Registrar Program
Two-Year Endorsement Pathway
The Registrar Years: More Than a Pathway to Endorsement
The registrar years are one of the most formative stages in a psychologist's professional life. Endorsement is the formal outcome. That said, we would argue that what we're actually building over these two years is a capacity to engage therapeutically with one’s clients, drawing upon well-developed clinical judgement and a therapeutic identity that outlasts the learning of techniques which may have been part of one’s training to date.
Led by Robert Schweitzer and Rebecca Bargenquast, the program combines structured registrar training with contemporary psychodynamic thinking, intensive supervision, and a genuine learning community.
Although the program is grounded in contemporary psychodynamic psychotherapy, many registrars join us from cognitive behavioural, systemic, ACT, integrative, and other therapeutic backgrounds. What unites participants is curiosity and a real appetite for deepening how they think clinically.
Our intake is intentionally limited to groups of no more than eight registrars and a limit of two groups a year. This allows for meaningful supervision, thoughtful discussion, and the kind of professional relationships that are difficult to foster in larger programs. Now taking its fourth intake, Insight has grown in conceptual coherence and clinical depth with each year it has run.
Structured, But Not Reductive
We recognise that registrars are working towards both professional endorsement and professional growth. The curriculum and supervision experience has been developed to meet the Board's requirements without reducing training to a checklist — integrating seminars, reading, case discussion, and reflective supervision into one coherent educational experience.
How the Program Works
Delivered over two years, the curriculum integrates seminars, reading, clinical case discussion, and supervision in a carefully sequenced program.
Each term builds from foundational psychodynamic concepts towards increasingly complex work in assessment, formulation, personality, trauma, severe mental illness, psychotherapy process, and professional identity. Throughout, theory is continually linked to the clinical work registrars bring from their own practice.
Curriculum
Insight runs over two years, with four eight-week terms per year (eight terms in total). Each term builds on the last, moving from foundational concepts in Year One to advanced clinical application in Year Two.
Year One: Foundations and Core Skills
Term 1 — Foundations of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Introduces the core concepts of psychodynamic listening: the unconscious, transference and countertransference, resistance, and the therapeutic frame.
Term 2 — Techniques and Interventions in Brief Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Explores how to bring psychodynamic depth to time-limited therapy, using the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT) method.
Term 3 — Conceptualisation and Psychodynamic Formulation
Develops the skills of psychodynamic assessment and formulation, treating formulation as an evolving clinical hypothesis rather than a fixed summary.
Term 4 — Theories and Schools Informing Practice
Surveys the major theoretical traditions — from Freud through object relations, self psychology, and Bion, to contemporary relational perspectives — and how each shapes clinical understanding.
Year Two: Advanced Clinical Applications
Term 1 — Early Relational Trauma and Borderline States of Mind
Focuses on working with early relational trauma and borderline presentations, and staying reflective and present under emotional intensity.
Term 2 — Shame and Narcissistic Presentations
Examines narcissistic vulnerability and shame, and how to sustain the therapeutic relationship through these dynamics.
Term 3 — The Recovery of Self in Psychosis (MERIT)
Introduces Metacognitive Reflection and Insight Therapy (MERIT) for working relationally with people presenting with psychosis and severe mental illness.
Term 4 — Integration and Professional Credo
Consolidates two years of learning into each participant's own professional credo — a coherent, personally grounded clinical identity.
Scholarship and Supervision
Our curriculum draws on the core psychodynamic thinkers explored throughout Insight — Winnicott, Ogden, Gabbard, McWilliams, and others — read alongside the clinical material registrars bring to supervision each week, so theory and practice inform each other in real time.
2027 Intake – Key Dates, Hours, and Fees
Term 1 – commencing week of 1 February 2027: Foundations of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Term 2 – commencing week of 12 April 2027: Brief Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Term 3 – commencing week of 12 July 2027: Psychodynamic Formulation
Term 4 – commencing week of 4 October 2027: Theories and Schools
80+ hours of Board-approved clinical supervision (Group and Optional Individual Supervision)
80+ hours of active CPD through seminar teaching, case discussion, and reflective practice
Standard fee: $1,460 per term / $5,840 per year
Early Bird fee (register by 20 October 2026): $1,260 per term / $5,040 per year
Registration deposit: $500
Estimated total per year, including individual supervision, meeting all AHPRA requirements: approximately $9,900 (Early Bird) to $10,700 (Standard)
Individual supervision (approximately 27 sessions annually) is available through INSIGHT supervisors at a discounted rate of approximately $4,860 per year — included within the estimated total above
Bursaries are available for applicants experiencing financial hardship – enquire at time of registration
Delivery mode and location: We adopt a hybrid model with face-to-face available in Brisbane and online for participants outside Brisbane. In-person supervision available in Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, Newcastle and potentially Melbourne.
Four eight-week terms are held per year, in weekly two-hour sessions, over two years. GST applies to supervision and educational components where applicable. Full details, including the complete fee schedule, are available in the Program Handbook.
Developing Your Therapeutic Identity
Professional endorsement is an important milestone, but should not be seen as the destination.
Our hope is that registrars complete the program with more than the competencies required for endorsement. We hope participants develop a clearer sense of who they are as clinicians, greater confidence in working with complexity, and an enduring commitment to reflective practice and lifelong learning.
Reflections from Our Registrars
Begin the Conversation
Choosing a registrar program is an important professional decision. If you're looking for a pathway that combines the requirements for endorsement with thoughtful supervision, scholarship, and a genuine commitment to your long-term development as a clinical psychologist, we would be delighted to talk with you.