Arthur Maslow, who was a member of the faculty at the Ackerman Institute for many years, and is a former chair of the Board of Directors, once said: “Family therapy works because it's reality. The greatest support a child can get is from the family.”

In family therapy, family members work together to reconnect, harness and strengthen existing resources and find inventive solutions to tough problems. The connection that takes place may be between parents and children, between siblings or between couples. The issue that brings a family to therapy may be a problem a child is having in school, the serious physical illness of a family member, depression in an adolescent or dissatisfaction in a marriage.

Some of the families that come to the Ackerman Institute are traditional nuclear families. Others are single parent families. Some are families headed by gay couples or families in which the parents are straight and the children are gay. Some are intergenerational families or stepfamilies or families with mixed ethnic or religious backgrounds. At the Ackerman Institute, we are committed to recognizing diversity in all of its forms and working with all kinds of families in ways that are sensitive to their specific needs.

Family is a powerful concept. The word family can be highly charged because while many of our problems can stem directly from our family relationships, just as often, the solution to our problems lies within our family relationships.

This is because the one thing all families have in common is that fact that each family is the single most powerful resource available to all of its members as they try to cope with all kinds of concerns and issues at all stages of life. Family therapy works because no matter who you are, no matter where you come from and no matter where you want to go … it all starts here with the family.

For more information about family therapy please contact our Intake Department at 212 879-4900, ext 122.