%20-%20B%20-%20small%20to%20big%20%20dark%20to%20light%20%20small%20in%20front%20%20shadow%20circles.png)
Psychodynamic Couple & Family Institute of New England
Couple & Family Therapy
Training Program
A sophisticated, integrative approach to working with complex relationship dynamics
Why Training Matters Now
Build Expertise in Relational Work
Intimate relationships are under increasing strain.
Couples and families are navigating unprecedented levels of stress related to social polarization, economic pressure, cultural change, shifting norms around intimacy and family structure, and the lingering impact of collective trauma.
At the same time, clinicians are often asked to work more quickly, with greater complexity, and across wider differences of identity, power, and lived experience—often without adequate depth-oriented training to support this work.
PCFINE offers its training in response to this moment. We believe that effective couple and family therapy today requires more than techniques or short-term interventions. It requires a sophisticated understanding of unconscious processes, relational systems, emotional regulation, and sociocultural context—and the ability to hold complexity over time.
Many clinicians receive limited formal training in couple therapy, and even fewer are supported in developing a sustained psychodynamic understanding of couple and family systems over time.
| PCFINE's trainings fill the gap between theory-heavy academic programs & technique-driven continuing education. |
"The PCFINE training program offered me a clinically exciting experience to further my career." PCFINE Training Graduate
This Training Offers
- A longitudinal, relational learning experience that unfolds across a full training year (with an optional second year)
- A deep integration of psychodynamic and systems thinking, rather than privileging one model over the other
- Ongoing small-group consultation with senior clinicians in intimate groups of 3-4 fellows, allowing theory to be applied directly to evolving clinical work with personalized guidance
- Exposure to multiple senior faculty perspectives—with two faculty coordinators present at each class alongside faculty—fostering clinical flexibility rather than rigid adherence to a single method
- A community-based learning environment that supports reflection, dialogue, and professional belonging
Unlike brief workshops or isolated seminars, PCFINE's program provides clinicians with the time, structure, and relational continuity necessary to develop enduring clinical capacities and your own therapeutic voice.
"The ongoing PCFINE peer supervision group that started during my training has been priceless." PCFINE Training Graduate
Curriculum Overview
YEAR 1 - Foundations of Couple Therapy
Required first year covering essential concepts and clinical skills
The first year program integrates psychological concepts and interventions from psychoanalysis, family systems theory, attachment theory, and interpersonal neuroscience. You'll develop skills in evaluation and formulation, understand transference and countertransference dynamics unique to couple work, and learn to address sexuality, affect regulation, and sociocultural dimensions in treatment.
›View YEAR 1 Learning Objectives
Key Concepts in Working with Couples David Goldfinger, Ph.D.
- Identify two ways in which the psychodynamic couple therapist must shift from their way of working with individuals in each of the following processes: evaluation, formulation, and intervention
- Identify at least three concepts from attachment theory that help in formulating a couple's dynamic and effectively intervening
- Identify at least three concepts from family systems theory that help in formulating a couple's dynamic and effectively intervening
- Define normative unconscious processes and use this concept to recognize the workings of racial, gender, and class dynamics in couple interactions
Transference and Countertransference in Couple Therapy Jennifer Stone, Ph.D.
- Understand and describe the differences between individual and couple therapy in the typical transferences that clients experience
- Recognize and address the partner-to-partner transferences that lie at the center of many couples' difficulties
- Recognize and describe the countertransference reactions that couple therapy can evoke in therapists, and broaden options for dealing with these reactions
Evaluation and Formulation Tamara Feldman, Ph.D.
- Define key areas to assess in couple treatment
- Identify ways the therapist can assess these areas
- Develop a formulation of the couple's difficulties
- Implement this case formulation
The Formation of the Therapeutic Alliance in Couple Therapy Brent Reynolds, LMHC
- Describe some of the challenges of developing and maintaining multiple alliances in couple therapy
- Identify and apply effective treatment strategies to nurture the therapeutic alliance in couple therapy
- Better tolerate and articulate the tension inherent in the dialectic of ritual and spontaneity in couple therapy, to know while learning and to learn while knowing
- Describe how the therapist's facilitation of the process of play, in relation to and between the couple, undergirds the therapeutic alliance in couple therapy
Therapeutic Action in Couple Therapy David Goldfinger, Ph.D.
- Define therapeutic action and recognize how our understanding of the change process has evolved with two important historical shifts in psychoanalytic theory
- Sensitize partners in a couple to their developmental history of thwarted longings, and understand how these are playing out in their dynamic
- Define Ezriel's terms "required relationship" and "avoided relationship" and understand how these lead to mutual defensive systems in couples
Addressing "isms" and Microaggressions with Interracial Couples Sejal Patel, Psy.D.
- Understand and describe common and unique themes in working with interracial couples
- Understand and list five manifestations of "modern isms" and categories of microaggressions
- Consider and explain the various historically included and excluded identities of various members of the couple and oneself
- Learn and apply skills and language for addressing possible "modern isms" and microaggressions in sessions while reducing defensiveness, shame, and preserving the therapeutic alliance between the couple and therapist
Behind Closed Doors: Sex in Couple Therapy Magdalena Fosse, Psy.D.
- Explain the importance of sexual history assessment in evaluating partners' sexual narratives
- Describe couples' distress and disappointment with their sex life and assess its implications on couples' overall functioning
- Recognize and assess the impact of race, gender, and culture on couples' psychosexual dynamics
Relationship as a Developmental Process/Opportunity Mary Kiely, Ph.D.
- Describe the therapeutic usefulness of a developmental perspective in couple therapy
- Describe how developmental growth in relationships can stall as a result of normative transitions, cultural beliefs, individuals' developmental histories, and the psychodynamics of relationship
- Identify ways to intervene with couples using a developmental perspective
From the Intrapsychic to the Interpersonal: Defensive Processes in Couples Therapy Joe Shay, Ph.D.
- Describe the manifestations of defensive projective identification in couples therapy
- Identify ways to intervene more effectively in the presence of defensive processes
- Identify common countertransference reactions in the presence of defensive processes
YEAR 2 - Advanced Topics (Optional)
Available to students who complete Year 1 and wish to deepen their expertise
The second year program allows you to explore specific clinical challenges in greater depth. Most fellows choose to continue for this optional year, which follows the same monthly seminar and supervision group format. Topics include working with LGBTQ+ couples, infidelity, parenting transitions, sociocultural dimensions, moral dilemmas, and separation/divorce.
›View YEAR 2 Learning Objectives
Can I Be Real with You? True and False Selves in Couple Therapy Sherry Dickey, Ph.D.
- Describe two purposes of the false self
- Winnicott described degrees of false self; describe two of these degrees
- Explain how the baby begins to adopt a false self that lasts into adulthood and influences the choice of a partner
- Describe how false self affects intimacy
Couples and Parenthood Linda Camlin, Ph.D.
- Describe the major intrapsychic, relational, systemic, cultural, and racial domains of a couple's life impacted during the transition to parenthood
- Identify two essential benefits to parents having developed a "creative couple" capacity
- Identify and describe intergenerational themes in a couple's life that are woven into the development of their present family system
The Fight to be Right: High-Conflict and Aggression in Couple Therapy Larry Chud, M.D.
- Describe two characteristics of narcissistic rage that distinguishes it from other forms of aggression
- Identify two approaches suggested by a self-psychology approach to manage intense conflict between members of a couple as reported or experienced during sessions
- Identify two therapist countertransference reactions to couples who attack each other and/or the therapist
Race and Other Sociocultural Dimensions of our Work with Couples Paul Efthim, Ph.D. and Katie Naftzger, Ph.D.
- Reflect and identify on professional experiences in which discomfort around sociocultural differences may have impacted the treatment process
- Define the concepts of white guilt and white shame, and identify at least two ways these emotions can be used constructively in the couple therapy process
- Describe three approaches that white therapists can employ to support couples of color facing systemic racism
Betrayal in Relationships: Infidelity and Couple Therapy Joe Shay, Ph.D.
- Identify the multiple kinds of affairs and betrayals in relationships
- Specify the various stages of treatment for couples in which an affair or betrayal has been an issue
- Predict the various therapeutic challenges of working with couples in which an affair or betrayal has been an issue and utilize these predictions in preparing the ongoing treatment
Sexual and Gender Diversity in Couple Therapy Jenn Bortle, Ph.D.
- Describe the concepts of gender and sexual orientation, including concepts of gender identity, gender expression and sex assigned at birth as well as a variety of sexual orientations
- Recognize heteronormative and cis-normative bias and describe how it might impact LGBTQ couples in the consulting room and in their world; increase awareness of such bias in professional and clinical language and in oneself as a clinician and describe ways to mitigate this bias with more inclusive language use and increased therapist self-awareness
- Describe issues unique to LGBTQ couples that might be relevant to their treatment
Moral Dimensions in our Work with Couples Alistair McKnight, Psy.D., LMHC
- Discuss and explain how a therapist's personal moral stances can influence clinical interventions, and describe one way in which this can be ethically mitigated
- Explain and apply clinically how questions of equity and fairness enter into a couple's conflicts
- Discuss the potential pitfalls of different strategies around confidentiality when treating a couple in which one partner is actively having an affair
Separation and Divorce Mary C. Kiely, Ph.D. and Oona Metz, LICSW
- Describe potential countertransferential challenges of working with couples considering separation or divorce
- Describe in what ways the therapeutic focus of a couple therapy will shift once a decision to end a relationship occurs and discern one's comfort level with seeing couples post the divorce decision
- Describe the use of Winnicott's concept of the transitional object as it relates to a co-parent plan
Narrative Therapy with Couples: Re-storying Problem Stories Theresa Sass, Ph.D., MPH
- Identify the foundational principles of narrative theory and the methodologies of narrative therapy in the context of couple therapy
- Describe the ways narrative therapy integrates with other psychotherapy modalities
- Apply narrative therapy methods to practice with analysis and discussion of clinical cases
Playing with Fire: The Peril and Potential of Play in Couple Therapy Brent Reynolds, LMHC
- Describe some of the risks and benefits of applying a conceptual framework of play in clinical process with couples
- Identify and apply effective interventions in order to nurture flexibility, variability, and spontaneity in the couple interaction
- Describe how the therapist's facilitation of the process of play, in relation to and between the couple, represents a particular kind of therapeutic action enhancing mentalization, affect regulation and a more secure attachment
Is This Training Right for You?
Questions We Hear Often (And Why We Welcome Them)
Many clinicians wonder:
"Am I experienced enough for this training?"
"What if I feel out of my depth in front of senior clinicians?"
"Do I need to already 'know' psychodynamic theory to belong here?"
"What if my work with couples feels messy or stuck?"
We expect these questions—and see them as signs of clinical curiosity, not deficiency.
Your Success
Success in our training is less about years in practice and more about clinical openness.
Fellows tend to thrive when they:
- Have basic clinical training and some psychotherapy experience
- Are currently seeing (or preparing to see) couples
- Are willing to reflect on their own emotional and relational responses
- Can tolerate complexity, uncertainty, and learning over time
Early-career and seasoned clinicians both succeed when they are engaged, curious, and relationally minded.
This Training Is a Good Fit If You...
- Are a licensed or license-eligible mental health clinician working with couples or planning to do so
- Want to deepen your understanding of couple and family dynamics beyond techniques or protocols
- Are curious about how unconscious processes, attachment histories, and systemic patterns shape intimate relationships
- Value reflection, emotional depth, and relational learning as essential parts of clinical growth
- Are interested in integrating psychodynamic thinking with family systems perspectives
- Appreciate learning in a community where dialogue, complexity, and multiple clinical viewpoints are welcomed
- Are willing to examine your own assumptions, emotional responses, and relational positioning as a clinician
- Want ongoing supervision that supports your real, evolving clinical work with couples
"The faculty are warm, authentic, and bring a high degree of clinical experience." PCFINE Training Graduate
Format: Monthly Sunday seminars (8:45 AM - 12:00 PM) + afternoon supervision groups (2 hours)
Schedule: September through June (10 sessions total)
Location: Classes rotate among faculty coordinators' homes
Orientation: Welcome brunch before first class in September
The training year begins with theoretical foundations and progresses through specific clinical challenges, always tying theory to practice through case examples from both fellows and faculty. Monthly seminars combine rigorous theoretical exploration with active case discussion in a post-graduate seminar format that encourages fellows to think critically about their clinical choices.
Small consultation groups of 3-4 fellows meet with senior faculty each month, providing ongoing case discussion as your work evolves. This intimate setting allows for deep exploration of your clinical questions and personalized guidance from experienced clinicians and analysts who are leading practitioners in the field.
Readings and a syllabus are provided in advance of the training.
Tuition & Fees
Investment in Your Professional Development
Annual Tuition: $1,750
Application Deposit: $100 (non-refundable, applied to tuition upon acceptance)
Equity Rate: $750/year
The Equity Rate is available for prospective students who submit a statement explaining how they meet our criteria of:
- Identifying as belonging to a racial or ethnic group with historical barriers to access, and/or
- Primarily working with low-income individuals or those who have also endured historical barriers to access by virtue of their race or ethnicity
Scholarships: Additional scholarship support is available. Please inquire for details.
Private Supervision: Optional private supervision can be arranged at a reduced fee with any faculty member.
Eligibility & Requirements
Who Can Apply
Applicants must be licensed mental health professionals or working under the supervision of a licensed clinician.
Required Materials:
- Current curriculum vitae
- For independently licensed professionals: Certificate of malpractice insurance and copy of license
Before Starting, It Helps to Have...
- A foundational clinical training in psychotherapy (graduate-level education in a mental health field)
- Experience working with individuals, couples, or families in a clinical setting
- Comfort with reflective discussion, clinical case presentation, and group learning
- Openness to exploring psychodynamic concepts such as unconscious process, transference, and defense
- A willingness to engage thoughtfully with issues of culture, power, identity, and social context in clinical work
- Curiosity, patience, and a commitment to developing as a clinician over time
Ready To Apply?
Current Status: Applications for the 2025-2026 academic year are now closed.
Applications for 2026-2027 are now open.
QUESTIONS?
Contact: Alice Rapkin, PCFINE Administrator
Phone: 781-433-0906
Email: pcfine1934@gmail.com