I consider the Institute my alma mater. It became not only a decent training for me, but a turning point in my life.

Place of work: Private practice
After I graduated from the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis (2007-2010) with a degree in Psychology and a specialization in Clinical Psychology, the question of professional self-determination arose. In 2010, I entered a professional retraining course at the IPPP within the frames of the "Psychological counseling, psychocorrection, psychotherapy" program. A special feature of the course was that it combined theoretical materials with practice, which is important in training of counseling psychologists. Numerous seminars, video trainings, trainings on interaction between the therapist and the client, during all of which one develops his/her practical skills. The trainings of Elena Spirkina and Lyudmila Sechko impressed me a lot. These teachers demonstrated support and knowledge (which they generously shared), openness and a subtle ability to feel the entire group and each one in particular.
 
The Institute has one of the best faculties of practicing psychologists: Elena Spirkina, Konstantin Yagnyuk, Lucy Mikaelyan, Alexander Venger, Tatyana Sviridenko, Olga Salishcheva and others. The educational system successfully combines Russian teaching traditions and world experience in training specialists in psychology. Thus, the program covers many types of psychological counseling: individual, couple, psychological counseling for children and parents. This allows graduates to freely orient in the profession they have chosen, to improve their competence and successfully master new practical skills, and to be popular on the modern labor market.
 
Those who plan to start individual sessions and organize private practice, get an opportunity to practice psychotherapeutic work with clients under the guidance of supervisors. At my own request, I chose to practice at the Russian Children's Clinical Hospital, in the Department of Maxillofacial Surgery. It was a serious test for me, to face human distress just like this, one-on-one. After some time, my inner tensions gave way to confidence and joy of feeling that I could provide real help. It was a valuable practical experience for me.
 
I would like to particularly thank Konstantin Yagnyuk, who brings a lot of useful things to the program of psychological counseling and therapy. Being a teacher of the highest level, he is also profound and subtle as a professional. We saw him as a true example to strive for in our personal development as well as in the profession of a psychologist. His creative approach to the learning process, the aspiration to new research in both theory and practice helped us to deepen our knowledge of psychology. I would also like to thank Alexander Venger, a psychotherapist with many years of experience, a highly professional teacher, an author of books on practical psychology, and a person of extraordinary spirit and intelligence.
 
A big advantage of this course is the atmosphere of trust and support that is created in the classroom. It helps you to maintain high performance and a positive attitude throughout the  whole training. I really liked the program. And I consider it a very important stage in my education. I gained valuable practical experience, as well as tools to act in a way to independently develop further.

It is very important to me that my diploma was recognized by the Shanghai International Mental Health Association (SIMHA), which allows me to work and be a part of the professional community.
I am generally happy with my education. In my opinion, the advantages of studying at the Institute were:

• The faculty: excellent specialists in the research field, many experienced practitioners, which makes it possible to learn about the subtleties of the profession first-hand.
• Various kinds of practice with supervisor's support.
• A comfortable tuition form as it did not require my permanent residence in Moscow.
• An opportunity of being supervised during and after the training.
• An ability to keep in touch with the Institute after graduation through conferences, workshops and trainings.

At the IPPP, I got acquainted with new practical directions in psychotherapy, such as, for example, guided imaginary and systemic family therapy. Clinical psychology knowledge helps me in working with psychosomatics, in diagnosing mental pathology.