Advanced Certification

Certification. Students in the advanced program complete 300 hours of study for an Advanced Certificate in Applied Existential Paychotherapy (AEP) or an Advanced Certificate in Gestalt Therapy and Related Approaches. Requirements include practice, process, supervision, and a final project as well as training workshops. Workshops in related approaches (Gestalt, existential/humanistic, psychodynamic, Jungian, body oriented, trauma, couples, group and expressive arts therapy) also count toward the certificate.

Eligibility. Mental health professionals (psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, licensed professional counselors, school psychologists, drug and alcohol counselors, marriage and family therapists, and pastoral counselors) and graduate students in psychology or related fields are eligible to join the program. Some exceptions may be made for mental health professionals without advanced degrees. Eligibility is determined through an interview.

Transfer Credit. Up to 60 hours of training may be transferred or taken elsewhere in an approved program or university. Credit will be granted if the program seems appropriate to our training goals.

Faculty. All trainings are conducted by our experienced faculty and distinguished guest workshop leaders.

Requirements:

Basic and Advanced AEP and Gestalt Training: 200 or more hours of training in AEP or Gestalt therapy, including 80 or more hours of basic AEP or Gestalt training in working with individuals. Trainings counting toward completion of this component include BPI workshops in AEP, Gestalt, body oriented psychotherapy, trauma work, group therapy, and couples therapy. Additional practice, process and supervision groups and personal work may also help to fulfill this requirement.
Supervision/Consultation: 12 or more hours of individual supervision or 24 or more hours of group supervision with an approved AEP or Gestalt therapist. Two hours of group supervision count as one hour of individual supervision in work toward the Certificate. To get credit for supervision, the trainee must work with at least several clients. This may include work with individual, couple or group therapy clients in private practice, clients in an organizational setting, practice or pro bono clients, or paying clients drawn from elsewhere.
Personal AEP or Gestalt Work: 25 hours or more hours of personal work with a certified approved AEP or Gestalt therapist individually or 50 or more hours of group experiential work or some combination thereof. Two hours of group work count as one individual session in work toward the Certificate. The Institute believes that one of the best ways to learn AEP or Gestalt work is to experience personal work. The personal experience component is similar to the Training Analysis in Psychoanalytic Institutes. Some prior personal work with an approved therapist may count toward this component. Process Groups offered by the Institute also fulfill this requirement.
Related Approaches: Trainees may take count up to 50 hours of training in Related Approaches through the Institute as credit toward the Advanced Certificate. Related approaches include existential/humanistic, psychoanalytic/psychodynamic, Jungian, body oriented, trauma, couples, group and expressive arts therapy.
Final Project: The final project requires submission of a videotape of an AEP or Gestalt session made by the trainee with the client's, couple's, or group's permission. A faculty member will view the tape with the trainee. A paper ten pages or longer explaining the application of AEP or Gestalt principles and techniques is included with the tape. The paper discusses interventions made by the trainee, client issues, defenses, and transference and countertransference issues.

The Credential. The Boulder Psychotherapy Institute's individual workshops and Advanced Certification Program are open to graduate students and mental health professionals. Both are supplementary and ancillary to formal credentials. Our training program and workshops do not lead to licensure in any mental health field, but are instead designed for skills enhancement for graduate students and practicing professionals. We offer excellent supplementary education by providing experiential training conducted by well-known professionals with many years experience in the field.

Boulder Psychotherapy Institute

Advanced Training in Applied Existential Psychotherapy (AEP)

An Experiential Psychodynamic Gestalt Approach • Boulder, Colorado

Training Links

BPI Workshops for Therapists

Advanced Certification

1140 Lehigh Street, Boulder, Colorado 80305 • 303 494 0393