The Polish group of ISTFP teachers and supervisors, working with the Krakow Psychodynamic Center, invites you to participate in a training course in Transference-Focused Psychotherapy – a method of treating personality disorders based on the psychoanalytic theory of Otto Kernberg.
The training enables you to acquire therapeutic competence in the use of this method and entitles you to take the ISTFP examination in order to obtain the international certificate as a TFP psychotherapist and thus the status of “TFP psychotherapist”.
Psychotherapists with a diploma from a 4-year holistic course in psychodynamic or psychoanalytic psychotherapy are invited to participate in the training.
Psychotherapists who have used elements of TFP in their previous therapeutic practice and who have supervised their work with ISTFP supervisors, PTPPd supervisors, KCP training supervisors and ISTFP trainees are given priority for the course.
Formal framework for training:
The basic training consists of two parts, a supervision part and a didactic part.
Supervision part:
– Supervision groups consist of 5 people,
– Frequency of meetings once a week for 90 min.
– Prior to the first meeting, candidates should prepare a brief case description (max. 2 A4 pages) prepared in accordance with the form (link to the file).
– Prior to each supervision, candidates should prepare a transcript of a selected excerpt from one of their current sessions with a patient (10-15 minutes) and be prepared to play this excerpt from a video recording during the supervision meeting
– The trainee must complete a minimum of 20 hours of their own supervision throughout the training cycle (10 with each of the two supervisors).
– The group agrees on meeting dates with the leading supervisor.
– The group’s supervisor is an ISTFP teacher and supervisor, with the possible participation of an ISTFP-certified psychotherapist, in training to become an ISTFP supervisor.
Supervisions in this intensive form of meetings 1x a week, are aimed at embedding oneself in the TFP working method and improving the techniques of working in this method. The learning process includes supervising one’s own patients as well as observing and actively participating in the supervision of colleagues. The training requirements, outlined by the ISTFP Training Department, require supervision by two ISTFP supervisors, so halfway through the training cycle (approximately one didactic year), there is a change, and another supervisor takes over the group. During the training cycle, 20 presentations of their patients must be given (10 to each supervisor). The required setting agreed with the patients selected for training should include a frequency of sessions of 2x per week and video recordings of the sessions. The selection of patients can be discussed with the supervisor in charge, but it is recommended that these are new processes, during consultations conducted using the structured interview method developed by Otto Kernberg.
The didactic part:
– The training programme includes, as required by the ISTFP, 63 hours of TFP seminars/lectures divided into approximately 9 days of 7 hours of lectures and seminars.
– The lecture/seminar meetings will be conducted in a hybrid manner, i.e. some of them will be conducted live in Krakow and some will be conducted remotely in an online version.
The didactic part of the training aims to equip candidates with theoretical knowledge of the transference-focused psychotherapy method developed by O.F. Kernberg, F.E. Yeomans and their colleagues. Lecture topics include: structural diagnosis, types of personality disorders, structural interview, contract and setting, basic working techniques, therapeutic strategies, basic phenomena in the therapeutic process. The lectures will be given by certified supervisors and TFP teachers from both Poland and abroad. Foreign lectures will be interpreted into Polish. In the current edition of the training, the invited guests from abroad were Frank E. Yeomans and Otto F. Kernberg.
Candidates are encouraged to consult the literature describing work in the transference-focused psychotherapy method. A list of books available on the Polish market can be found at the end of this page.
Fees:
One supervision group meeting (90 min.) – PLN 250/per person.
Mandatory participation in the seminar session – approximately PLN 2,500 for the entire series of lectures and seminars (63h in total). The price is subject to change depending on the number of participants.
Applications:
Recruitment runs from 1 April to 15 July 2025.
In order to participate in the recruitment, please send in a completed Application (questionnaire_training_tfp.doc) and a written recommendation from the current supervisor.
We will send out recruitment results at the end of July 2025.
Please direct all questions to: tfp.szkolenia@gmail.com
Applications should only be sent to the selected supervisor: ISTFP supervisors. The absence of an email address next to a supervisor’s name means that they are not recruiting for groups this year.
The anticipated start date of training is September/October 2025, which will be determined by the leading supervisor.
Literature:
Caligor, E., Kernberg, O.F., Clarkin, J.F., Yeomans, F.E. (2019). Psychodynamic Therapy for Personality Pathology: Treating Self and Interpersonal Functioning.
Caligor, E., Kernberg, O.F., Clarkin (2017) Handbook of Dynamic Psychotherapy for Higher Level Personality Pathology.
Kernberg, O.F. (2021). Treatment of severe personality disorders. Reworking aggression and reclaiming eroticism.
Yeomans, F.E.,Clarkin, J.F.,Kernberg, O.F. (2015). Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder: A Clinical Guide