Joining the faculty of Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis

I’m pleased to announce that I have (remotely) joined Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis (BGSP) as Adjunct Professor!

This term, I will be teaching two exciting courses on the MA in Clinical Mental Health Counselling: Psychological Asssessment and Appraisal and Human Science Research. Here’s a little bit about each course below:

Psychological Assessment and Appraisal

All mental health practitioners, including counselors, will have exposure to psychological tests of different kinds. Counselors may use scales or checklists to obtain basic information about a client’s psychological functioning. Their clients may receive testing as part of evaluations for special services in schools, the Veterans Administration or various institutions to identify different personality traits, assess cognitive functioning and psychological wellbeing. Increasingly, states and managed care organizations are mandating standardized assessments and/or outcomes measures. Clients in vocational setting may be tested for aptitude for certain jobs or occupations. Tests are also common as elements in program evaluations assessing program effectiveness.

Mental health counselors are expected to have a basic understanding of the principles of test construction, administration and interpretation. This section of the course will introduce basic principles of psychometrics, including reliability and validity. Students will also be introduced to some of the most popular tests in cognitive and neuropsychological assessment, personality assessment, and the measurement of normal and abnormal psychological functioning. It will convey current controversies in the use of tests, with an emphasis on social justice issues as they impact the use of tests.

Human Science Research

This module will introduce students to what might be considered as the core scientific claims of the psychoanalytic discipline. Such stock-taking is necessary due to widespread misconceptions about psychoanalytic research among the public and within academia. During this module, students will review important tools, methods and techniques for sound qualitative and quantitative research, including methods applicable to treatment evaluation and outcome research. Students will also consider current issues in all forms of clinical research, pertinent not only to psychoanalysis, but other clinical paradigms. This course is designed to meet the licensing board’s requirement for a course on Research and Evaluation.

This is an exciting opportunity to teach the new generation of future psychoanalytic practitioners.