A Transformative Clinical Training and Personal Growth Journey
The Ackerman Institute’s Core Curriculum in Couple and Family Therapy is more than a training program. It’s a transformational journey for mental health professionals who realize the family system is always in the room, whether in memory, conflict, legacy or hope. Ackerman’s training begins with the recognition that the skills, confidence, and mindset of a couple and family systems therapist are essential to truly effective mental health care.
Ackerman’s training is built in three progressive stages: Foundations of Family Therapy, Live Clinical Supervision, and the Clinical Externship, with each stage deepening your clinical insight, ability to see systemically, and capacity to work relationally with couples and families in real-time.
Each level builds upon the last, designed to grow your clinical skills, case complexity, and ability to work confidently with couples and families.
While each certificate stands alone as an achievement, we encourage all trainees to progress through the full training sequence and join the community of Ackerman Graduates who are advancing couple and family therapy practice worldwide.
Graduate of the Ackerman Institute for the Family’s Post-Master’s Core Curriculum in Couple and Family Therapy Training Program
Participants who complete all three levels are formally recognized as Graduates of Ackerman’s prestigious post-master’s couple and family therapy training program, a distinction earned through conceptual learning, intensive clinical training, and professional development.
Throughout training, you’re not just learning theories—you’re learning by doing, surrounded by a supportive community. From peers to mentors, reflecting teams to the couples and families you serve, you are constantly engaged in a clinical training experience that prioritizes depth, integrity, cultural awareness, and relational power.
The Core Curriculum in Couple and Family Therapy is built to turn thoughtful, committed therapists into confident, skilled, and reflective practitioners of couple and family therapy—the kind who leads couples and families through complex, painful, and healing transformations.
Foundations of Family Therapy
30 weeks, starts Fall 2025
3 weekly hours
Meets online and in-person
90 CE Credit Hours
Tuition: $4,975.00 (financial aid available)
This course is where the shift begins. You’ll be immersed in the evolution of family therapy, exploring its historical roots with a critical lens and gaining exposure to Ackerman’s own distinctive contribution—the Ackerman Relational Approach, a values-based, amalgam integrated framework for working with couples and families.
Anticipate lively, provocative conversation. Expect to wrestle with ideas about power, culture, and identity. Begin the process of understanding yourself as a relational being whose identity is shaped by systems. Be inspired by watching giants of the field in action through rich videotaped case material. This rigorous and energetic course moves you to shift your professional frame from individual to relational, internal to contextual, and disconnectedness to systemic understanding.
Live Clinical Supervision
30 weeks, starts Fall 2025
4 weekly hours
Meets online and in-person
Specialty Tracks
Tuition: $5,450.00 (financial aid available)
This next level is very exclusive to Ackerman. You will work with couples and families only while being supervised live. A seasoned supervisor in couple and family therapy and a team of clinicians are present behind the one-way mirror, watching with care and intention during each session. It’s not abstract supervision. It’s real. It’s immediate. It’s life-changing professionally and personally.
Live supervision is an organic process with vulnerability that spurs growth. You’ll experience being the therapist in front of the mirror and being a member of the reflecting team. Clients actually hear thoughts and insights from the reflecting team—a deeply emotional and enlightening experience for all involved.
The combination of transparency, community, and real-time feedback makes this a once-in-a-career kind of learning experience.
For those ready to move fast, the Dual Program combines Foundations of Family Therapy and Live Clinical Supervision within the same year, creating an immersive and accelerated entry into the Clinical Externship.
Clinical Externship
2 years, starts Fall 2025
250 required clinical hours, 4 weekly supervision hours, and 90-minute weekly clinical seminar
Meets online and in-person
Prerequisite: Successful completion of Live Clinical Supervision or the Dual Program
Tuition: $9,500.00 per year (financial aid available)
The third level is where you truly embody the work. Over two years, you’ll conduct a minimum of 250 therapy sessions with couples and families, receive intensive weekly group supervision, and have the opportunity to bring your own cases in front of the mirror. You’ll work independently as the therapist with strong supervisory support.
You’ve learned therapeutic techniques, reflected on self of the therapist, and now you’re ready to be the therapist you are meant to be. You’re confidently using your own unique style and voice in the therapy room, where your evolution is evident.
The Clinical Seminar provides cutting-edge research and clinical knowledge from guest speakers of Ackerman’s innovative projects and centers. Meaningful professional relationships are fostered through connecting with peers and experts in a dynamic and interactive learning environment.
The Capstone Project consolidates all you’ve learned in the clinical externship. Presenting the capstone project to faculty and fellow externs can be anxiety-provoking but it’s deeply moving and sets you on the path of an impactful and gratifying career in couple and family therapy.
Foundations of Family Therapy
Live Clinical Supervision
Clinical Externship
Ackerman Institute’s faculty includes accomplished clinicians with in-depth knowledge of couples and family therapy. Many also participate in research projects at the Institute.Â
Graduates of the Core Curriculum in Couple and Family Therapy are never far from Ackerman. Many continue in advanced workshops, supervision groups, and other specialized trainings. The institute is a lifelong learning community—a home base for relational thinkers who believe families matter, and that therapy can heal across generations.
Applications are for 2025–2026 are now open!
All Ackerman core curriculum courses will have both in-person and online instructional options.
Financial Aid is available to those who qualify and who submit the financial aid application. The application for financial aid will be open until June 30, 2025.
Upon submitting your deposit, you can enroll in the payment plan or specify that you prefer to pay in full.
Notice of admission will be provided within 10 business days of submitting a complete application. If you are applying to the Dual program or Live Clinical, your application is considered complete following your group interview.
You will receive a confirmation email after submitting the online application and required supporting documents. Check your spam folder for this message. To ensure delivery, add admissions@ackerman.org to your email contacts.
Yes, Ackerman’s Live Clinical Supervision program offers clinical contact hours toward licensure. The number of hours accrued in Live Clinical Supervision may vary according to the needs of the case.
We understand that some of our applicants will be completing their master’s program during Ackerman’s admissions season. We will consider applications with proof of a pending master’s degree.
If you have not yet received your master’s degree, you may upload one of the following to the Core Curriculum online application:
- A copy of your official transcript
OR - A certificate of graduation letter from your master’s program.
A master’s degree is required to enroll in the Core Curriculum program and must be provided at the time of enrollment.
Each Core Curriculum instructor sets class attendance policies. Trainees are responsible for coursework missed due to absence, and must speak with their course instructor regarding class material. Ackerman does not offer make up classes or refunds for absences.
The Ackerman Institute is closed in observance of several federal holidays. View the Academic Calendar.
Accepted applicants may defer their enrollment for two years only. A request for deferral must be submitted in writing to the Director of Admissions prior to the specified tuition deadline. Deferred applicants must notify the Director of Admissions in writing of their intent to enroll prior to the enrollment period of the following or subsequent year. Any deferred applicant who does not enroll the two years following deferral will be required to submit a new application. Please note that financial aid awards cannot be deferred. A new financial aid application must be submitted each year to be considered for financial aid.
If trainees select an online instructional format, they are required to attend online classes from a Mac or PC computer in good working condition with a strong WiFi connection. Headphones must be worn in all remote meetings.
Therapists in Live Clinical and the Clinical Externship Program will hold clinical teletherapy sessions with the Microsoft Teams desktop application. Review the system requirements for Microsoft Teams.
Most questions can be answered by referring to our Core Curriculum Admissions Policies Page.
We host online informational sessions throughout the year. View our calendar of upcoming events.
If you have more questions about applying to the Core Curriculum, contact the Ackerman Admissions Department: admissions@ackerman.org.