Ackerman Institute for the Family

Ackerman Institute for the Family One of the premier institutions for family therapy, training, and research in the US. Serving families since 1960.

🦃🍁 Happy Thanksgiving from the Ackerman Institute for the Family!We’re grateful for our community of clinicians, familie...
11/27/2025

🦃🍁 Happy Thanksgiving from the Ackerman Institute for the Family!
We’re grateful for our community of clinicians, families, trainees, and partners who make our work possible.

Wishing you a joyful and restorative holiday.

🍂 Holiday Closure NoticeRecess starts Wed, Nov 26 at 3 PM.We will be closed Nov 27–30, 2025 for Thanksgiving.Have a wond...
11/26/2025

🍂 Holiday Closure Notice
Recess starts Wed, Nov 26 at 3 PM.
We will be closed Nov 27–30, 2025 for Thanksgiving.
Have a wonderful holiday!

11/25/2025

There’s no better feeling in the world than to be understood.

As Walter Vega, LCSW, shares in this on-demand workshop clip, therapy at its core is about helping people feel understood. When we approach difference with curiosity instead of certainty, we create the safety and connection that lead to real engagement.

🎥 Watch the full workshop:
From Cultural Competence to Cultural Curiosity: Overcoming Obstacles to Engagement

1.5 CE credits | Available on demand → https://www.ackerman.org/workshop/from-cultural-competence-to-cultural-curiosity-overcoming-obstacles-to-engagement/

Playful Practices to Use in Family Therapy with ChildrenWhen families come to therapy, they often bring stories shaped b...
11/24/2025

Playful Practices to Use in Family Therapy with Children

When families come to therapy, they often bring stories shaped by disconnection and self-blame.
This workshop invites clinicians to use play, curiosity, and collaboration to help families rewrite those stories.

Join Catherine Lewis, LCSW, MS, for a 90-minute live online training filled with practical, relational tools you can use right away; from repair-focused roleplays to connection-building rituals that restore attunement.

📅 Wednesday, December 3, 2025
🕐 12:00 – 1:30 PM ET
💻 Live Online
🎓 Earn 1.5 CE Contact Hours

You’ll Learn How To:
✅ Apply a relational, non-pathologizing stance in family therapy
✅ Use interview questions that invite new family storylines
✅ Bring play and repair into sessions to strengthen family bonds

Register now → https://www.ackerman.org/events/playful-practices-to-use-in-family-therapy-with-children/?

When working with Borderline Personality Disorder, connection can feel impossible—yet it’s exactly what’s needed most.Jo...
11/20/2025

When working with Borderline Personality Disorder, connection can feel impossible—yet it’s exactly what’s needed most.

Join Dr. Lastenia Francis, PhD, LMFT, for Trauma to Trust: Systemic Treatment of BPD, a 3-hour live online workshop for clinicians ready to move beyond fear-based reactions toward relational understanding.

This dialogue-centered training reframes “symptoms” as trauma-rooted protective adaptations and offers a clear, compassionate framework for restoring safety and trust in therapy.

📅 Friday, November 21, 2025
🕙 10 AM – 1 PM ET
💻 Live Online | 3 CE Contact Hours

You’ll Learn To:
✅ Understand BPD through a systemic lens
✅ Disarm defenses with warm, firm care
✅ Stabilize alliances and restore relational safety

Reserve your spot → https://www.ackerman.org/events/trauma-to-trust-systemic-treatment-of-borderline-personality-disorder-bpd/?

Trauma to Trust: Systemic Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder.When relationships feel like walking on eggshells...
11/19/2025

Trauma to Trust: Systemic Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder.

When relationships feel like walking on eggshells, it’s often a story of protection — not pathology.

Join Dr. Lastenia Francis, PhD, LMFT, for a case-rich, trauma-informed workshop that reframes BPD through a systemic lens. Learn how to lower threat, stabilize alliances, and restore relational safety using approaches grounded in trauma, attachment, and equity-aware care.

📅 Friday, November 21, 2025
🕙 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM ET
💻 Live Online
🎓 Earn 3 CE Contact Hours

You’ll Learn How To:
✅ Reframe BPD symptoms as trauma-rooted protective adaptations
✅ Apply warm, firm care to disarm defenses and build trust
✅ Integrate systemic, culturally responsive strategies across therapy contexts

Register now → https://www.ackerman.org/events/trauma-to-trust-systemic-treatment-of-borderline-personality-disorder-bpd/?

11/17/2025

❤️ How do happy couples fight?

Dr. Mona Fishbane says: They don’t fight to win — they fight to learn about each other.

Even the healthiest relationships have moments of reactivity. The difference is in the repair; how partners come back together with empathy and understanding.

This clip comes from our on-demand workshop,
From Reactivity to Empowerment in Couple Therapy —
a 90-minute training that helps therapists guide couples toward awareness, trust, and connection.

🎓 Watch anytime and earn CE credit → https://www.ackerman.org/workshop/from-reactivity-to-empowerment-in-couple-therapy/

🕯️HOLDING GRIEF AND BUILDING RESILIENCE TOGETHER 🕯️A Virtual Panel for Families & Allies of Transgender, Non-Binary, & G...
11/17/2025

🕯️HOLDING GRIEF AND BUILDING RESILIENCE TOGETHER 🕯️
A Virtual Panel for Families & Allies of Transgender, Non-Binary, & Gender Expansive Youth in Honor of Transgender Day of Remembrance
Hosted by Gender and Family Project in partnership with Lambda Legal, Trans formative Schools, and New York City Anti-Violence Project
⏰ Thursday, November 20th, 2025 from 7:00-8:30pm Eastern
➡️ RSVP*: genderandfamilyproject.org/TDOR-2025
Our community is under attack. How do we grieve? How do we protect our youth?
In honor of , the Ackerman Institute for the Family ‘s Gender & Family Project will host a virtual panel featuring individuals and organizations supporting transgender, non-binary, and gender expansive youth in the New York area. The panel will offer a virtual space for families of transgender and non-binary youth and allies to gather resources, ask questions, and be in community amid rising anti-transgender legislation and rhetoric.
Transgender Day of Remembrance is observed annually to memorialize members of the transgender, non-binary, and gender expansive community lost to transphobic violence, through murder or su***de. Such tragedy can feel overwhelming and terrifying, especially for young people in our community and the adults who support them. Join us in honoring those we’ve lost and learn how to show up and protect our transgender, non-binary, and gender expansive youth during these tumultuous times. In grief and resilience, we are stronger together.
* To ensure a safe, virtual experience for our panelists and attendees, we kindly require an RSVP. If you have any questions regarding this event or RSVP form, please email gfp@ackerman.org .

We all have stories about emotion — “I’ll get overwhelmed if I feel too much,” or “It’s better to stay calm than angry.”...
11/17/2025

We all have stories about emotion — “I’ll get overwhelmed if I feel too much,” or “It’s better to stay calm than angry.”
But what if understanding our emotions was actually the key to greater connection, communication, and balance?

Join Dr. Martha E. Edwards, PhD, Director of the Ackerman Institute’s Center for the Developing Child and Family, for a 60-minute live online workshop that explores how to connect with, understand, and use emotion to enrich your life and relationships.

📅 November 19, 2025
🕐 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET
💻 Live Online
🎓 Earn 1 CE Contact Hour
💰 Tuition: $49

You’ll Learn How To:
✅ Differentiate between core and defensive emotions
✅ Identify common emotional defenses
✅ Practice techniques for reconnecting with core emotions

Register today → https://www.ackerman.org/events/the-essentials-of-emotion-connecting-to-and-using-emotion-to-enrich-life-and-relationships/?

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10010

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+12128794900

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