The Greater Kansas City and Topeka Psychoanalytic Center

08/12/2026

Please use this link to sign up for the course or for more information: https://www.gkcpsa.org/events/new-mini-course-integrating-knowing-and-being-toward-a-psychoanalytic-identity/

Integrating Knowing and Being: Toward a Psychoanalytic Identity

Presented by: Paul Koehler, LCSW &
Michelle Pfeifer, LIMHP

2026-27 Class Dates: October 7, November 4, December 2, January 6, February 3, March 3, April 7, & May 5
(8 sessions)

7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Central Time
on Zoom
_______________________________

Whether you are an early career clinician or a seasoned analyst this course will help you create and solidify your personal-professional identity. _______________________________

In recent decades there has emerged a strand of psychoanalytic theorizing and practice that distinguishes between what has been designated as the epistemological approach to psychoanalysis, which emphasizes the facilitation of the patient’s gaining a fuller understanding of himself or herself (explicated in the writings of Freud and Klein), and the ontological approach, which emphasizes the facilitation of the patient’s more fully becoming himself or herself (as explicated in the writings of Winnicott and Bion).

This course will consider how this distinction operates in the other half of the analytic dyad: i.e., how we as psychoanalytic practitioners allow for and integrate our understanding and mastery of psychoanalytic theory and technique with who we are continually becoming as human beings and evolving practitioners; or, in other words, how we internalize and hold true to established psychoanalytic knowledge and tradition while at the same time working as practitioners in our own distinctive and deeply personal ways.

08/12/2026

Please use the link below to sign up and for more details: https://www.gkcpsa.org/events/new-dei-seminar-resilience-and-survival-the-ongoing-journeys-of-native-americans/

Resilience and Survival: The Ongoing Journeys of Native Americans

Presented by: Paul Koehler, LCSW &
Karen Fraley, LCSW

2026-27 Class Dates: October 21, November 18, December 16, January 20, February 17, March 17, April 21, & May 19
(8 sessions)

6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Central Time on Zoom _______________________________

This seminar will be structured around the careful reading and study of the book, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present, by David Tueuer. This book challenges the notion that Native American culture perished with the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. It, rather, chronicles the struggles of Native American tribes and individuals as they encountered, navigated, and in many ways have overcome the many and varied obstacles they have confronted on their journeys to sustain their ancestral, pluralistic cultures while at the same time seeking to assimilate into the larger American cultural landscape.

08/12/2026

https://conta.cc/4wpmz3u

Email from Greater Kansas City Psychoanalytic Center We hope you’ll join us for an evening of books, wine, conversation, and community! Book Open House & Community Social Tuesday, October 6th | 6:0

05/10/2026

Refuge, oasis... Spectrum... Safe space... Layers... Grateful... Endearing... Community... Enjoyment in others’ minds... Cycle... I’m not alone in this work ❤️

These are the words and phrases that our fellowship students used to describe their experience this academic year as we met in person for our final gathering 🥹

We so enjoyed getting to know you all this year and having our imperfect goodbye today!

05/07/2026

2026-27 GKCTPC Center Membership Drive - Join or Renew by June 12th!

Click Here to Join or Renew: https://givingtools.com/give/78/5884

If you’re wanting to stay connected to psychoanalytic thinking—not just intellectually, but in a way that feels alive and shared—the Greater Kansas City & Topeka Center offers a space for that.

It’s a great place to stay engaged, to keep thinking, to be in dialogue with others who care about the depth and complexity of the work.

Through seminars, workshops, study groups, and courses, membership becomes less about attending and more about belonging—to a shared way of thinking and working.

Membership includes:
Ongoing learning across programs
CEUs/CMEs
PEP-Web access
Connection to a thoughtful, professional community
Membership options are:
Regular – $350: Full access, PEP-Web, and free CEUs/CMEs for Monday Night Seminars
Sustaining – $1000: All benefits + recognition events and a $50 event credit
Student – $95: Full access for students, interns, and residents + PEP-Web

For those who like to see what’s included, membership also offers:
7 Monday Night Seminars with free CEUs/CMEs (valued at $45 each = $315)
Workshop discounts ($45 discount per event)
PEP-Web access (cost of an individual subscription: $148/year + $1,030 entry fee)

All of this supports something that’s harder to quantify, but often more meaningful—a place to return to, a way to stay connected, a work that continues—together.

We’d love to have you with us.

Warmly,
Jessica Almond, LPC, LCPC
President, Greater Kansas City & Topeka Psychoanalytic Center

04/21/2026

Become a GUEST SCHOLAR at the Greater Kansas City Psychoanalytic Institute

The following courses are available for the academic year 2026-27:
Quarter 1 Intro to Freud
Quarter 2 Ego Psychology
Quarter 3 Object Relations 1
Quarter 4 Psychodynamic Psychopathology
And the academic year 2027-28:
Quarter 1 Self Psychology
Quarter 2 Relational Psychoanalysis
Quarter 3 Personality Styles: Borderline & Narcissistic
Quarter 4 Trauma and Loss

Guest Scholars can take up to 5 of the 8 courses. The reading requirement is approximately 50 pages per week. Any courses taken will need to be repeated as a part of the curriculum for our two- and four-year training programs but will be free since they have already been paid for once.

All of these seminars are hybrid and occur on Fridays from 1:30-3pm at Center for Behavioral Medicine at 1000 E. 24 St., Kansas City, MO 64108. Scheduling of the quarters generally runs as follows depending on when various breaks happen and/or how the Fridays fall within the months:

Q1 First Friday after Labor Day to end of Oct
Q2 End of October to the beginning of Jan.
Q3 Middle of January to around mid-March
Q4 Mid-March to around the middle of May

Apply by May 1st!

Here is the link for information page containing the application: https://www.gkcpsa.org/training/guest-scholar-program/

04/15/2026

Now Accepting Applications to our Fellowship in Psychoanalytic Thought!

Please Apply Here: https://conta.cc/4mwKTNx

Psychodynamic thinking invites a deeper understanding of people, relationships, and the inner life. The Fellowship program offers an introduction to these ideas in a way that is accessible, reflective, and rooted in conversation, regardless of professional background.

We welcome mental health professionals, educators, artists, attorneys, business leaders, and anyone curious about the human mind. Psychoanalytic thinking lives not only in the consulting room, but also in everyday interactions, art, culture, and the social worlds we inhabit. The ordinary moments of everyday life are rich with psychoanalytic insight. The Fellowship values the dialogue that emerges when people from different fields, identities, and life experiences gather to think together about the complexities of being human.

We especially encourage early career professionals and postgraduate students to participate. Encountering psychodynamic ideas early in one’s professional life can shape how we listen, how we think, and how we relate for years to come.

The Fellowship meets once a month throughout the academic year, from September through May. Together we explore how humans develop, reflect on common psychological and interpersonal struggles, and consider broader societal experiences. Conversations often extend into the professional lives of Fellows, allowing space to think together about questions that arise in their own work.

The seminar is led by psychoanalyst Holly Anderson, M.A., LMFT, LCMFT, a graduate of the Greater Kansas City Psychoanalytic Institute, and co-led by Robin Li, Ph.D., a Candidate at the Greater Kansas City Psychoanalytic Institute.

Program Fees: The application fee is $25. Fellows accepted into the program become members of the Greater Kansas City-Topeka Psychoanalytic Center at the student membership rate.

Admission decisions will be communicated to applicants no later than June 30, 2026.