Save the date!
The 20th Annual Liberation Based Healing Conference will be held on November 7th and 8th
About us
The institute for family services
The Institute for Family Services (IFS) is a team of family therapists committed to producing change that embraces safe, respectful, nurturing and empowering relationships for all individuals, communities and families.
The Institute is well known throughout New Jersey and the nation for its innovative programs. These programs support family members around issues of loss, chronic illness, substance abuse, marital conflict, divorce, post-divorce, single parenthood, youth, children and parenting in crises, workplace challenges and mental health in New Jersey. The programs also encourage healing by embracing life-affirming choices, based on a strong foundation of empowerment and accountability. Mindful of the resilience embodied by those who struggle, our therapeutic process anchors the problems presented within a system of support, care, and action strategies.
Interesting to know
Our useful and informative videos
Dr. Rhea Almeida
MS, Ph.D, LCSW, Founder of IFS
Our view of healing & therapeutic practices
Liberation based healing
Dr. Rhea Almeida
MS, Ph.D, LCSW, Founder of IFS
Liberation-based Healing is a combination of practices of therapy grounded in decolonial scholarship, critical social learning, and family therapy interventions. This process of critical learning and dialogue around presenting issues is developed through innovative use of social media, culture circles, and community sponsors. Sponsors are men, women and adolescents who have had transformative experiences with this approach and ally with new clients in their efforts to heal.
The step-by-step building of social capital makes this therapeutic approach sustainable over time. This approach to healing departs from traditional practices of pathologizing clients, or focusing solely on symptom reduction. While being symptom-free is important, therapeutic focus is on building and strengthening foundations of resistance and resilience. Therapists at the Institute work towards creating and sustaining a community of helpers, clientele, friends, and professionals.
“It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.”
Gabriel García Márquez
What we do
Therapy services
Our philosophy is to embrace the resilience that all families and individuals bring to therapy and create a landscape of liberation in resolving life’s struggles. We do not define our clients by the particular identity of their presenting problems but rather by their multiple and complex identities.
Family therapy
The structure of families today range from the traditional nuclear families, single parent families, extended families, etc. living together, each with different and similar challenges including ...
Post-graduate training/internship
Liberation Based Practice Trainees receive didactic and live supervision in the clinic, working with wide trajectories of families, including Spanish language clients, that are navigating multiple systems ...
Organizational change training
Please contact us if you would like to discuss a tailored workshop for your organization. Our team has experience working with youth & adolescents, educators, social workers and mental health ...
Conference
The Liberation-Based Healing Conference
The Liberation-Based Healing conference was first envisioned by Dr. Rhea Almeida, director of the Institute for Family Services in NJ. She and her colleagues, Lisa Dressner, Judy Lockard, Pilar Hernandez-Wolfe, and Andrae Brown developed and expanded the conference over the past years with many others having collaborated with this initiative. They include, Mabel Quinones, Rebecca Chaisson, Judy Lewis, Nocona Pewewardy, Cornel Pewewardy, Marilyn Armour, Gail Rice, Diana Melendez, Jose Paez, Willie Tolliver, Carolyn Tubbs, Mayida Zaal, CMO Tri-County….and the list continues to grow.
The conference grew out of a general disillusionment by scholars and those they were serving, with mainstream conferences in the mental health fields (Social work, Family therapy & Counseling) …
Transform your life
Testimonials
Student appreciation
“I really appreciate the perspective that Dr. Almeida has and the work she is doing within social work because it is incredibly needed. Everything within this field and within social services are so individualized and just reinforce that idea that everything is on you and nothing can be at a level higher than that. It […]
Student appreciation
Liberation-based healing practices
“My name is Dr. J. Corey Williams, MD. My colleague and I at Georgetown have become very interested in your work surround Liberation-based Healing. Over the course of the last year, we have started a reading and discussion group focused on liberation-based healing practices to begin interrogating how liberation can be applied to our clinical […]
Dr. J. Corey Williams, MD
Liberation-based healing practices
Life outside work
“I thought I came here for therapy. What I received was a gift of life that included learning how to be a man in today’s world both in my home and at work. I feel more loved at home and my work colleagues describe me as more caring and competent than ever.”
Life outside Work
Racial and gender diversity
Liberation based healing
“My name is Diana Jauregui and I am an MSW student at California State University Northridge. I had the privilege and pleasure of attending the Liberation Based Healing Conference in St. Louis this past weekend. I wanted to take the time to congratulate and thank you all for organizing such an empowering conference. This is […]
Diana Jauregui
MSW Student CSUN
Expanding definitions of courage and masculinity
“I never imagined that learning new notions of masculinity such as expanded emotionality, embracing femininity, balancing work and family life, embracing relatedness over individualism, valuing collaboration, maintaining flexibility, valuing shared power of relatedness, could make a better and more courageous man.”
Expanding Definitions of Courage and Masculinity
Racial and gender diversity
Conference Participant
“What didn’t I enjoy about the conference? I had been feeling very drained this past week. But after being at the conference yesterday, I felt my cup was full again. I was surrounded by like-minded people. I loved how we were openly talking about how we could help our students, regardless of age, from the […]
Conference Participant
Student appreciation
“Thank you to everyone for presenting the work you do and allowing us to see a specific case study and how the model itself works to support clients. I feel there is a lot that can be used through the different aspects of liberation based healing practices that can help many different populations in the […]
Jose
Student appreciation
Student appreciation
“Thank you Dr. Almeida, Emilia, Alexis, Lakeisha, and Eunjung! You all were wonderful and it was great to learn from your insight and knowledge. Liberation Based Healing has been intriguing to me since I learned about it this semester so to see a case study as a visual representation of your work was very beneficial […]
Student appreciation
Student appreciation
“Thank you again Dr. Almeida, Lakeisha, Emilia, Alexis, Eunjung (I hope i’m not forgetting anyone lol) for coming into our class space and sharing with us all the work that y’all have been doing. I am so empowered and inspired by the liberation based healing practices framework and want to learn more about how i […]
Marilinda G
Student appreciation
Student appreciation
“I really loved seeing (visually) how liberation-based healing practices work. But I especially loved how a few of the facilitators talked about how much they had to unlearn themselves in order to participate in these circles. It really reminds me of the idea of institutional infiltrators–facilitators who are disrupting the “norm” in order to promote […]
Student appreciation
Student appreciation
“I really appreciate the perspective that Dr. Almeida has and the work she is doing within social work because it is incredibly needed. Everything within this field and within social services are so individualized and just reinforce that idea that everything is on you and nothing can be at a level higher than that. It […]
Student appreciation
Liberation-based healing practices
“My name is Dr. J. Corey Williams, MD. My colleague and I at Georgetown have become very interested in your work surround Liberation-based Healing. Over the course of the last year, we have started a reading and discussion group focused on liberation-based healing practices to begin interrogating how liberation can be applied to our clinical […]
Dr. J. Corey Williams, MD
Liberation-based healing practices
Life outside work
“I thought I came here for therapy. What I received was a gift of life that included learning how to be a man in today’s world both in my home and at work. I feel more loved at home and my work colleagues describe me as more caring and competent than ever.”
Life outside Work
Racial and gender diversity
Liberation based healing
“My name is Diana Jauregui and I am an MSW student at California State University Northridge. I had the privilege and pleasure of attending the Liberation Based Healing Conference in St. Louis this past weekend. I wanted to take the time to congratulate and thank you all for organizing such an empowering conference. This is […]
Diana Jauregui
MSW Student CSUN
Expanding definitions of courage and masculinity
“I never imagined that learning new notions of masculinity such as expanded emotionality, embracing femininity, balancing work and family life, embracing relatedness over individualism, valuing collaboration, maintaining flexibility, valuing shared power of relatedness, could make a better and more courageous man.”
Expanding Definitions of Courage and Masculinity
Racial and gender diversity
Conference Participant
“What didn’t I enjoy about the conference? I had been feeling very drained this past week. But after being at the conference yesterday, I felt my cup was full again. I was surrounded by like-minded people. I loved how we were openly talking about how we could help our students, regardless of age, from the […]
Conference Participant
Student appreciation
“Thank you to everyone for presenting the work you do and allowing us to see a specific case study and how the model itself works to support clients. I feel there is a lot that can be used through the different aspects of liberation based healing practices that can help many different populations in the […]
Jose
Student appreciation
Student appreciation
“Thank you Dr. Almeida, Emilia, Alexis, Lakeisha, and Eunjung! You all were wonderful and it was great to learn from your insight and knowledge. Liberation Based Healing has been intriguing to me since I learned about it this semester so to see a case study as a visual representation of your work was very beneficial […]
Student appreciation
Student appreciation
“Thank you again Dr. Almeida, Lakeisha, Emilia, Alexis, Eunjung (I hope i’m not forgetting anyone lol) for coming into our class space and sharing with us all the work that y’all have been doing. I am so empowered and inspired by the liberation based healing practices framework and want to learn more about how i […]
Marilinda G
Student appreciation
Student appreciation
“I really loved seeing (visually) how liberation-based healing practices work. But I especially loved how a few of the facilitators talked about how much they had to unlearn themselves in order to participate in these circles. It really reminds me of the idea of institutional infiltrators–facilitators who are disrupting the “norm” in order to promote […]
Student appreciation