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.

How do we help clients find meaning after unbearable loss?Profound grief can shatter relationships, identity, and hope. ...
03/03/2026

How do we help clients find meaning after unbearable loss?

Profound grief can shatter relationships, identity, and hope. Yet decades of resilience research show that healing is possible — especially when relational connections are strengthened.

Join us on March 20 (10:00 AM–1:00 PM ET) for:

Loss, Healing, and Resilience: Finding Light Through Darkness
with Froma Walsh, PhD
(3 CE Contact Hours | Live Online)

Drawing on her internationally recognized resilience-oriented systemic framework, Dr. Walsh will guide clinicians in:

• Applying research-informed practices to complex and traumatic loss
• Identifying relational constraints that intensify suffering
• Facilitating meaning-making, agency, hope, and renewal
• Supporting individuals, couples, and families in moving forward after devastating loss

Dr. Walsh is one of the leading voices in family resilience, with over three decades of scholarship and clinical leadership in the field.

If you work with grief, trauma, or profound relational loss, this training offers a systemic and strength-based framework you can immediately integrate into practice.

📅 March 20, 2026
🕙 10:00 AM–1:00 PM ET
🎓 3 CE Contact Hours
💻 Live Online

Registration is now open, learn more here: https://www.ackerman.org/events/loss-healing-and-resilience/?

In couples therapy, we often focus on conflict.But what if we focused more clearly on the patterns underneath it?Researc...
02/26/2026

In couples therapy, we often focus on conflict.

But what if we focused more clearly on the patterns underneath it?

Research shows that thriving relationships consistently reflect five core dimensions — and distressed relationships often show their opposites.

In this 1-hour live workshop, Dr. Jason Whiting will help clinicians sharpen their lens for identifying:

• Where honesty shifts into concealment
• When accountability becomes blame
• How respect erodes into contempt
• Where fairness breaks down
• And how commitment is tested

Grounded in research and clinical examples, this session offers a practical, non-pathologizing framework you can bring directly into your work with couples.

🗓 March 11, 2026
⏰ 12:00–1:00 PM ET
🎓 1 CE Contact Hour
💻 Live Online

If you work with couples and want sharper tools for strengthening connection and addressing harmful dynamics, join us.

Learn more HERE: https://www.ackerman.org/events/strengthening-connection/?

What makes some couples resilient — while others spiral into disconnection or harm?In this focused 60-minute training, D...
02/23/2026

What makes some couples resilient — while others spiral into disconnection or harm?

In this focused 60-minute training, Dr. Jason Whiting explores five core dimensions that shape healthy relationships:

Honesty. Accountability. Respect. Fairness. Commitment.

And just as importantly — how to recognize their damaging opposites in clinical work.

Drawing from research and real clinical examples, this workshop offers therapists a clear, non-pathologizing framework for identifying relational patterns and helping couples strengthen connection.

If you work with couples and want practical, research-informed tools you can apply immediately in session, this training is for you.

🗓 March 11, 2026

⏰ 12:00–1:00 PM ET

🎓 1 CE Contact Hour

💻 Live Online

Join us to deepen your clinical lens and strengthen the couples you serve.

Learn more here: https://www.ackerman.org/events/strengthening-connection/?

When a client suddenly “goes blank” in session… what do you do next?Dissociative blocking is one of the most common and ...
02/17/2026

When a client suddenly “goes blank” in session… what do you do next?

Dissociative blocking is one of the most common and confusing challenges in complex relational trauma work.

Clients may lose words.
Feel detached from their bodies.

Seem to disappear just as something important begins to emerge.

This 3-hour live online training offers a clear, step-by-step clinical roadmap for recognizing dissociative blocking and gently restoring emotional engagement.

Led by Michael Mondoro, LCSW, an AEDP-certified therapist and supervisor

specializing in complex trauma and parts work, this workshop will help you:

✔ Identify early markers of dissociation
✔ Use attachment-focused and intra-relational parts work interventions
✔ Restore safety and contact without overwhelming the system
✔ Support movement from guardedness to integration

If you work with complex trauma and want practical, experiential tools you can use immediately, this training is for you.

🗓 February 20, 2026
⏰ 1:00–4:00 PM ET
🎓 3 CE Contact Hours
💻 Live Online

Register here: https://www.ackerman.org/events/transforming-dissociative-blocking-and-restoring-connection/?

Most body image research — and many clinical conversations — have centered white, Western ideals and narrowly defined bo...
02/12/2026

Most body image research — and many clinical conversations — have centered white, Western ideals and narrowly defined body image as weight and size.

But body meaning is shaped by far more than that.

In this 90-minute live workshop, Dr. Narolyn Méndez expands the clinical lens to explore how race, gender, culture, and intersectionality inform body image among Afro-Latinx Caribbean women.

Grounded in original dissertation research and clinical application, this training will help you:

✔ Expand your definition of body image beyond size and shape
✔ Understand cultural and racial influences on embodiment and identity
✔ Engage clients in more nuanced, culturally attuned conversations about shame, beauty, and relational meaning

This is essential learning for clinicians committed to culturally responsive practice and deeper therapeutic understanding.

🗓 February 25, 2026
⏰ 12:00–1:30 PM ET
🎓 1.5 CE Contact Hours
💻 Live Online

👉 Register here: https://www.ackerman.org/events/body-image-through-an-afro-latinx-caribbean-lens-race-gender-culture-clinical/?

Who Are You Bringing in the Room?Self of Therapist Work with In*******al, Intercultural & Interfaith CouplesEvery therap...
02/10/2026

Who Are You Bringing in the Room?

Self of Therapist Work with In*******al, Intercultural & Interfaith Couples

Every therapist brings more than skills into the therapy room—we bring our histories, identities, assumptions, and lived experiences.

When working with in*******al, intercultural, and interfaith couples and families, self-of-the-therapist awareness isn’t optional—it’s essential.

This live, interactive workshop invites clinicians to slow down and reflect on how:

Family-of-origin beliefs

Cultural expectations

Power, privilege, and marginalization

Implicit rules around race, religion, and relationships

shape the way we show up with clients.

Grounded in intersectionality, ecological systems theory, and cultural humility, this training offers both conceptual frameworks and experiential exercises to help clinicians build flexibility, deepen presence, and work more ethically and effectively with diverse couples and families.

🗓 Friday, February 13, 2026
⏰ 1:00–4:00 PM ET
🎓 3 CE Contact Hours
💻 Live Online
👥 Presented by Gita Seshadri, PhD, LMFT & Dumayi Gutierrez, PhD, LMFT, LMHP

This workshop is ideal for therapists, social workers, and clinicians committed to ongoing self-reflection and culturally responsive practice.

👉 Register here: https://www.ackerman.org/events/who-are-you-bringing-in-the-room/

02/09/2026

Do you work with young adults and their parents navigating estrangement?

Join us for a powerful 1-hour online training where you'll learn strategies to support reconnection and reduce emotional distance.

📅 February 11 | 12–1 PM ET
🎓 1 CE Contact Hour
👨‍🏫 Led by Peter Abrons, PhD

This workshop will explore the common reasons behind family estrangement, and offer practical tools for clinicians working with emerging adults and their parents.

Register now to support the families in your practice with greater clarity and compassion:
👉 https://www.ackerman.org/events/healing-estranged-relationships-strategies-for-supporting-young-adults-and-their-parents/?

Parent–child estrangement rarely starts with one argument—it’s often the result of long-standing relational patterns.In ...
02/03/2026

Parent–child estrangement rarely starts with one argument—it’s often the result of long-standing relational patterns.

In this live workshop, clinicians will learn how to:
✔️ Assess the roots of estrangement
✔️ Identify family-of-origin dynamics at play
✔️ Support repair and emotional reconnection between young adults and parents

📌 Healing Estranged Relationships
🎙 Presented by Peter Abrons, PhD
🎓 Earn 1 CE Contact Hour
🗓 February 11 | 💻 Online

👉 Learn more & register: https://www.ackerman.org/events/healing-estranged-relationships-strategies-for-supporting-young-adults-and-their-parents/?

When young adults cut off contact with their parents, families are often left feeling confused, hurt, and stuck.Healing ...
01/29/2026

When young adults cut off contact with their parents, families are often left feeling confused, hurt, and stuck.

Healing Estranged Relationships is a live, 1-hour workshop designed for clinicians working with families navigating parent–adult child estrangement. Together, we’ll explore what’s often beneath the cutoff—and how to support reconnection with care and clarity.

🧠 Led by Peter Abrons, PhD
🎓 1 CE Contact Hour
🗓 February 11, 2026 | 12:00–1:00 PM ET
💻 Live Online

👉 Register here: https://www.ackerman.org/events/healing-estranged-relationships-strategies-for-supporting-young-adults-and-their-parents/?

Working with in*******al, intercultural, and interfaith couples requires more than good intentions—it requires self-awar...
01/28/2026

Working with in*******al, intercultural, and interfaith couples requires more than good intentions—it requires self-awareness, cultural humility, and clinical skill.

In this 3-hour live workshop, clinicians will explore how their own identities, family histories, and social locations shape the therapeutic process—and how to work more intentionally with difference in the room.

🧠 Who Are You Bringing in the Room?
🎓 Earn 3 CE Contact Hours
🗓 February 13, 2026 | 💻 Online
👩‍🏫 Led by Gita Seshadri, PhD, LMFT & Dumayi Gutierrez, PhD, LMFT

This training includes guided reflection, interactive discussion, and applied case work to support clinicians working with diverse couples and families across the life cycle.

👉 Learn more & register: https://www.ackerman.org/events/who-are-you-bringing-in-the-room/?

01/27/2026

What’s one small thing you do to take care of yourself between or after sessions?

Our identities, histories, and lived experiences shape how we show up with clients especially when working with in******...
01/27/2026

Our identities, histories, and lived experiences shape how we show up with clients especially when working with in*******al, intercultural, and interfaith couples and families.

This live, interactive workshop invites clinicians to engage in self-of-the-therapist work, exploring how power, privilege, family-of-origin narratives, and intersectionality influence clinical presence and decision-making.

📌 Who Are You Bringing in the Room?

🎓 3 CE Contact Hours

🗓 February 13, 2026 | 1:00–4:00 PM ET

💻 Live online

🎙 Presented by Gita Seshadri, PhD, LMFT & Dumayi Gutierrez, PhD, LMFT

Through reflection, discussion, and case-based role play, participants will deepen cultural humility and strengthen their work with diverse couples and families.

👉 Register here: https://www.ackerman.org/events/who-are-you-bringing-in-the-room/?

Address

936 Broadway Fl 2
New York, NY
10010

Telephone

+12128794900

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