy, many of which focus on symptoms more than on meaning and relationships, psychodynamic therapy has been found to be equally effective.

Riggs, which was founded in 1919, just eight years after the creation of APsA, has had a long association with the organization. Our clinicians regularly contribute scholarship to APsA publications, have served on committees, attend and present at APsA meetings, and benefit from the psychoanalytic community APsA helps to keep alive and well. In 1994, with the creation of the Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy of the Austen Riggs Center, the Fellowship became part of the Erikson Institute’s focus and mission. Under the direction of Jane G. Tillman, PhD, ABPP, the Institute is a leading national and international provider of psychoanalytic education and clinical training as well as psychoanalytic research and supports advocacy for critical issues related to psychiatric care. In 2021, the Erikson Institute was named as a recipient of The Sigourney Award, a major psychoanalytic award.

Fellowship applications are due by December 1. To learn more or apply, visit: www.AustenRiggs.org/Fellowship.