The Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis

Date: Dec 31 1969
Major: Psychology (This Major's Salary over time)
My current situation: I am a 33-year old male who graduated from the Master's in Psychoanalytic Counseling from BGSP in late 2008. Two years later I have a steady job as a fee-for-service mental health counselor at an outpatient mental health clinic in Boston and have started a small private practice. I will get my LMHC (Licensed Mental Health Counselor) license in the next couple of months. This past year I made close to $68,000. Admittedly I worked very hard for that, seeing between 30 and 40 patients per week, but being a recent graduate I can't complain. After graduating from the Master's program I also chose to continue onto the Doctorate program at BGSP and am pursuing the remainder of the training on a part-time basis whilst I work full-time as a clinician.

My experience with BGSP: I completed a Master's in Theoretical Psychoanalytic Studies (Non-Clinical) at University College London (UCL) in 2005 and, wanting to be trained in clinical psychoanalysis, decided to further my studies at BGSP. Coming from the experience of the traditional didactic teaching approach of UCL, I found the teaching style of BGSP very different and it took a while to get used to. Much of the learning in the classes is experiential and students are encouraged to explore their own reactions to the group processes as each class unfolds. As a practicing clinician, I cannot underscore enough the profound value of this experience.

If you are looking for a straight-laced didactic experience then this may be the wrong place - the "process" teaching used at BGSP is structured to create a space in which students can study the unconscious as it influences interpersonal interactions in the moment, rather than solely reading about the unconscious in the abstract academic sense. Emotional learning can at times be exhausting but it offers students the valuable opportunity to understand unconscious dynamics from a subjective/experiential rather than objective/abstract vantage point (which as a clinician is vital).

My advice: If you are the type of person who is really interested in clinical psychoanalysis and in getting to know yourself, your unconscious, and how people work on the deepest levels then the frustrations that you will unavoidably have to endure in the process of figuring these things out will be worth it. It is hard work - not in the traditional head-in-the-books kind of way. It is emotionally hard work and when BGSP advertises that

it is not just an education, it is a transformative experience

they are not kidding…

For me, it has been very worthwhile. I have certainly had my ups and downs and there have been times when I have wanted to pack it all in and become a sheep farmer (who hasn't?) but looking back I can honestly say that I have had the kind of transformative experience that attracted me to BGSP in the first place.