Ackerman Institute for the Family, 936 Broadway Fl 2, New York, NY (2026)

04/29/2026

One of the leading voices in Emotionally Focused Therapy is coming to Ackerman Institute this May.

Join Elana Katz, LCSW, LMFT for an immersive in-person workshop:

**Hooked on a Feeling: Using the Power of Attachment in EFT**

Elana Katz is a senior faculty member at the Ackerman Institute for the Family, a founding board member of the New York Center for EFT, and one of the first therapists in New York certified in Emotionally Focused Therapy. As a certified EFT Trainer and Supervisor, she has spent decades helping clinicians deepen their understanding of attachment, emotion, and relationship dynamics.

In this 5 CE workshop, participants will learn how to:

• Identify reactive emotional cycles that keep couples stuck
• Access vulnerable emotions and underlying attachment needs
• Apply core EFT interventions to facilitate connection and repair
• Track key change moments in EFT treatment

Through lecture, case examples, video, and guided practice, clinicians will strengthen their ability to create meaningful corrective emotional experiences that help couples move from reactivity to secure bonding.

📅 May 8, 2026
🕤 9:30 AM – 3:30 PM ET
📍 In-Person at Ackerman Institute for the Family (NYC)
🎓 5 CE Contact Hours

Register here:
https://www.ackerman.org/events/hooked-on-a-feeling/?

04/27/2026

When does conflict cross the line?

It’s one of the most important—and challenging—questions clinicians face in couples work.

Many couples present with patterns that can look like “just conflict,” but may actually involve coercion, control, or harm that requires a very different clinical response.

Join us this week for:

Identifying and Addressing Unhealthy and Controlling Relationships
with Jason Whiting, PhD

In this 5 CE in-person workshop, you’ll strengthen your ability to:

• Distinguish between normative conflict and abusive dynamics
• Assess for risk and identify patterns of control
• Respond ethically and effectively in complex situations
• Support safety, accountability, and meaningful intervention

This is essential training for clinicians working with couples and families navigating difficult relational patterns.

📅 May 1, 2026
🕙 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM ET
📍 In-Person at Ackerman Institute (NYC)
🎓 5 CE Contact Hours

Register here: https://www.ackerman.org/events/is-this-abuse/?

04/13/2026

Blended families don’t struggle because they’re “doing it wrong.”

They struggle because they’re different.

What works for first-time families often doesn’t work for stepfamilies—and when expectations don’t match reality, it can lead to ongoing ruptures, confusion, and even shame.

Join us for an upcoming CE workshop:

Meeting the (Big!) Challenges of “Blended Families”
Rupture and Repair Up Close and Personal
with Patricia Papernow, EdD

In this 3-hour training, Dr. Papernow—one of the leading experts on stepfamilies—shares over four decades of research and clinical insight to help therapists better understand and support these complex systems.

You’ll walk away with:

• A clear framework for how stepfamilies actually function
• Insight into common “wrong turns” that create more conflict
• Practical tools to support repair, reduce shame, and build realistic hope
• Strategies that work across individuals, couples, and whole family systems

If you work with couples, parents, or children navigating blended family dynamics, this is a conversation you’ll want to be part of.

📅 April 24, 2026
🕙 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM ET
💻 Live Online
🎓 3 CE Contact Hours

Learn more and register: https://www.ackerman.org/events/meeting-the-big-challenges-of-blended-families/?

04/06/2026

“This may not feel fair…”

In working with estranged families, one of the more difficult truths is this:

Sometimes parents may need to do more of the reaching out.
More of the vulnerability.
More of the work—without any guarantee of reciprocity.

In this clip, Dr. Peter Abrons shares a clinical approach to helping parents write amends letters—not to defend themselves, not to assign blame, but to increase the chances of being truly heard.

It’s a powerful shift:

➡️ Removing justification
➡️ Letting go of “who’s right”
➡️ Leading with empathy, even when it’s hard

Because often, repair doesn’t begin with fairness—it begins with one person creating enough safety for the other to exhale.

If you work with families navigating estrangement, this is a conversation worth sitting with.

This excerpt is from our on-demand workshop:
Healing Estranged Relationships: Strategies for Supporting Young Adults and Their Parents

Available anytime:
https://www.ackerman.org/workshop/healing-estranged-relationships/

04/06/2026

Not all loss has closure.

Some losses are unclear, ongoing, or never fully resolved—yet they shape how individuals, couples, and families live, relate, and grieve.

This is what we call ambiguous loss—and it’s more present than ever in today’s world.

Join us for an upcoming CE workshop:

Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Global Change
with Elizabeth Wieling, PhD, LMFT

In this 3-hour training, you’ll learn how to recognize and work with losses that often go unnamed—related to trauma, migration, health, climate crises, and intergenerational experiences of injustice.

Together, we’ll explore how clinicians can support clients navigating prolonged grief, uncertainty, and complex relational impacts—without forcing resolution where none exists.

You’ll learn how to:

• Identify and “name” ambiguous loss in clinical work
• Understand its impact on individuals, families, and communities
• Apply both/and thinking and paradoxical interventions
• Support resilience, meaning-making, and ongoing adaptation

This workshop is especially relevant for clinicians working with trauma, marginalized communities, and families navigating systemic and global stressors.

📅 April 17, 2026
🕙 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM ET
💻 Live Online
🎓 3 CE Contact Hours

Learn more and register:
https://www.ackerman.org/events/ambiguous-loss-in-a-time-of-global-change/?

03/30/2026

How do couples navigate cultural, racial, and religious differences across a lifetime?

Working with in*******al, intercultural, and interfaith couples requires more than cultural awareness—it calls for a nuanced, intersectional framework that considers identity, power, and relational meaning across the life cycle.

Join us for an upcoming CE workshop:

Interracial/Intercultural/Interfaith Relationship Structures Across the Life Cycle: What Does It Look Like?

with Gita Seshadri, PhD, LMFT and Dumayi Gutierrez, PhD, LMFT, LMHP

In this 1.5 CE workshop, participants will explore how couples co-create meaning around identity, culture, and difference while navigating key relational stages—from dating to parenting and beyond.

Grounded in intersectionality, ecological systems theory, and social constructionism, this training introduces a clinical framework for understanding how couples organize and negotiate cultural differences in their relationships.

Participants will learn how to:

• Apply an intersectional and systemic lens to couple dynamics
• Identify key relationship structures that shape how partners navigate difference
• Strengthen multicultural self-of-the-therapist awareness in clinical work
• Implement culturally responsive interventions around conflict, identity, and meaning-making

This workshop is designed for clinicians seeking deeper, more culturally responsive approaches to working with diverse couples and families.

📅 April 15, 2026
🕛 12:00 – 1:30 PM ET
💻 Live Online
🎓 1.5 CE Contact Hours

Learn more and register:
https://www.ackerman.org/events/in*******al-intercultural-interfaith-relationship-structures-across-the-life-cycle/?

03/23/2026

How do the stories clients hold about s*x shape their relationships?

S*xual difficulties are often not just behavioral or physiological—they are deeply embedded in personal, relational, and cultural narratives.

Join us for an upcoming CE workshop:

Transforming S*xual Narratives: Integrating Couple & S*x Therapy with Suzanne Iasenza, PhD

In this 3-hour clinical training, Dr. Iasenza introduces a Narrative Relational approach to s*x therapy that helps clinicians identify and work with both conscious and unconscious s*xual narratives shaping clients’ experiences of intimacy, pleasure, and connection.

Drawing from psychodynamic, couple & family systems, and cognitive-behavioral frameworks, this workshop offers an integrative lens for addressing complex s*xual concerns in clinical practice.

Participants will learn how to:

• Conduct culturally sensitive relational s*xual histories
• Identify and work with limiting or harmful s*xual narratives
• Integrate multiple clinical approaches into effective interventions
• Support clients in reclaiming intimacy, pleasure, and relational satisfaction

This workshop is designed for therapists and mental health professionals seeking a deeper, more nuanced approach to couple and s*x therapy.

📅 March 27, 2026
🕙 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM ET
💻 Live Online
🎓 3 CE Contact Hours (AASECT-approved)

Learn more and register: https://www.ackerman.org/events/transforming-s*xual-narratives-2026/?

03/16/2026

How can clinicians support clients in developing healthier, more affirming relationships with intimacy and s*xuality?

Traditional narratives about s*x and intimacy often center narrow, heteronormative frameworks that overlook the complex cultural, relational, and embodied experiences many clients bring into therapy.

Join us for an upcoming CE workshop:

Re-Imagining Intimacy: Queer-Affirming, Trauma-Informed Approaches to S*xuality and Pleasure with Nikita Fernandes, LMHC

This 1.5 CE workshop invites clinicians to expand their understanding of intimacy through q***r-affirming, trauma-informed, and pleasure-centered frameworks.

Participants will explore how systemic forces such as colonialism, gender norms, and s*xual stigma shape clients’ relationships with their bodies, desire, and erotic expression—and how clinicians can support healing and agency through culturally responsive care.

In this training, participants will learn how to:

• Apply trauma-informed and consent-based frameworks in clinical work with q***r and gender-diverse clients
• Integrate pleasure-centered and kink-affirming approaches ethically in therapy
• Support clients in moving from survival-based narratives toward embodied curiosity, connection, and choice

📅 March 25, 2026
🕛 12:00 – 1:30 PM ET
💻 Live Online
🎓 1.5 CE Contact Hours

Learn more and register: https://www.ackerman.org/events/re-imagining-intimacy/?

03/10/2026

How do we help clients move forward after devastating loss?

Profound grief can shatter identity, relationships, and a sense of meaning. Yet research on family resilience shows that healing is possible when clinicians know how to support the relational processes that foster hope, connection, and meaning-making.

Join us for an upcoming CE workshop with Froma Walsh, PhD, one of the leading international experts on family resilience.

Loss, Healing, and Resilience: Finding Light Through Darkness

In this 3-hour clinical training, Dr. Walsh will share research-informed strategies for working with complex and traumatic loss. Through clinical examples and systemic frameworks, participants will learn how to support individuals, couples, and families as they navigate grief and rebuild pathways toward healing.

Participants will learn how to:

• Apply resilience-oriented systemic approaches to traumatic loss
• Identify relational dynamics that can either intensify suffering or support healing
• Facilitate key resilience processes such as meaning-making, connection, hope, and transformation

This workshop is designed for clinicians seeking deeper frameworks for supporting clients facing profound loss.

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

Register here:
https://www.ackerman.org/events/loss-healing-and-resilience/?

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/?

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/?

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/?

Ackerman Institute for the Family

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