Applicants for membership need to have the following prerequisites:

• an undergraduate degree and a professional qualification eg. Psychology, Psychiatry, Social Work, Psychiatric Nursing, Occupational Therapy or Speech Pathology
• to have successfully completed a Course of Training in Child Psychotherapy of at least three years duration (e.g. Master of Child Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Monash University, or equivalent)

Required training would include:

1. Theoretical Studies:

• A minimum of a three (3) year comprehensive seminar series in psychoanalytic theory and practice with particular emphasis on children, adolescents and parents or equivalent.
• A 12 month Psychoanalytic Infant Observation.
• 300 hours of theoretical studies.

2. Supervision:

• Individual weekly supervision of a child, an adolescent and of parent therapy i.e. 3 hours per week over a three year training period.
• Supervision should be concurrent with the other components of the training.
• One of the child or adolescent cases must have been in psychotherapy for a minimum of two years and one for at least one year.
• One of the child or adolescent cases must be seen at least twice weekly.
• At least 300 hours of supervision overall.
• Clinical Supervisors who would be deemed to have appropriate credentials would ordinarily be members of the VCPA, VAPP or IPA, with at least five years experience.

Following completion of training
It is expected that clinical members of the VCPA will engage in ongoing supervision to maintain their standards of clinical practice.

3. Personal Psychotherapy:

• Applicants are required to have had a minimum of three years of at least twice weekly psychoanalytic psychotherapy or psychoanalysis concurrent with seminars and supervision of the Masters of Child Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training or equivalent.

Therapists who would be deemed to have appropriate credentials would ordinarily be members of the VCPA, VAPP or IPA, with at least five years experience. It is not possible to claim rebates for personal therapy whilst in training, if this therapy is to be used as part of the requirements to join a professional association.

4.Clinical Practice
The applicant is expected to be currently engaged in clinical practice with children, adolescents and families.

5. Grandperson Clause
The Membership sub Committee has discretion in relation to applicants who may be caught between the now current criteria (2005 onwards) and the previous criteria. This will be decided on a case by case basis.

The fee for membership is as follows:

• Full Membership $350.00 per annum.

All correspondence to the Membership Secretary:

• PO Box 1096 Hawksburn 3142
• Membership Secretary - 8552 0555