Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
When are classes being held?
On Sundays at 12pm-3pm ET.
What led to your forming this group?
The short of it is that we were and are frustrated. We love the potentially transformative nature of psychoanalysis, but we are outraged, saddened, and worried about how psychoanalysis is being used in oppressive ways and how it is co-opted towards oppressive ends. Most of us are people who have seen and experienced first-hand the multiple harms that can be, and often are, done in traditional psychoanalytic institutes. We want to provide an alternative way, a liberatory way, for all who are interested to engage with psychoanalytic thought and take it to their clinics, communities, practices, and other educational settings.
How did you select your faculty?
We approached colleagues of color and queer and trans colleagues only. We chose people whose work we know, have learned from, and who inspire us, people who are outspoken and who will not remain silent in the face of injustice. Many of our faculty are well-known for their original and daring contributions, and most have themselves dealt with racism and homotransphobia in their home institutes and in the field.
How did you select your curriculum?
We asked faculty to select what they want to teach based on what material they felt they have expertise in and, also, what they feel most excited about right now. We went this route because, from a pedagogical perspective, it is far more likely for learners to be inspired by and to learn more from a teacher who is themselves fascinated by what they teach. We also did so to care for our faculty: we don’t want teaching to feel like a chore to them (and haven’t we all sat in classes where it was clear that the person teaching it was bored out of their mind?). After faculty sent in their course materials, we sequenced the material in a way that makes pedagogical sense.
Is this a complete training program?
No. This is a one-year learning program that is distinctively tailored to teach a range of psychoanalytic principles while being attentive to how power structures affect both what we learn and teach and how we learn and teach.
Can I put my hope in you?
We wish we could say yes. But we know too much about human failure, about transference, and about hubris to make such a promise. What we do promise is that we will do our best and we will keep each other accountable.
If you have concerns about something that happened in a class, please contact us at [email protected].
What if I want to study longer with you?
The short version is, you can’t. We are a one-year program, at least for now.
But you may be able to study longer with any one of our faculty: feel free to privately approach any of the P-HOLE faculty to ask about further study opportunities with them. You will have to negotiate the particulars with each of them. Have fun!
What are the requirements for me to study with you?
None. Just register.
How many people will be in each class?
Our hope is a lot – because we know many people are hungry for an education of this sort. How many, though, we can’t really predict. Because this is not a comprehensive training program but a serious exposure to decolonial, pro-trans, pro-Palestine, anti-racist psychoanalytic thinking, and because we are running this for the very first time, we have no idea how many people will register nor how many will show up for each class. When registering, be prepared to be in a small group or in a large zoom room of many pages of participants.
How do you handle issues of patient confidentiality when there are no parameters on who registers?
Because we don’t know who will register and how many people will register, we do not have the capacity to guarantee the usual confidentiality that characterizes clinical discussions. Consequently, none of our classes is set up as group supervision or case consultation. We also discourage you from discussing clinical material extensively; the groups may be too big for even anonymity to suffice. Faculty and registrants can, however, create composites to hone in on a question or theoretical matter – though, again, we do not provide supervision and we ask that no one present extended vignettes from a real patient.
Can I select which faculty I want to study with and which courses I want to take?
Yes and no.
No, in the sense that you can’t register for only one faculty’s units or only one segment of the course; we only register people for the entire year.
Yes, in the sense that you can register and then show up for whichever meetings you want.
Our opinion? Everyone teaching at P-HOLE is carefully selected, knowledgeable in their field, and an original thinker. So, why miss out on learning from any one of our faculty?
How can I apply to teach?
Faculty is by invitation only. Please don’t approach anyone in our group to ask to teach.
How did you decide on the registration costs?
We gave money a lot of thought. On the one hand, we wanted the course to be accessible to as many people as possible; on the other, we wanted to pay our faculty well so that they are compensated for the time and energy they spend on their courses. We took into account the fact that some people will be able to afford a full fee either because of their income or family wealth. We expect those individuals to pay the full fee. Others will be very motivated, but have more limited earnings or extended financial obligations. We are also aware that incomes and living wages vary tremendously by region and national location, and the fact that the course costs are in US dollars may also affect ability to pay. Our payment tiers reflect this variation.
Because we believe in transparency, we want to address some additional questions about money, a topic that, to our detriment we don’t discuss nearly enough in our field.
a. How much is faculty paid?
Our faculty have agreed to be paid $600 for each 3-hour session they teach. Depending on their circumstances, different arrangements might be made.
b. Why are you paying them at all? If you and your faculty are truly committed to a liberatory psychoanalytic education, why are you not doing this on a volunteer basis?
For us, this is a labor issue. As long as we live in a capitalist world that runs on economic inequalities, we felt that asking faculty of color and queer and trans faculty to work for free (and on their weekends at that!) is unfair.
Many of us love to teach and understand pedagogy as a form of care. But this does not mean it is not also work. Our faculty enjoy teaching but they are not just having fun: they are assuming responsibilities for the material they will be exposing you to and for creating a learning environment.
c. Isn’t $600 per 3-hour session a lot of money?
At the moment, our faculty are all based in North America (something we will change if this initiative endures). $600 per course is fair payment, which is something we want for our faculty whose labor has often been exploited. The pay reflects not only the time each person puts into their teaching but also the time they need to prepare for the course, to email back and forth with us and with you as needed.
Faculty are not required to hold office hours so please don’t ask for individual meetings, unless a faculty has explicitly welcomed that.
d. What will you do if there’s money left over after you pay faculty?
If we have money left over, we will cover our expenses and donate the rest to social justice organizations. We will be transparent (by posting on our website) which organizations that money would go to.
Who is organizing this?
The four of us at the helm are Nicole Nelson, Ann Pellegrini, Adrian Sanchez, and Avgi Saketopoulou. But we see it as a collective effort between colleagues who are aligned on the value of psychoanalytic thinking and the inextricability of the psychic with the social and the political.
What language is the instruction in?
We have encouraged faculty to choose the language in which they will teach. The languages the courses are being taught in are listed next to the classes.
What if I don’t speak the language of a class being taught?
You do not have to come to that session.
Do I get a refund for classes I don’t attend?
There are no refunds for classes you can’t attend; registration is a flat fee for the entire year.
What if other Sunday commitments prohibit me from attending every class?
We expect that this will, sometimes, be the case. On our end, we will not be tracking anyone’s attendance nor is it a requirement for us that you show up every week. To get the most out of the course, we recommend that you attend as consistently as possible. But we would also encourage you not to think of the learning you’ll do with us as a commitment to us, but as something you are embarking on for your own growth, which, naturally, has to be balanced out with life more generally.
Can I register at a lower cost if I know in advance I cannot attend all Sunday meetings?
Registration is a flat fee for the entire year. We do not have a prorated fee option to account for classes you would not be able to attend. We have given a lot of thought to our payment tiers, which are based on registrants’ financial situation, professional status, etc. We ask that you go by those criteria and that you do not factor in the frequency at which you can attend in deciding which registration tier you are signing up under.
Do I get any credit for this course?
Not unless you negotiate something privately with your institute, training program, etc. Please note that we are not able to provide personalized paperwork to assist in that or to confirm attendance (we are a small co-run group and don’t have the resources to do so). If you want to approach your institute/training program to explore the possibility for getting credit, you can use the general information on our website and the course reading list (which you will receive over the year, by the faculty teaching each course).
Will the classes be recorded for later viewing?
No. This is one way that we protect the confidentiality of the material discussed (please see question #8, for more information). Also, we want to leave room for the faculty and participants to have a creative process, and we think that recording the classes might adversely affect that. This unfortunately means that all participation has to be synchronous.
Do I get a certificate after completing this course?
No, there is no certificate.
Can I tell my colleagues about this?
Yes. Please spread the word. We recruit.
What is your refund policy?
There is no refund.
What happens when a class is cancelled by a faculty member?
Our faculty are amazing but they are still human. We trust them all: they are responsible professionals who would not cancel a class unless absolutely necessary. And sometimes things do happen – illness, family emergencies, and other unavoidable situations- that will lead a faculty member to cancel. For multiple reasons, we do not expect them to make up cancelled classes. Some faculty may offer alternatives based on their availability and other factors, but it is not required nor is it always possible.
Why do you hold classes on the Sundays of Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, and Mother’s Day?
We do not honor days made to celebrate land grabs and nationalist and/or imperialist ventures, and we certainly do not honor Hallmark holidays made for capitalist gain.
Why do you not hold classes on the Sundays of Catholic and Orthodox Easter?
We believe that religiously observed holidays should be respected. To set our course schedule, we consulted numerous calendars of diverse religious traditions (Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, and other days of observance) to make sure no Sunday classes overlap with an important religious obligation. As far as we could tell, in the 2025-2026 academic calendar, only these two Easters did; however, if we missed something, please let us know.
Why are there no class meetings between the 21st of December and the 11th of January?
With 35 weeks of instruction, this is a very intense year of study. We felt it was important to build in a break. To be sure, this particular break follows a Western academic calendar with class recess around Christmas and the Western secular celebration of the New Year. We made that choice because most of our faculty, all of whom reside in North America, tend to be on break during that time.
These calendar choices are not written in stone and may be revised in the future– and, in fact, we would appreciate your feedback on these decisions.