Structure of the Programme of Preparation
There are nine IGAP weekends per academic year: September-June: These include Thursday Reading Seminars (closed: only IGAP Candidates), Friday and Saturday Seminars (open to the public) and Sunday morning Clinical Seminars (closed). You are expected to attend all or most of the closed seminars and regularly attend the open seminars. There is no set attendance percentage required. Some of these seminars are online and some in person, currently at the Essex Church in Notting Hill (W8 4RT).
You must be in analysis twice weekly with an IGAP analyst. Allowing for illness and holidays, this amounts to some 80-90 hours per year. At least some of your analysis must be in person—see under FAQs below.
You will meet with each of your three Review Committee (RC) members three times: (once per term). Again, some of these meetings must be in person—see the FAQs below.
In May, you will submit a self-assessment essay, reviewing your experiences on your Preliminary Year; The three RC members will read the essay, and in discussion with you and with each other, come decision about progression made by the end of June. The process of making this decision is supported by members of the Preparation Committee, a panel of analysts who are responsible for oversight of all Candidates (at all levels).
There are three possible outcomes of this review: (1) you may be invited to progress to full candidacy; (2) you may be asked to repeat preliminary year; or (3) you may be asked to do leave programme.
Note that the ‘repeated year’ does not necessarily slow you down; it simply means that you still have a provisional status, and the RC members will assess again the following year.
Candidacy lasts at least one further year, but usually longer in practice.
You continue with twice-weekly analysis and RC meetings as in your Preliminary Year, with the requirement of some in person work.
Your seminar attendance continues as above; all Candidates, at all levels, attend the same seminars, with the exception of cohort-bespoke Reading Seminars. Thus, you share teaching and learning time with Candidates at other levels. The ‘spiral nature’ of the teaching programme means that topics are not repeated as such, but dealt with in different ways by different teachers using different material.
Before you can proceed to ‘Dialogues’ (exams) you must spend at least one day a week over six months on a clinical (psychiatric) placement, if you haven’t already gained this kind of experience.
When you feel ready, you ask permission from the RC to proceed to Dialogues. If they agree that you are ready, you then make arrangements to meet with your External Examiner. If all are agreed, you may then start your Dialogues. The six Dialogues are to be completed over a maximum of six months. (The topics of the Dialogues are listed in the Procedural Guide, available below.)
Upon successful completion of the Dialogues, the RC may recommend you to proceed to Advanced Candidacy. In the event that they do not, you continue as a Candidate until they feel you are ready to see clients. If they do, you are presented to an IGAP meeting and enter Advanced Candidacy.
In you Advanced Candidacy seminars continue as above, though you are not expected to attend as frequently.
You continue your twice-weekly analysis continues as above.
You continue to see one RC member (your Tutor) three times a year, and the other two you see once a year.
You find your own clients (you can have a listing on IGAP’s webpage) and work with an IGAP supervisor at a 1:4 ratio of hours of supervision to client hours. Your write up your cases every year.
You will be in an ongoing case colloquia group that meets 18 hours a year across four or six sessions. Attendance is expected.
You are required to attend one Specialised Case Colloquium weekend per year. Two are offered. You may attend both.
When you have the required client hours, or nearly so, you can start writing the final assessments: one Long Case Report (on a case of 150 or more hours), a Thesis, and an Alchemy paper.
When you have achieved the required clinical hours, you can begin submitting the above written work.
When the Case Report, Thesis and Alchemy essay have been successfully completed and passed, you will have one oral Dialogue on Individuation. When all has been passed, you meet your RC members and the External one last time. If all is well, you present either your Case or Thesis at the next IGAP meeting and are voted into membership of IGAP.
For further information about the structure and content of the Programme of Preparation, please refer to the Procedural Guide and the Aims and Learning Outcomes document, which you can download here. (Please note these documents are currently under revision and will be uploaded here soon.)