What is APPWA?
The Association for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of Western Australia (APPWA) is a multi-disciplinary body of psychotherapists with advanced training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. APPWA seeks to promote and support the highest possible standards of clinical practice, training, and ethics in psychoanalytic psychotherapy in Western Australia and, to this end, provides continuing education and supervision for practicing psychotherapists, a forum for clinical discussion, and training in the practice of psychotherapy.
The association is affiliated with the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Association of Australasia (PPAA), a national body that oversees the standards and conduct of, as well as training in, psychoanalytic psychotherapy in Australasia.
In 1983, a small group of interested professionals began a study group in psychoanalytic self-psychology. This group of founding members joined the formal training offered by Westmead Hospital in New South Wales, and established APPWA in 1984. In the 25 years since its inception, APPWA has grown to become a leading psychoanalytic organisation, offering intensive training and learning opportunities, and hosting national and international experts and national conferences for the PPAA. On two occasions, APPWA members have held the role of Executive of the PPAA.
The Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
Association of Australasia (PPAA)
The PPAA is a national federation of psychotherapy organisations whose members are trained and qualified psychoanalytic psychotherapists. These psychotherapists come from a variety of relevant professions (including psychiatry, psychology, social work, and others) and have undergone further specialised training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
The PPAA has state member organisations in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, and New Zealand.
Further information about the PPAA can be found on the PPAA website.
Contact details for the PPAA:
Address: PO Box 4098
Homebush South
NSW, 2140
Ph/fax: (02) 9746 7872
Email: theppaa@bigpond.com
What is Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy?
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy — indeed psychoanalysis, from which it derives — is often misunderstood and misrepresented. Members of APPWA are all highly trained specialists in this form of psychological treatment. Here, we offer our view of this area of psychological work:
More than a century ago, Sigmund Freud developed his theory of the mind, and of psychological treatment for disorders of the mind. His ideas and his understanding have exerted a major influence on many aspects of Western thinking and practice well beyond psychotherapy, including on literature, art, philosophy, and countless other cultural dimensions.
Over the years, there has been a proliferation of interpretations of his original theory, and there have been major schools of thought that grew out of, and sometimes away from, his ideas. Psychoanalysis itself has been a complex and dynamic idea that has developed and evolved in many different directions.
Perhaps the most fundamentally important contribution Freud made — underpinning all later developments of his theory — was his illumination and investigation of the unconscious mind. The influence, role, operation, and contents of the unconscious mind, and its formative shaping of who we are and how we function as human beings, is at the heart of all contemporary approaches to psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy focuses on the emotional relationship that emerges between two people — the psychotherapist and the patient — in a carefully created setting. This unique relationship is designed for the discovery of, the surfacing of, and the exploration of the powerful dynamic subterranean influences that affect who and how one is as a person, and how one relates to others. This approach emphasises the important formative influence in our lives of significant relationships from early infancy to the present day.
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy can be of help to many people — children, adolescents, and adults — with problems in living, learning, working, and relating. These difficulties usually emerge in forms such as depression, anxiety, general unhappiness, relationship breakdown, sexual or intimacy difficulties, and personal crises. Some people struggle with rigid and ongoing patterns of feeling, thinking, and behaving that are maladaptive. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy may also assist people experiencing more serious disturbances.
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy usually involves ongoing and regular sessions, between one to three times a week for 50 minutes. The complexity of the mind, with its entrenched patterns, determines that this form of healing is usually a fairly lengthy experience.
APPWA members are trained in different approaches. Some draw on the American influences of ‘self-psychology’, and some on the contemporary British influences of ‘object-relations theory’.
Some APPWA members work with adults and couples; others work with infants, children, and adolescents and their families, as well as with adults. What they have in common is an interest in the unconscious and in the therapeutic relationship as a powerful influence on healing.
A guide to introductory reading about psychoanalytic psychotherapy can be downloaded here.
Ethical Practice
As a member organisation of the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Association of Australasia, APPWA has adopted the PPAA Code of Ethics as its own, and developed its own procedure for resolving complaints about ethical conduct or professional functioning.
Application of the Code of Ethics and the Complaints Procedure is governed by the need to ensure the safety and well-being of patients; the need to uphold the standards and reputation of the association and the profession of psychotherapy in, and for, the community; and by concern for, and the provision of assistance to, a member under consideration. The Code of Ethics may be viewed here.
On a regular basis, the association thinks about the ethical basis of the stance of psychoanalytic psychotherapy and changes in practice brought about by the legal, procedural, and cultural contexts in which psychotherapy takes place. The Ethics Committee holds forums on topics of interest for the Association as the need arises, e.g. the ethics of Medicare funding.
Psychotherapists who have completed the APPWA Training Programme in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, or a course which in the judgement of the APPWA Membership Committee is equivalent and which meets the requirements of the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Association of Australasia, may apply for membership. The Application form may be downloaded here, and contains information about the application process.
Associate Membership of APPWA
Suitably qualified and experienced professionals who do not meet the requirements for Clinical membership may apply to be Associate Members of the Association. The Application form, which includes information about the requirements for Associate Membership, may be downloaded here.
Enquires about Clinical Membership or Associate Membership should be addressed to the Chair of the Membership Committee of APPWA, PO Box 695, Subiaco, WA 6904.
[updated 11/4/2010