Couple and Family Therapy
At the Ackerman Institute clinic, trained therapists help families from all ethnic, economic and religious backgrounds. We serve serving families and couples of all sexual orientations and gender identities.
Couple and Family Therapy
At the Ackerman Institute clinic, trained therapists help families from all ethnic, economic and religious backgrounds. We serve serving families and couples of all sexual orientations and gender identities.
Family Therapy at Ackerman
At the Ackerman Institute Clinic, our therapists help families from all ethnic, economic and religious backgrounds. We serve both heterosexual and same sex headed families and couples.
Family therapy is a way of understanding and treating emotional problems and personal crises by working with the entire family rather than the individual. Therapy sessions focus on understanding individuals’ thoughts, feelings and behavior within the context of their families. The goal is to harness and strengthen family resources, and help family members work collaboratively toward solutions to their problems.
We help couples and families with problems including, but not limited to, school difficulties, child and adolescent problems, gender and LGBTQIA+ topics, marital issues, divorce, bereavement, learning disabilities, conflictual family relationships, child abuse and incest, and chronic medical illness including AIDS. Families from all boroughs of New York City and from the larger tri-state area are welcome. Fees are on a sliding scale based on family income. Ackerman is an in-network provider for a wide range of insurances. Medicaid is accepted.
Before you call, please read our Clinic Welcome Page.
Make an Appointment
Start Here: Read our Welcome Page.
For more information, contact the Intake Department at 212 879-4900, ext. 2.
Due to HIPAA regulations, scheduling of appointments and other clinical services are arranged by phone only.
Frequently Asked Questions
Just as all families are different, each family’s first session will differ. However, the therapist will be interested in having all of you talk about your problems, how they developed, what you have tried to do about them, and what changes you would like to see happen. The therapist will also give you feedback about how he or she understands your family and set a plan for treatment.
Arthur Maslow, who was a member of the faculty at the Ackerman Institute for many years and 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 with the family.
For more information about family therapy please contact our Intake Department at (212) 879-4900, ext 122.
We provide therapy services to families living in New York State and all five boroughs of New York City.
Please call the Intake Department at (212) 879-4900, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday or leave a voicemail to schedule an initial phone consultation.
Our clinic offers a sliding scale fee based on household income. The full fee is $300 per session. We accept a number of insurance plans. See insurance section below for a complete list.
All therapy sessions are currently held online.
The Ackerman Institute for the Family is located on the second floor of an office building at 936 Broadway, between 22nd and 21st Streets. The Institute is one block of the F, M, N, R, and 6 trains. NYC buses M1, M2, M3, M5 run on 5th and Park Avenues and the M23 runs cross town on 23rd Street.
Ackerman is in-network with the following insurances:*
- Beacon Health
- BCBS (except plans whose ID’s start with JLJ, JLH or BCBS Medicaid)
- Emblem Health
- GHI
- Healthfirst
- MetroPlus
- MHAP
- NY State Health Insurance Plan (NYSHIP)
- Optum
- Oxford
- United Behavioral Health
- United Behavioral Health Community Plan
- UMR
- United Healthcare
- Value Options
*Please consult with your insurance company to confirm coverage for mental health services.
We accept straight Medicaid and Medicaid plans attached to a plan we are in network with (aside from BCBS as indicated above)
We are not in-network with Medicare at this time and are unable to accept a secondary plan if your primary plan is Medicare.