good things to know

Frequently Asked Questions

Find answers to common questions about Therapy Training Boston’s courses, workshops, continuing education credits, registration, cancellations, and more. We’ve gathered the information you need to make planning your next training simple.

At Therapy Training Boston we have a passion for lifelong learning that transcends the requirements of obtaining CEs for licensure. We are passionate about providing foundational learning in family systems approaches to work, individuals, couples, families and larger systems. We believe that individuals are best understood, helped to change, and healed in the context of their relational field, family, culture, and community. We are passionate about continuing to offer post graduate family systems training to support highly skilled practitioners of couple and family therapy. This has become more radical over the decades as most family therapy training institutes have closed, and the field is primarily focused on treating individuals.

Our commitment to learning is exemplified by the resources we share on our Free Resources for Therapists webpage which we will continue to update.

The best couple and family therapists have foundational training in the range of family therapy models starting from the beginning when the field was developing and including current theories. To best practice, it is imperative to have many ideas and practices in your toolbox to meet the needs of each couple and family. Specific models including EFT, IFS and RLT as well as Ester Perel’s approach were built on the foundation of all the key theories. Using those models effectively requires knowledge of the foundations upon which they were built. Susan Johnson, Dick Schwartz, Terry Real and Esther Perel were trained in the models we teach, Terry and Ester graduated from our course decades ago.

Therapy Training Boston offers high-quality, much appreciated, reliable courses in couple and family therapy. Between the late 1960’s and 2009 there were thirteen freestanding family therapy training institutes in the Boston area providing continuing education in family systems approaches that are foundational to providing effective couple and family therapy. Therapy Training Boston was founded when the last one, the Family Institute of Cambridge, closed in 2009. Knowledge about how relationships work is critical to successful work with individuals as well as couples and families. Our highly rated annual courses in family and couples therapy are immersive experiences that train therapists in doing this challenging and important work.

Therapy Training Boston’s annual certificate program in couples and family therapy is the most comprehensive year of post graduate training for several reasons:

  • We offer advanced training in couples and family therapy for 94 hours over the course of each academic year
  • Participants learn a range of family systems’ theories applicable to couples and family therapy. We start with the best ideas and practices of foundational early models and follow the evolution of the field into current ideas and practices. Learning early models is critical to practicing newer ways of working as each theory stands on the foundation of those that precede it.
  • We teach a transtheoretical approach rather than one way of working, allowing participants to graduate with many ideas, practices, and the capacity to integrate these into their own unique therapeutic approach.
  • Each day of the course uses a variety of leaning methods including connecting participants to each other via lecture, discussion, demonstration and practice. We provide real time experience practicing new skills with invaluable coaching from faculty.
  • The course has evolved over five decades allowing us to help students learn the material in ways that are practical, efficient, and deeply meaningful. Throughout the decades we continue to find ways to update the material, making it relevant to today’s world and teaching the material in ways that are easy to understand and integrate.
  • A three-day retreat is a highlight of our Intensive Certificate Program in Couple and Family Therapy providing in depth learning of a unique model to hold all couple and family therapy sessions, meaningful connection with colleagues, and personal reflection on the self of the therapist in the work.
  • Students graduate from the course with more self-knowledge and improved relational skills as well as being better clinicians.
  • Our course is the only training in couples and family therapy that is comprehensive both in terms of the transtheoretical learning and the breadth and depth of learning.

  • Therapy Training Boston’s annual couples therapy course provides clinicians with exposure to a wide range of senior couples’ therapists working with a variety of challenges and populations.
  • The format focuses on demonstrating key ideas on important aspects of the work.
  • Because we invite new expert couple therapists to teach about innovative topics each year, many people attend this course annually to support their ongoing learning about doing couples therapy well.
  • The course is a wonderful expansion of learning for those who have a foundation for doing couple therapy. It also supports clinicians who cannot commit to the yearlong course.
  • We offer this course fully live online to invite faculty and students from near and far.
  • Students have opportunities to connect and learn in small groups during each class to create a sense of connection and intimacy.
  • Participants rate this course highly and many attend every year.

Every year our annual Certificate Program in Couples and Family Therapy and our annual Master Series in Couple Therapy are rated highly by students.

Participants in our couples and family therapy certificate program consistently evaluate themselves significantly higher in confidence and capacity to do the work at the end of the year.

The hybrid nature of the certificate program, allowing some students to participate for part of the course in person and some fully online, offers flexibility to attract students from around the country and around the world

Both courses are flexibly scheduled in a way that allows for work/life balance. The certificate program in couple and family therapy meets for the academic year mostly once a month for a full day. The couples’ therapy course meets one evening a month (Eastern time) for seven months.

We begin informational sessions for our annual Intensive Certificate Program in Couples and Family Therapy each spring for a start date in September.

Registration for our annual Master Series in Couple Therapy course begins in the summer.

Registration for workshops typically begins a few months before they are offered.

The faculty we select to offer courses and workshops are subject matter experts with proven experience teaching at a high level of capacity and professionalism. Often our guest faculty have taught nationally and internationally. We seek people who have written and developed critically important ideas that contribute to practicing in social just ways.

  • Participants routinely evaluate our courses and workshops very highly and make Therapy Training Boston their home for continuing education (CEs).
  • We choose relevant and timely topics.
  • Our events create a learning environment that is welcoming and nurturing with a motto of providing continuing education that refuels and inspires.
  • We reliably provide effective continuing education workshops that improve participants’ capacity in their work.
  • Partly due to the reputation of the Family Institute of Cambridge, from which Therapy Training Boston evolved, we have a national reputation for excellence.

Flexible payment options and discounts for courses are available. We offer equity rates for BIPOC and student rates.

As an NBCC provider Therapy Training Boston offers CEs for mental health counselors nationwide. We also access CE approval from our local NASW chapter. CEs approved by our local NASW chapter and as an NBCC provider translates to social work CE approval for most state. We access CE approval for LMFTS from our local NEAFAST organization which also transfers to approval for many states. We do not access CE approval for psychologists or RNs due to a historically small number of workshop attendees from those professions. We welcome all mental health and helping professionals to attend our learning events.