2027 Psychoanalytic & Psychodynamic Teachers’ Academy

If you are a social worker, psychologist, psychiatrist, counselor, or other mental health professional outside psychoanalysis who teaches psychoanalytic therapy or theory and would like help and support in becoming a more effective, engaged teacher, we invite you to apply for the American Psychoanalytic Association’s Psychoanalytic & Psychodynamic Teachers’ Academy. Each year, the Teachers’ Academy selects six teachers to participate in the program.

Application Deadline: September 8, 2026

Teachers’ Academy Mission

The mission of the Teachers’ Academy is to nurture and support educators who, while not psychoanalysts themselves, teach psychoanalytic therapy or theory to medical students, psychiatric residents, social work trainees, psychology trainees, psychotherapy trainees, licensed mental health counselor trainees, and others. The goal is to help all teachers who participate to become more effective and engaged in the transmission of psychoanalytic ideas within training programs.

Benefits of Participants

Benefits of Participation

Teachers who are selected for the Teachers’ Academy will attend APsA’s National Meeting and participate in a specially-designed program including:

Teaching Scholar Certification
Selected teachers who complete the program will be awarded a certificate as an APsA Teaching Scholar.

Participation in APsA’s National Meeting
Selected teachers will attend sessions during APsA’s 2027 National Meeting February 2-5 in Washington D.C. The registration fee for the 2027 National Meeting is complimentary for the teachers and four nights hotel accommodations are provided (beginning Tuesday, February 2 and departing Friday, February 5). In addition, travel expenses (up to $550) are reimbursed plus there is a daily per diem to help cover meals.

Mentorship
Each selected teacher will be assigned a teaching mentor. Teacher and mentor will meet once a month over the ensuing year. Mentor meetings may be in person if location allows or may meet via telephone or video.

Academy Program
The Academy program includes group discussions of each teacher’s educational projects; numerous master classes with senior analyst educators; and social activities to foster collegiality amongst the teachers group, Teachers’ Academy committee and mentors.

Eligibility

Eligibility and Selection Criteria

To be eligible for participation as a teacher:

You must have a role teaching psychoanalytic therapy or theory to social work trainees; medical students, residents or fellows; psychology trainees; or psychotherapy trainees during the 2027 year.
You must be a professional outside psychoanalysis.
Psychoanalytic candidates and graduates are not eligible for the Teachers’ Academy because of their ready access to mentors and analytic teachers at local and national levels.

Selection Criteria

The Teachers’ Academy will select from amongst applicants meeting these criteria by prioritizing teachers who are in a position to impact their organizations significantly through psychoanalytic teaching, but who have limited psychoanalytic mentorship opportunities to assist them in doing so.

Expectations of Accepted Teachers

Accepted teachers are expected to participate fully in the Academy experience. Specifically:

Because the group experience amongst teachers is critical, all accepted teachers are required to attend all scheduled Teachers’ Academy Events. This may involve foregoing other aspects of the meeting.
In addition, each teacher must commit to proactively maintaining an expected meeting schedule with his or her teaching mentor to ensure at least one full meeting during each month of the 2027 year.

Application Materials

The application includes a Google Form, two supporting letters of reference, a personal statement and a curriculum vitae.

Google Form
Please click here to fill out the Google Form.

Supporting Letters
The two letters of support should be from peer faculty members, or others who know the applicant’s teaching well and can describe his or her skills. Please do not include letters from students.

Personal Statement
The selection committee would like to know how participation in the Teachers’ Academy will contribute to your efforts to bring psychodynamic or psychoanalytic concepts into your teaching.

In your personal statement please describe a specific psychoanalytic / psychodynamic teaching project that you would like to put into action which the Teachers’ Academy may help to nurture. This teaching project may be a course, clinical rotation, or program of study you wish to create or substantially modify, or some other route to incorporating psychoanalytic ideas into your work as an educator. Please be as specific as possible in describing your idea and feel free to attach supporting materials such as course syllabi, assignments, or program requirements to help illustrate your vision.

In addition, please discuss what this project means to you, how it has evolved over time, or how it intersects with other personal or professional interests and goals.

Curriculum Vitae
Please include a copy of your current curriculum vitae (CV).

Application Submission

Applications must be submitted as PDF files. Please include the personal statement and CV in one PDF and save the file as follows: LastName_FirstName_PPTA.

Save Letters of Support as LastName_FirstName_Letters.

Complete this Google Form.
Please upload your Application and Letters of Support to this Dropbox link.

Application Deadline

The application materials need to be submitted by September 8, 2026.

Questions

For questions about the program please contact Anne Ruble, M.D., M.P.H., Chair, Teachers’ Academy at [email protected].

For questions about the application process, please contact George Pelch, Teachers’ Academy Program Coordinator, at [email protected].

2026 Teachers

The Teachers’ Academy’s 2026 teachers are:

Zane Davis, MD – Burlingame, CA

Danielle Dronet, DSW, LCSW – Cleveland Heights, OH

Dany Lamothe, MD – Palo Alto, CA

Tolulope Odebunmi, MBBS, MPH – Minneapolis, MN

Anna Vinter, MD – Carmichael, CA

Phuongloan Vo, PhD, MSW – Cincinnati, OH

More Information

For more information about the Teachers’ Academy experience, click on this article from The American Psychoanalyst.

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Teachers’ Academy Mission

Benefits of Participation

Eligibility and Selection Criteria

2026 Teachers

More Information

APsA Launches Online Courses for CME/CE Credit

APsA Publications

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The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JAPA)

The American Psychoanalyst (TAP)

Psychotherapist Newsletter

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