David Downing
David L Downing, PsyD, ABPP, FAPA
PsychologistContact Information:
63 east lake street
suite 1207
chicago, IL
United States 60601
TEL: 312.266.1665
E-mail: davidldowning@gmail.com
Vcard: import to my address book
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Practice Information:
Bio/Background:
David L Downing, PsyD, ABPP is a board-certified psychoanalyst and licensed clinical psychologist. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, He is the Past-President of the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis (ABAPsa), of the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) [of which he is also a Fellow], as well as numerous other psychoanalytical societies. Through his academic positions, and as a clinical supervisor focused on training graduate students on how to integrate theory and practice, across over more than thirty-two years, he has been instrumental in the formation of literally thousands of professionals-in-training professional identities. His four books have helped disseminate theory and practice models to psychologists-in-training and introduced psychoanalytical practice with respect to under-served and severely mentally ill patients to new generations. This can be expected to translate into more informed care for these individuals. As a dean, professor, director of training, and director of graduate programs in psychology, of a psychoanalytic institute, and three APA-accredited graduate doctoral programs in clinical psychology, Dr Downing has been actively involved in teaching, lecturing, and even more importantly perhaps, in the development of curricula transmitting professional competencies to these professionals-in-training, as well as ensuring the quality and integrity of programs such that they were able to apply for, and become accredited by, the American Psychological Association. He has developed numerous elective and core courses to the curricula of every academic program with which he has been affiliated. This adds to the fund of often-times more specialised knowledge, professional skills, and professional attitudes of professionals-in-training, and ultimately, to quality of care for patients. As a President and continuing board member of the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis he contributes to the promotion of psychoanalytical psychology and psychoanalysis in clinical and applied settings. He has helped to establish guidelines for becoming board-certified (ABPP) as a psychologist-psychoanalyst. He also contributed to revising and submitting the CRSPPP renewal for Psychoanalysis as a speciality within the profession of psychology, contributing to the on-going possibility of obtaining the ABPP in psychoanalysis. As a Board member and member of the executive committee of the Division of Psychoanalysis (39), as well as its chairperson for the Education and Training Committee, Dr Downing has conducted three national surveys that have been tracking the presence of psychoanalytical discourses with graduate psychology programs; and within pre-doctoral clinical internships, and in the more recent iteration, the inclusion of psychoanalytically-friendly post-doctoral fellowships. As an APA Council Representative of Division 39, Dr Downing assisted and participated in APA governance, considering the variety of important issues facing the APA and psychology in such matters as the policies regarding torture, ethics, good governance project, the recent masters initiative, considering practice guidelines, and many other items of business. These all have impacts on the future of psychology and the evolution of the field, and the need to continue to attract young people to graduate studies in psychology, ensuring its relevance, and continued contributions to society. In the Peoples Republic of China, in 1996, he lectured on APA accreditation, exploring Guidelines and Principles, the accreditation process and its relevance, to audiences of Chinese colleagues just beginning to consider such matters. This seemed to have an impact as to how a culture of competencies might translate to what our Chinese colleagues were interested in initiating. His discussions of neuro-psychology and its inter-face with psychoanalysis was helpful in making psychoanalysis more relevant to Chinese colleagues, for whom industrial accidents and the rise in TBIs was of great concern, as they considered programs for rehabilitating injured workers. Similarly, in Munich, Germany, in 2014, as one of the few mental health professionals in the psychoanalytical congress, Dr Downing’s paper helped educate colleagues from around the world as to the vicissitudes of psychoanalysis as a health-care profession. Dr Downing is a highly recognised scholar with a healthy publication record focused on clinical practice and graduate training in clinical psychology; has been in numerous leadership and service roles including being president of at several organisations; is heavily involved in APA activities and has been for decades; is focused on graduate education models and in improving pedagogy and training programs in professional psychology; is concerned about under-served and disenfranchized populations including racial, ethnic, LGBTQ, and other marginalised groups; advocates for social activism including the treatment of psychotic adults in out-patient practice; maintains a private practice; and provides pro bono services to those who are impoverished. Dr Downing has given hundreds of professional presentations and lectures in his career as is evinced in his CV, including his Presidential Address at the international Federation of Psychoanalytic Education, in Toronto, Canada. ADDITIONAL TRAINING AND EDUCATION
Wright State University Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, January 1982 to June 1984. “An Introduction to Psychoanalytic Psychiatry”; Seminars in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Enrolled in all Psychoanalytic offerings in W.S.U. School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry didactic sequence in psychiatry residency program. For academic credit.
University of Cincinnati Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, January to April 1983. 3 hours per week. “The conduct and process of psychoanalysis: A self-psychological approach.” Conducted by Paul Ornstein, M.D., and Anna Ornstein, M.D. For academic credit.
Center for Psychoanalytic Study, Chicago, Illinois. Enrolled in program leading to certificate to practice psychoanalysis. September 1988 to June 1994. Curriculum included course work, case supervision of psychoanalyses, and personal psychoanalysis.
Groupe Interdisciplinaire Freudienne De Recherches et d’Interventions Cliniques et Culturelles (GIFRIC). Yearly advanced training seminar in Lacanian Psychoanalysis. Year One, June 2002; Year Two, June 2003. Quebec, Quebec. CANADA.
Chicago Circle Association. 2000 to 2018. Chicago, Illinois. Several monthly advanced psychoanalytical seminars on the theories of Jacques Lacan, Sigmund Freud, and the treatment of the psychoses.
Christopher Bollas, PhD, Psychoanalytical Study Group. December 2003 to 2009. Chicago, Illinois. Quarterly, four-hour-sessions of group consultation, case presentation, and study of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytical thought. Facilitated and taught by an internationally-renowned author, theoretician, and clinician based in London, England, UNITED KINGDOM. Discontinued as Dr Bollas no longer was able to continue the Seminar schedule and extensive travels involved.
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