Our Intensive Program in Couple and Family Therapy improves the foundation of your work through comprehensive training in a transtheoretical family systems approach. This family and couple therapy program provides training for helping professionals working in a wide range of settings. Participants leave with increased confidence and capacity to provide care to those in need.

Description: “Intensive” is an academic year-long couple and family therapy certificate program in which you will learn a replicable transtheoretical family and couple therapy model using evidence-based and other foundational family systems practices. Participants learn to hold effective meetings that support work with families, couples, individuals, and all working groups. We teach ideas and tools from enduring and newer theories, integrating concepts from related fields including trauma, child welfare, interpersonal partner violence, neurobiology, and mindfulness. Students learn through an intentional blend of didactic, discussion, demonstration, and doing.

We teach an artful balance of owning our facilitative leadership role in a therapeutic stance that honors clients’ agency and preferred ways of living. Participants greatly enhance the foundation of their work, graduating with greater confidence and an evolving systemic practice that fits their clinical style and populations served. The “Intensive” couple and family therapy certificate program is scheduled for a full day approximately once a month to allow for work/life balance. Our three day retreat in the woods near the ocean in Essex MA is a highlight of the course.

Application to Diverse Populations: Families and intimate partnerships can be a source of comfort, protection, and healing. They can also be a place of great distress. Highly skilled help is needed to facilitate individual and relational recovery. The model we teach in our couple and family therapy certificate program supports the needs of a wide range of family groups so that graduates work cross culturally with skill and humility. We attend to the connections between mental health concerns and socio-political factors to minimize constraints and improve wellbeing for all. Throughout the course we spend a minimum of 14 hours explicitly learning anti-racist and anti-discriminatory practices.


Practitioners served: Our Intensive Couple and Family Therapy Certificate Program serves helping professionals who provide direct service, supervision, teaching, and program management in a wide range of settings. We serve the needs of beginning and intermediate practitioners as well as prepare advanced practitioners to deepen their knowledge and with capacities to supervise and teach.

Statement of need: There are very few intensive, transtheoretical systemic couple and family therapy certificate programs available for post graduate learners. This course focuses on practices that enhance relationships. Practitioners without adequate training in family systems therapies can inadvertently perpetuate relational problems, further marginalizing vulnerable and intentionally underserved populations. When trauma embedded in relational problems are healed at the source, current and future generations’ health and well being are positively impacted.

Couple and Family Therapy Certificate Intensive Program – 2025-2026 dates

Eleven Fridays: September 12, October 10, December 12, January 9, January 30, February 20, March 6, March 27, April 17, May 8 and May 29

***The first and last September 12 and May 29 classes will be live on Zoom and live in Newton. People who can attend live will be expected in person. The rest of the Friday classes will be live on Zoom

Hours: Fridays on Zoom are 8:30am-5pm Eastern (there will be ample breaks from the screen during the day). The two Fridays that are live in person and on live on Zoom are from 9:30 am to 6 pm Eastern time.

Live In Person Retreat*: Monday November 17 at 5 pm ET through Wednesday November 19, 2025 at 4 pm ET in Essex MA, one hour from Boston Logan airport.

*We strongly encourage all participants to attend the live retreat. The live learning and connection is the most wonderful part of the course. There will be an alternative, if needed, for accessibility.

  • APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN FOR THE 2025.2026 COHORT OF OUR BELOVED “INTENSIVE” PROGRAM

How to Apply for the Course:

Group informational sessions are required to provide an orientation to the course. This ensures the “Intensive Program” is a good fit for you. Admissions are rolling. Space is limited to 24 participants.

You will be asked to submit your resume or CV upon registering for an informational interview. Applicants are accepted into the program after attending these course orientation meetings which include a short 1:1 talk with Liz Brenner, Course Director.

​Our Couple & Family Therapy Certificate Intensive Program includes:

  • Teaching theoretical lenses and interventions to facilitate change from a range of family systems perspectives
  • Shifting from an individual focus to a facilitative, multi partial stance to enhance relationships of all kinds
  • Identifying, modeling, and practicing a myriad of questions from systemic therapies as powerful interventions
  • Working with skill, humility, and respect across intersecting identities, historical trauma, physical, and mental health challenges
  • Focusing on improved safety and well-being for everyone involved
  • Teaching evidence-based practices that are client and outcomes driven with opportunities to critique the relevance and applications of each model
  • Emphasizing the use of client feedback to guide the work
  • Demonstrating a strength based, collaborative therapeutic stance
  • Teaching modes of inquiry and witnessing that enhance capacity for client self-reflection, responsibility taking, and mentalizing
  • Increasing practitioner skill, capacity, and creativity as it applies to challenging situations
  • Using live demonstrations of role play families to enhance the learning
  • Providing real time practice with live coaching to integrate new practices
  • Sharing step by step exercises to facilitate learning of complex strategies
  • Focusing on working with a diverse range of families, couples, and presenting problems
  • Addressing the effects of social constructions of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability and other differences that impact individual, couple, and family wellness and functioning
  • Attending to the individual learning needs of practitioners with a range of experience
  • Creating a connected community of supportive learners
  • Sharing tools to help participants implement and teach these skills
training for social workers

“The Intensive Certificate Program in Couple and Family Therapy was the one (Western) professional learning space where I felt safe enough to truly engage with the course content. As an individual belonging to various intersectional communities, I have never not been traumatized by professional therapy trainings. In my lived experience, many trainings focused on traditional therapeutic models have felt alienating, rigid, and disconnected from the socio-cultural realities of the world. The faculty were a true highlight. Experienced, compassionate, and deeply committed to the work, they created a space where I felt comfortable asking questions, sharing my own lived experiences, and challenging assumptions. They embodied the principles of anti-racism, cultural humility, and deep empathy that the course promoted. Their non-judgmental approach encouraged me to bring my whole self to the learning process, allowing me to integrate the material in a way that aligned with my values and helped me grow both as a person and as a clinician…” Apexa Patel, LICSW, Private Practice

  • Class 1: Understanding General Systems Theory: Observing a System, Listening to Multiple Perspectives, Systemic Formulation of Problems
  • Class 2: Useful Concepts and Interventions from Structural Family Therapy
  • Class 3 Retreat: Six Phase Model for Holding Successful Meetings
  • Class 4: Seeing Problematic Patterns Not Problematic People: Useful Strategic Concepts
  • Class 5: Assessing Relational and Intergenerational Patterns
  • Class 6: From Causes to Constraints: Assessment & Intervention In Socio-Political-Cultural Contexts
  • Class 7: Solution Focused Work and Broadening the Lens
  • Class 8: Introduction to Narrative Work: Seeing People as Being in a Relationship with Problems
  • Class 9: Inviting Responsibility for Change: Working with Challenging Behavior in Narrative Ways
  • Class 10: Integrating Models – Our Transtheoretical Approach
  • Class 11: Working with Challenging Behavior, Part 2 – Mindfulness and Managing Conflict
  • ​Class 12: Reviewing the Year: Sustaining Change and Saying Goodbye in Couple and Family Work
  • 8:30-9am Participants discuss their reflections/questions about class readings and/or any new skills that they tried
  • 9:30-11am Didactic presentation and discussion of new material
  • 11-11:15am Break
  • 11:15am-12:30pm Practical applications of new material through role play demonstrations and discussion
  • 12:45-1:45pm Lunch
  • 1:45-3:15pm Small group practice of micro skills through role play case examples with close coaching
  • 3:15-3:30pm Break
  • 3:30-5pm Applications of new learning to clinical examples from a range of presenting problems and family types

Note: detailed learning objectives for each day of the course are provided to participants and for continuing education approval processes.

  • Identify the purpose, practice and two questions associated with each phase of the 6-phase model.
  • Explain how the use of the concept of interpersonal patterns is foundational to working well across different ethnicities and with other marginalized identities.
  • Describe the cycle of family development and explain how it applies to reframing problems.
  • Describe the problem focused genogram.
  • Explain the model of change from the perspective of each of the following models: general systems theory, structural family therapy, brief strategic therapy, Bowen family therapy, solution focused and narrative therapy.
  • Identify two strategies for assessment used in each of the following models: general systems theory, structural family therapy, brief strategic therapy, Bowen family therapy, solution focused and narrative therapy.
  • Identify two interventions that apply to the use of each model: general systems theory, structural family therapy, brief strategic therapy, Bowen family therapy, solution focused and narrative therapy.
  • Describe one practice for developing treatment goals and plans to address safety issues from the lenses of: general systems theory, structural family therapy, brief strategic therapy, Bowen family therapy, solution focused and narrative therapy.
  • List two questions to ask clients that are used in the practice of each of these models: general systems theory, structural family therapy, brief strategic therapy, Bowen family therapy, solution focused and narrative therapy.
  • Describe the collaborative helping map and explain how it informs effective work with a wide range of presenting problems, ethnicities and people with other marginalized identities.
  • Describe the Racial/Cultural Identity Development Model and the White Racial Identity Development Model.
  • Apply concepts from mindfulness and interpersonal neurobiology to the best practice of family systems therapies.
  • Describe three practices used to invite clients to take responsibility for abusive and other problematic behavior in the context of couple and family work.
  • List one strategy for working with high conflict situations from each of the following models: general systems theory, structural family therapy, brief strategic therapy, Bowen family therapy, solution focused and narrative therapy.
  • Compare theoretical models learned in the course.
  • Critique each model by describing potential limitations of their use: general systems theory, structural family therapy, brief strategic therapy, Bowen family therapy, solution focused and narrative therapy.

Course Faculty

                                                                                                            Liz Brenner(She/Her) is the course director and primary instructor of the Intensive Program, TTB’s Couple and Family Therapy Certificate Program. Her work in child psychiatric inpatient, home based, residential, and outpatient settings inform her passion for working competently and compassionately with couples and families. She is the co-director of the CHA/Harvard Couples Conference and a teaching associate for Harvard Medical School providing training to staff at Cambridge Health Alliance in the Couple and Family Therapy Program. The foundation of her work rests on the training she received as a student in the Intensive Program at the Family Institute of Cambridge in 1991. She was on the faculty of the Family Institute of Cambridge from 2003 until 2009 when FIC closed and she developed TTB.

In 2017, Liz was the recipient of the award for the Greatest Contribution to Social Work Practice from the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. She has written two  book chapters on doing intensive home-based family therapy. She published a short article in the New England Journal For Relational and Systemic Therapy called Couple Therapy in the Absence of Presence: Translating Presence to the Screen. Her publication in the Family Process Journal is Development of the internal family systems model: Honoring contributions from family systems therapies with Richard Schwartz, PhD, and Carol Becker, PhD. She edited the recent book What Helps When Children and Families Struggle: An attachment-informed guide for families and clinicians written by John Stewart, PhD and Erin Belfort, MD.
Liz’s clinical work and teaching integrates socioculturally attuned family systems, mindfulness, trauma and recovery orientations. Her work and life is informed by the experience of growing up with a father affected by Bipolar Disorder.

​​Liz is Level 2 EMDR, Level 2 LifeForce Yoga and Level 3 trained Certified Internal Family Systems therapist in addition to being trained in Intimacy from the Inside Out and AEDP for Couples. In her office in Watertown, Liz sees adolescents and adults in individual, couple and family therapy. Liz also provides individual and group supervision, agency consultation and training. She has provided training for DCF and DMH staff in a variety of settings.

Tamarra Aristilde-Calixte (she/her/hers) is a Haitian American Youth and Trauma Specialist who earned her master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Capella University in 2010. Tamarra has worked as an In-Home Therapist with children and their families throughout the southeast region in Massachusetts since 2011. In therapeutic practice, Tamarra uses a strength based and client centered approach integrating her background in family systems and trauma informed practices. Tamarra provides therapeutic services to couples and families in French and Haitian Creole. She is the owner and Clinic Director at the TJocelyne Counseling and Consulting Clinic in Brockton. In her role at TJJocelyne, Tamarra teaches staff and interns family systems therapies. Prior to joining the faculty of the Intensive Program, Tamarra completed the course in the 2020.2021 academic year. In addition to being a Mom, she is a Certified Child and Adolescent Trauma Professional, Certified Dialectical Behavior Therapist, ADHD-Certified Clinical Service Provider.

Rebecca Harvey (she.her) is a Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU). She is the co-editor of the 2nd edition of the Handbook of LGBTQ Affirmative Couple and Family Therapy; and co-author of the book “Nurturing Queer Youth: Family Therapy Transformed”.  She has published and presented nationally and internationally and has been proudly queering family therapy theory, practice, and training for over two decades. She maintains a private practice in New Haven CT. Rebecca is longtime member, clinical fellow and approved supervisor of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. Her scholarly interests include:

  • Affirmative therapy for LGBTQIA+ couples and families 
  • The effect of power (heteronormativity, white supremacy, classism, etc) and intersectionality on couple dynamics
  • Supervision and training of clinicians, especially the development of the “self” of the therapist.

Melissa Nishman (She/Her) is in private practice in Roslindale, Massachusetts. She has been working with transgender & non-binary youth, young adults and their families for over 15 years in a variety of clinical and community settings. Melissa co-directs a socially conscious business called SAYFTEE: Supporting Alternative Youth and Families through Empowerment and Education. SAYFTEE is committed to offering workshops, groups and services to meet the needs of gender expansive and LGBTQI youth and families in Massachusetts. Melissa was a student in the Intensive Program two times before becoming a faculty member in 2018. She has taught family therapy approaches for clinicians working with families challenged with their children’s gender identities for numerous agencies, the Maebright Group, Therapy Training Boston and SAYFTEE. Melissa is a consultant for Greater Boston PFLAG. Nine years ago she helped start a support group for parents of transgender children. She serves on the Board of Directors for Camp Aranu’tiq of Harbor Camps. ​

Caroline Marvin, Faculty Emerita(She/Her) is a clinical psychologist and family therapist. She practiced and taught at the Family Institute of Cambridge for over 40 years as a Director and a Senior Faculty Member. She co-directed the Intensive Family Therapy Program at the Institute with Charles Verge and developed the long running course, New Method’s in Women’s Group Process. Caroline was a faculty member at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology where she originated and taught the Advanced Family Therapy Course. Caroline graduated from the second year of the Intensive Program in 1976 and was invited to teach in the third year of the course. She brings an important historical perspective to the current training, is an important resource with regard to group process, teaching pedagogy as well as supporting younger faculty to be grounded in foundational family therapy ideas and practices. Caroline continues to contribute to the Intensive Program through videotaped examples of her clinical work and as a consultant.

Laura Orth (She/Her) is a clinical social worker and family therapist with over 34 years of experience. In addition to post graduate family therapy training, Laura has Level 2 LifeForce Yoga and Level 3 Internal Family Systems Therapy training. Following graduation from The Family Institute of Cambridge’s Intensive Program in Family Systems Therapy in 1991, Laura worked with children and their families at South Shore Mental Health for many years. From 2004 to 2007, Laura co-facilitatated a course for DCF workers hosted by the Family Institute of Cambridge called Partnering with Families in Social Services. She taught Psychology at Curry College, including a course on working with families, and the New England Institute of Technology. Laura joined the faculty of the Intensive Program in 2018. In her private practice she works with a wide range of issues with individuals, couples, and families. Her specialty is assisting children and adults recovering from trauma. Her training as a Kripalu yoga teacher informs her integration of mindfulness practices in psychotherapy settings. ​

Maru Torres-Gregory (she/her) has over 20 years of experience working with couples, families, and individuals in diverse settings. She has a passion for training couples and family therapists, post-doctoral fellows, clinicians, and mentoring supervisors in training. She is a part-time Lecturer on Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School, providing couple and family therapy training for staff at Cambridge Health Alliance. Maru has been Adjunct Associate Professor and Clinical Supervisor in the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at Iona University, and Core Faculty, Clinical Lecturer, Group, Individual, and Post Doctoral Supervisor in the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at the Family Institute at Northwestern University where she was a Clinical Staff Member for over 10 years. She is the founder of Rise Relational Therapy in Cambridge, MA.

Dr. Torres-Gregory has co-authored or authored articles on post-modern family therapy, working with high conflict couples, positive connotation in Milan systemic therapy, and holding conversations about diversity in training of marriage and family therapists. Before becoming a couple and family therapist, Dr. Torres-Gregory worked as an attorney on her beautiful island of Puerto Rico. She combines her backgrounds by teaching legal and ethical issues in marriage and family therapy.

Corky Becker (she/her) was a founding member of the Public Conversations Project, whose mission was to apply family therapy ideas and approaches to work with divisive public issues like abortion. Applying ideas from PCP, Corky focused her practice and teaching on working with high conflict couples and families. For many years she taught and supervised family therapy for Child Psychology Interns at Cambridge Health Alliance. She taught in the Intensive Program in Family Systems Therapy at Therapy Training Boston for 20 years after co-directing the course at the Family Institute of Cambridge for several years.  Masters Series Corky developed TTB’s Master Series in Couple Therapy and facilitated it for 10 years. She was a founding member of The Kosovar Family Professional Education Collaborative, 2000- 2006, designed to establish family therapy as a central part of the post war rebuilding of the mental health system to local mental health professionals after the 1999 bombing of Kosova. For 25 years she consulted to the Interpersonal Skills Exercise on dialogic skills for the Project on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.  She co-developed a family therapy training program on the ground in China, followed by monthly zoom meetings. This online training included Child Psychiatrists from all over China from 2021-2023.



Student Reflections

Additional Information

This couple and family therapy certificate intensive program is designed for helping professionals interested in the principles and practices of family systems therapies, including, but not limited to, social workers,  mental health counselors, and marriage & family therapists. We design the learning methodology to further develop beginning, intermediate, and advanced helping professionals by supporting improvement of skills for direct practice, supervision, teaching and management positions.

Tuition: $3600. This includes 94 CEUs for eligible participants. There is an additional cost of $350 to defray the cost of 6 meals and lodging for the three day retreat in November.

A sliding scale between $2900 – $3500 may be negotiated with participants. The equity rate for BIPOC participants is between $2500 – $3000. Payment plans are available. Sliding scale rates are accessed on a first come, first served basis. Program graduates may wish to take the course again to enhance their learning. If needed, second time course attendees may also access the sliding scale.
Payment or partial payment is due within two weeks of acceptance into the program to hold your spot. Payment plans are negotiated at the time of acceptance into the course. 
Participants MUST attend 100% of the program to earn the Certificate of Post Graduate Training in Couple and Family Therapy and the 94 CEUs for eligible professions. ​CEU certificates will be downloadable at the end of the course after you are fully paid and have completed the evaluation form.

  • Therapy Training Boston is approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6707 for Mental Health Counselors. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Therapy Training Boston is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
  • We have applied for 94 Social Work Continuing Education hours for relicensure, in accordance with 258 CMR. NASW-MA Chapter CE Approving Program and are awaiting approval.
  • We have applied for 94  CEUs from the New England Association for Family and Systemic Therapy (NEAFAST) on behalf of the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Allied Mental Health & Human Services Professions for 94 LMFT professional continuing education credits and are awaiting approval.
  • If you are a licensed mental health professional not listed for CEU approval here, please consult the website of your Board of Registration to determine if your our approved CEUs will count toward your continuing education requirements.

No refunds are available for cancellations 30 days prior to the start of the course. If participants cancel more than 30 days prior to the event beginning, they may apply the fee to a future program. Events may be cancelled by Therapy Training Boston if minimum enrollment requirements are not met or in the case of other unexpected circumstances. If this occurs, a full refund will be provided.

For all event policies read this, detailed CEU information here.