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

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:

In*******al/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/?

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/?

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/?

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/?

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/?

Ackerman Institute for the Family

03/30/2026

03/23/2026

03/16/2026

03/10/2026

03/03/2026

02/26/2026

02/23/2026

02/17/2026

02/12/2026

02/10/2026

02/09/2026

02/03/2026

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