Welcome to the Ackerman Institute for the Family
Everything families need to know before starting therapy treatment at Ackerman.
Welcome to the Ackerman Institute for the Family
Everything families need to know before starting therapy treatment at Ackerman.
At the Ackerman clinic, our family therapists-in-training work with expert faculty instructors to provide you with quality mental health care.
Our nonprofit clinic provides world-class family therapy services to the public while training the next generation of family therapists. For trainees, clinic experience is part of the required training and is completed under the supervision of licensed family therapists.
How Our Clinic Works:
Getting Started
All clinical inquiries are made by phone. Please review this informational page before contacting our Intake Department at: (212) 879–4900, ext. 2.
Please leave a voicemail to schedule an initial phone consultation. During this consultation, we will verify treatment eligibility by asking about payment options, general therapy needs, and conduct a brief risk-screening.
If you are eligible for therapy, all parties will begin the intake process. We will provide paperwork, verify your insurance, schedule an intake appointment, and a research appointment. After this process is complete you will be placed on our treatment waitlist.
Eligibility
We provide online therapy services to residents of New York State, and in-person therapy to anyone who can visit our office in New York City. Our clinic does not offer individual therapy.
Insurance and Fees
In-Network Insurances
Please consult with your insurance company to confirm coverage for mental health services.
We accept the following insurance:
- Beacon Health
- BCBS (except plans whose member 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
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 and are unable to accept a secondary plan if your primary plan is Medicare.
Payments
Out-of-pocket payments are accepted for out-of-network or uninsured families. Our full fee is $300 per therapy session. We accept American Express, Visa, and MasterCard.
We offer an income-based sliding scale for eligible families. A tax return is required to apply.
About Telehealth
The Ackerman Clinic offers in-person and telehealth sessions.
Your Treatment Team
Our therapists work in teams of 4-6 clinicians dedicated to your family’s treatment. Therapists are supervised by highly experienced, licensed professionals who observe and guide your clinical experience. During your therapy, you may be observed by a supervision team available to provide expert feedback.
Ackerman therapists are professionals from diverse cultural backgrounds and identities and provide care inclusive of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, country of origin, and ability.
About Video and Observation
Therapy at Ackerman is video recorded for training purposes. Video helps our therapists to better treat families and is central to our internationally recognized training program. To receive services at Ackerman, families must agree to video recording and live observation of therapy. Recordings are only viewed by therapy professionals and are erased at the end of treatment.
Scheduling Therapy
Our clinic runs on an academic calendar which begins in the fall. New therapy cases typically begin treatment in September/October.
Therapy sessions are held once per week. Some cases may require additional meetings for observation with a treatment team.
How We Assign Your Case
Your family will be assigned either a 10-week course of therapy with a two-therapist team in our Live Clinical Supervision Program; ongoing sessions with an individual therapist in our Clinical Externship Program; or ongoing sessions with an individual therapist working in our clinic. Placement is decided with consideration of scheduling and clinical requirements.
Each of our treatment tracks provide high quality mental health care. We are not able to accommodate requests for placement with a specific program or therapist.
Treatment Tracks
Live Clinical Supervision is a 10-week training program where a 4-6 person therapy team is dedicated to your case. During therapy, you will meet with two therapists while sessions are video recorded and observed by the rest of the team and their supervisor.
Families are invited to meet the full team at the start of treatment. The team will attend your sessions off-camera and is available to provide instant feedback and support to you and your co-therapists.
Most families resolve their treatment in the 10-week timeframe. If you wish to continue therapy at the end of 10-weeks, we will place you on a priority waitlist to be seen by another therapist.
The Externship Program is a two-year clinical training program where therapists provide direct treatment to families. Sessions are video recorded for training purposes and are occasionally observed off-camera by your therapist’s supervision team to provide instant feedback and support.
Therapy sessions are scheduled once per week. In addition to weekly sessions, you will be asked to attend a live observation session at a different time with the therapist’s team every 8 to 10 weeks.
Most families resolve their treatment in the defined timeframe. If your therapist reaches the end of their clinical training and you wish to continue therapy, we will place you on a priority waitlist to be seen by another therapist.
Ackerman clinic therapists hold a variety of professional licensure and degrees and receive ongoing professional supervision from our clinic team. Sessions may be video recorded for supervisory purposes.
Therapy sessions are scheduled once per week. Families working with a clinic therapist will meet one-on-one with their therapist until treatment concludes.
About Our Clinic
The Ackerman Institute for the Family is an outpatient behavioral health care provider licensed by the New York State Office of Mental Health as an Article 31 Clinic.
Each of our treatment tracks provide high quality mental health care. We are not able to accommodate requests for placement with a specific program or therapist.
Frequently Asked Questions
Family therapy is a way of understanding and treating emotional problems and personal crises by working with family members, rather than the individual. Therapy sessions focus on helping families develop more effective, less stressful patterns of living.
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.
Ackerman therapists are all licensed mental health professionals from diverse cultural backgrounds and identities. Our therapists provide care inclusive of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and ability.
Our therapists help families with a broad spectrum of problems including, but not limited to, school difficulties, childhood and adolescent troubles, marital issues, divorce, life cycle changes, bereavement, learning disabilities, family violence, substance abuse, child abuse and incest, chronic medical illness including AIDS, and infertility.
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 online therapy services to residents of New York State, and in-person therapy to anyone who can visit our office in New York City.
Please read the above informational page, then call the Intake Department at (212) 879-4900, ext 122.
Our clinic offers a sliding scale fee based on household income. See insurance section below for a complete list of accepted insurances.
Cancellations must be made with your therapist 24 hours in advance of your session. If you miss an appointment and do not notify your therapist within 24 hours, you will be charged for the session.
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.