Western Pennsylvania Community for Psychoanalytic Therapies

onal, and financial investment of the Community’s active member faculty. The Community’s goals include:

To grow a diverse coalition of psychoanalytic therapists committed to advancing the clinical, educational, and social applications of psychoanalytic therapies in the community

To minimize barriers to entry through collective member participation

To encourage open dialogue and rigorous debate that facilitates the development of individual psychoanalytic voices

To organize our community in the spirit consistent with our ideals of individual member autonomy, collective inclusivity, and non-hierarchical governance

Our Community has chosen to adopt these principles and methods as they are consistent with our community ideals of individual member autonomy, collective inclusivity, and non-hierarchical governance. One feature this structure affords is that all active members (both faculty and learners in our longitudinal program) can participate at any level of governance and have individual member votes that help influence the future direction of our organization. The Community is also committed to making postgraduate education affordable, thereby decreasing a major barrier for many who would otherwise pursue additional training if it not for the prohibitive costs. When costs for learning (tuition and ongoing consultation fees) are the sole responsibility of learners and are tied to the financial viability of the educational organization, complications arise such as a lack of diversity of clinicians as well as unnecessarily hierarchical training models. These dues serve as the primary financial source that allows the Community to keep tuition payments affordable for enrolled clinicians. Our faculty are also committed to providing low-fee consultation to those enrolled in our longitudinal program.