This paper - ‘Navigating the Spiral’ - offers a contribution to the contemporary international conversation initiated by Gudaite and Kelly in Exploring Core Competencies in Jungian Psychoanalysis (2023) about the development of core competencies in analytic training. The paper will detail current developments in the Australian and New Zealand Society of Jungian Analysts’ approach to experience close learning as a bridge to activating core competencies within the analytic training process. We elaborate the learning methods which engage processes of development of analytic capacity.
ANZSJA offers a unique cohort based training with a 5 year curriculum which includes the tripartite approach of concurrent analysis, supervision and seminars, as well as infant observation and psychiatric placement. The learning accent is on facilitating direct and close encounters with core competencies in a group learning context through intensive seminars of 3 to 5 days twice annually, with three small group modules of seminars each year. The development of the annual program is a collaborative process led by the Training Curriculum Subcommittee in consultation with feedback from Analyst and Training Analyst teaching staff and anonymous Trainee/Candidate feedback. The feedback loops from Trainees/Candidates and Analysts are an integral process to keep the learning focus enlivened and close to the emerging needs of the Trainee/Candidate group.
Using the image of the spiral as a holding motif, the seminar program is designed to enliven analytic competences directly using teaching and learning methods to activate practice and application of core competencies. A range of teaching and learning approaches will be discussed in this paper. The learning and teaching in the seminar programming prioritises experience close activities exploring the unconscious, the unconscious in relationship, the analytic attitude, the analytic relationship, the symbolic attitude, reverie, active imagination, the numinous and our cultural contexts.
The key intention is to facilitate the development of analytic capacity and the development of the Trainee/Candidate’s own mind.