Earl D. Bland’s research while affiliated with Biola University and other places

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered clinical practice in immeasurable ways. This article expands this discussion by exploring the impact of the COVID pandemic, its restrictions, and the co-occurring events of social unrest, protests, and violence on the teaching and learning of psychoanalysis in a clinical training context. In our experiential accounts we explore the dynamics of identity, the dynamics of power, and the dynamics of clinical presence.

Although the field of professional psychology has moved to an increased emphasis on assessing trainees' clinical competencies (Roberts, Borden, Christiansen, & Lopez, 2005), the field of psychoanalysis has lagged behind. A few psychoanalytic competency models have begun to emerge (e.g., Barsness, 2017; Cabaniss, 2008; Lemma, Roth, & Pilling, 2008; Morris, Javier, & Herron, 2015; Tuckett, 2005); however, these models primarily focus on full analytic training in postdoctoral institutes, tend to not set benchmarks of what competencies may be expected at different developmental points across a training sequence, and are often described at a level of detail that renders the model impractical for regular use in evaluating student learning. As such, the current article addresses this important gap in the literature by specifying a competency model of psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy that may be used in conjunction with existing American Psychological Association competency benchmark documents (e.g., Fouad et al., 2009), and may serve as a tool for psychoanalytic psychotherapy training in doctoral programs in clinical and counseling psychology.

The present article identifies three waves in the integration of psychology and theology literature including apologetic, model building, and empirical validation, bringing the discussion to a fourth wave, clinical integration. Rather than a model or destination, clinical integration is an emergent phenomenon of the dynamic complexity of the particular therapeutic configuration and therefore is best learned through supervisory experience, which includes observing, hearing, and reading cases. Subsequently, the articles that make up this special volume are case studies. In addition, the article notes the lack of cultural and theological diversity in the integration literature so invited authors were selected not only for their scholarship, but also for being newer voices in the field and for their personal diversity. The rewards, challenges, and ethics of writing about clinical cases are also explored.