Course Overview
Beginning in Fall 2026, the Pulsion Institute will offer a Certified Training in Individual Psychoanalytic Psychodrama, a three-year program for psychoanalytic candidates seeking to explore enactment as an analytic pathway to the unconscious.
Individual psychoanalytic psychodrama stands at the crossroads of psychoanalysis and action, where the psychic drama finds expression through symbolic play and embodied movement. Rooted in the principles of Freud’s metapsychology and further developed by Lebovici, Diatkine, Anzieu, and Kaës, this method interprets dramatization as a privileged means of accessing unconscious representations that cannot be reached through language alone.
Within the analytic frame, the patient is invited to stage a scene—drawn from memory, fantasy, or dream. The psychodramatists become auxiliary egos, participating figures of the patient’s inner world, lending form and voice to unconscious objects and conflicts. The space of enactment thus functions as a concrete setting for transference elaboration, allowing the patient’s intrapsychic life to unfold in intersubjective form.
Dramatization makes visible the processes of projection, repetition, and identification, clarifying the patient’s psychic organization. Through embodied action, the analyst listens not only to words but to gesture, silence, posture, and scene—registers through which the unconscious inscribes itself in the body and the group field. This makes psychoanalytic psychodrama a powerful method for patients whose mental structure or defensive economy inhibits verbal symbolization.
Far from being an expressive or cathartic tool, psychoanalytic psychodrama remains rooted in interpretation and transference work: it transforms embodied play into meaning. The analytic function of the method lies in the transformation of acted scenes into psychic representation, affirming the continuity between dramatization, symbolization, and the interpretive process.
Training Objectives
By the end of the training, participants will be able to:
– Situate individual psychoanalytic psychodrama within the lineage of psychoanalytic theory, from Freud to Lebovici, Diatkine, Anzieu, and Kaës.
– Understand dramatization as a process of representation and symbolization within the transference field.
– Conduct individual psychodrama sessions with clinical and interpretive rigor.
– Identify and work through transference and countertransference dynamics that emerge in enacted scenes.
– Integrate psychodramatic technique into individual analytic practice, maintaining the ethical and methodological boundaries of the analytic frame.
Structure and Duration
The training extends over six semesters (three years):
– Semesters 1–2: Foundations of theory and technique, including experiential exercises and simulations (no patients).
– Semesters 3–6: Clinical practice phase involving individual psychodrama sessions with two patients per session, under supervision.
– Throughout: Theoretical seminars, case discussions, and collective supervision integrated across the program.
Each group consists of 6–8 candidates to allow close supervision and deep group reflection.
Format and Schedule
Weekly in-person sessions at Pulsion Institute.
Time options (to be selected collectively):
– Monday or Tuesday mornings
– Tuesday midday
– Wednesday mornings
– Saturday mornings at 8:00 or 9:00 a.m.
Each session lasts approximately 1.5 hours.
Instructor
Anaba Gandini, MSc, MAS, LP. Clinical psychologist and licensed psychoanalyst with fifteen years of clinical experience. Trained and certified in Switzerland, she completed advanced postgraduate studies in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, including specialized formation in Psychoanalytic Psychodrama under the supervision of senior members of the Société Suisse de Psychanalyse.
Her clinical formation took place in Geneva and Lausanne, where she practiced within analytic clinics offering both individual and group psychodrama sessions. These experiences shaped her integration of classical psychoanalytic technique with psychodramatic innovation, emphasizing the interpretive function of enactment within transference.
Now based in New York, she works as a supervisor and clinician specializing in child and adult psychotherapy. Her teaching method combines theoretical depth, analytical precision, and an experiential understanding of the body and group as vehicles for unconscious communication and transformation.
Certification
Participants who complete all six semesters, with active engagement in seminars and supervised clinical work, will receive the Pulsion Certificate in Individual Psychoanalytic Psychodrama
Registration and Questions
If you have questions about whether this training might be right for you, please email Anaba Mahshoor-Gandini at: anaba.gandini@gmail.com
You are welcome (though not required) to include a brief note about your clinical background and what draws your interest or hesitation regarding psychodrama. This can help orient the presentation and ensure space for the questions that feel most alive for you.