Apply Now: Free Clinical Training Opportunity with Ackerman’s Gender & Family Project: Family Engagement and Acceptance Training (FEAT)

Written by Ackerman Institute. Posted in News Blog

The Ackerman Institute’s Gender & Family Project (GFP), The NYC Unity Project, and the Administration for Children Services (ACS) have joined forces to increase New York City’s capacity for family engagement and acceptance for transgender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary (TGNCNB) youth. GFP is recruiting up to six NYC-based LGBTQ clinicians for the Family Engagement and Acceptance Training (FEAT); a free year-long didactic and clinical training in family therapy with TGNCNB youth. The deadline to apply is July 9th, 2021.

Applicants must meet the following criteria: 

• Be LGBTQ 
• Be a New York State licensed mental health professional 
• Practice at least part-time in an agency or CBO in one of NYC’s five boroughs 

BIPOC clinicians are strongly encouraged to apply. 

The FEAT program is scheduled to start in September 2021 and includes two components: 

1. The Ackerman Institute’s Foundations in Family Therapy course which runs virtually for 30 weeks on Mondays from 5:00-8:00 pm (ET)  

2. A Live Clinical Supervision course specializing in family therapy with TGNCNB youth. This virtual 30-week course meets on a weekday from 5:00-9:00 pm (ET). Using the knowledge of family systems gained from the Foundations of Family Therapy course, trainees use a teletherapy platform to observe and work with families with live supervision. This specialized Live Clinical course includes literature focused on models of care for working with LGBTQ youth as well as clinical framework, interventions and clinical tools for working with TGNCNB youth and their families. Trainees will also explore their own family’s culture of origin and its effect on practice. This course includes review of video-recorded sessions to increase clinical skills and address relevant personal issues. 

Tuition for the FEAT program is free. Successful completion of the FEAT program qualifies as completion of Ackerman’s Dual Program, making trainees eligible to apply for the Clinical Externship in Family Therapy upon completion. Should FEAT graduates choose to continue training at the Ackerman Institute after completing the FEAT program, tuition for the Clinical Externship will be their responsibility. They may apply for financial aid at that time, but this is not guaranteed. 

To be considered for the Family Engagement and Acceptance Training, candidates must complete the application by July 9th, 2021.

For more information, email Alexis Diaz, GFP Director of Services: adiaz@ackerman.org. 

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The Sandy Chernick Memorial Scholarship

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Sandy Chernick’s friends and family have created this scholarship to honor her memory and to acknowledge the transformative impact of her externship at Ackerman on her professional and personal life. At Ackerman she honed her unique approach to family & couples therapy and formed lifelong friendships.

Sandy was an extraordinarily talented and humane family & couples therapist.  With her surprising irreverence, her no-nonsense presence and her palpable dedication and care, she skillfully engaged highly resistant clients and masterfully defused intense conflicts that might have scared other therapists away.

A candidate/winner of the scholarship should embody Sandy’s humanity and clinical strengths including:

 1. Irreverence mixed with deep caring
 2. Creativity
 3. Compassion
 4. Radical genuineness
 5. Intelligence
 6. Knowledge
 7. Great enthusiasm and love for her clients and the discipline of couples and family therapy.

Our aim is to collect $5,000 to be disbursed $1000 annually for five years to a different deserving candidate. Please make checks payable to the Ackerman Institute for the Family with Sandy Chernick Fund in the memo line. 

Contributions can be made online by visiting www.ackerman.org/donate and adding “Sandy Chernick Memorial Fund” in the note field.

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Pride 2021

Written by Ackerman Institute. Posted in News Blog

The Ackerman Institute for the Family stands with people around the world in marking Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Non-Binary, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual Pride. We honor the trailblazers, many of whom are transgender women of color, who stood up for their rights and for the rights of generations of people to follow. We continue to remain deeply concerned about the inequities LGBTQIA+ communities experience. We must commit to ending violence against the trans community, outlawing conversion therapy, and call out the excessive policing and force against the LGBTQIA+ community.  As the nation continues to fight racial injustice and demand that Black Lives Matter and Black Trans Lives Matter, we remember the origin of the LGBTQIA+ rights movement at Stonewall where a series of demonstrations were held after a police raid. Our lives, freedoms, and destinies are truly interconnected.

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Statement Against Anti-Semitism

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The Ackerman Institute for the Family takes a strong stance against hate and violence. We continue to stand alongside principles of togetherness, compassion, and understanding. In recent weeks members of the Israeli and Palestinian diaspora have been deeply impacted by the conflict in the Middle East. Discrimination based on cultural differences has caused unimaginable human suffering. Our hearts and minds go out to all those affected by this conflict.

Recently, a wave of anti-Semitic attacks have broken out in communities all around us. The dramatic rise of this violence in New York City and throughout the country is unacceptable. The Institute strongly condemns these violent attacks on the Jewish community and encourages all family therapists to act to eliminate discrimination in any form. The Institute is ready to offer support to those in distress and grief over these attacks. 

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In Solidarity with Asian and Asian American Pacific Islander Communities

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The Ackerman Institute for the Family is outraged and heartbroken at the increasing hate targeting Asian and Asian American Pacific Islander communities. We stand together with our friends in grief and in solidarity. Racially motivated hateful rhetoric and hate-based crimes of Asians and Asian American Pacific Islanders is a long-standing issue in the U.S. Incidents have been on the rise, given some political leaders’ roles in promoting xenophobic rants by referencing the origin of COVID-19. Six Asian women lost their lives yesterday due to a cycle of violence which is fueled by white supremacy, systemic racism, and misogyny. We hold them, their families, and their communities in our hearts. This should never have happened. 

As therapists, we are ready to offer care and support to those in grief and distress over these tragedies.

Committed to social justice, we stand in solidarity with the Asian and Asian American Pacific Islander communities at the Institute and the world over. As family therapists, our ethics demand that we care about all people, all families, and act towards social justice. We must speak and act within our own spheres of influence, especially those of us who sit with white privilege. We simply cannot be silent.

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Celebrating Women’s History Month

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March is Women’s History Month. This year we celebrate the first Black and South Asian woman to become Vice President of the United States. The election of Vice President Kamala Harris means that girls and women of all ages and races can see that they have the possibility to reach the upmost levels of leadership and that this country belongs to us all. Family therapy is committed to the recognition of all parts of a system, with special consideration to contextual influences, including the contributions that women make to couple and family life. Ackerman has had a historic and significant role in advancing women’s issues and feminism in family therapy. We honor the groundbreaking contributions women continue to make in the field. 

Photo: Kamala Harris, back row at left, in an undated family photo. Next to her, from left, are her grandmother Rajam Gopalan, grandfather P.V. Gopalan and sister, Maya Harris. With them are Maya’s daughter, Meena, left, and Harris’ cousin Sharada Balachandran Orihuela. (Courtesy of Sharada Balachandran Orihuela)

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Announcing Ackerman’s 60th Anniversary Conference: Play & Creativity in Family Therapy

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We are pleased to announce the Ackerman Institute for the Family’s 60th Anniversary Conference: Play & Creativity in Family Therapy. This full day professional symposium features innovative workshops, a special retrospective by Dr. Evan Imber-Black, and a keynote presentation by leading play therapist, lecturer, and writer, Dr. Eliana Gil. Join us on April 9, 2021.

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In Memory of Arthur Maslow

Written by Ackerman Institute. Posted in News Blog

Dear Ackerman Community,

It is with great sorrow that I share the peaceful passing of our distinguished member of the Board of Directors, Arthur Maslow, on February 13, 2021, at his home in New York City.

Arthur Maslow was a pillar the Ackerman Institute for the Family for more than 40 years. After completing the program as a student, Mr. Maslow joined the Institute as Director of Administrative Services and as a member of the faculty. Mr. Maslow met his late wife, Carol Maslow, at the Institute and they married in 1979.

Mr. Maslow served on the Institute’s Board of Directors as its Chairperson from 1999 to 2003. In 2007, he became Trustee Emeritus. Mr. Maslow spearheaded diversity in Ackerman’s administration, and it was his vision that created and funded the Social Work and Diversity Program in 1992. Mr. Maslow’s scholarship program continues to support diverse young therapists training at the Ackerman Institute. He was also a longstanding trustee of JCCA. He summed up his dedication and commitment to families, expressing “Family therapy works because it is reality. The greatest support a child can get is from the family”.

Arthur loved Ackerman, and we are all better for his generosity of support and time. I always jumped at the invitations for lunch with him at his home. The menu never varied (scrambled eggs, bacon, and tomatoes), nor did his willingness to provide sharp and humorous counsel. He will be missed deeply.

Our hearts and prayers go out to his family at this difficult time.

Martha Fling
President & CEO

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