Course Catalog

Below is a catalog of the Academy’s free courses.

A Call to Action

Conversation & Speaker Series

Multi-Session (6 hours)

A Call to Action invites participants to examine the complexities of self-care and wellness as a birthright. We explore how the roots of our multi-layered behaviors impact our daily lives, mind, body, and spirit, both positively and negatively. Together over 4 sessions, participants will learn to recognize body, mind, and spirit disharmony and gain tools that include: ancestral connection, guided meditation, five element theory, herbal medicine, acupressure, aroma therapy, sound therapy, qi gong, and tapping – all to create an environment that fosters the practice of intentional, loving self-care and healing.

Combating Burnout and Compassion Fatigue

Brief Learning Series

Self-Paced (2 hours)

Burnout and compassion fatigue can diminish the way people feel about their work and contribute to things like turnover, especially for helping professionals. However, it is possible to combat these issues by building and promoting self-care and self-compassion. This course introduces definitions of burnout and compassion fatigue, helps learners recognize signs and symptoms in themselves and others, and offers proactive strategies to protect or improve wellness in the face of work-related stress.

Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT)

Brief Learning Series

Multi-Session (16 hours)

Nalanda Institute’s Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT) is a complete, evidence-based training in stress-reduction and self-healing developed and tested at the university hospitals of Columbia and Cornell, where it has been offered continuously since 1998. The Academy offers this course to help NYC non-profit social service providers strengthen mindfulness and compassion practices that can offer protection from the stress and trauma you may encounter in doing your jobs.

Connecting Through Art and Creative Expression

Brief Learning Series

Multi-Session (10 hours)

Connecting Through Art and Creative Expression equips learners to engage children and young people through art-based experiences. Participants will learn to use art to build rapport, trust, and psychological safety in relationships with young people who have been impacted by violence. This course is centered in trauma-informed theory and practices, and is taught by licensed creative arts therapists. Each week, participants will explore a different kind of art material and experience the benefits they can offer. Participants will be guided to apply these techniques between course sessions and learn how to facilitate art activities within their own scope of practice at their organization. In the final week, each participant will present on their experience of using art and creative expression with children and young people impacted by violence.

Deep Roots: Tools for Healing Complex Trauma

Brief Learning Series

Multi-Session (12 hours)

This course explores the healing methods that have allowed communities to survive and thrive in the midst of intergenerational, complex, and mass trauma. Beginning with an exploration of how we ourselves can cultivate healing practices, we then tap into how our communities and lineages have cultivated wellness throughout time. Together, we share healing modalities and practices that have allowed our families and communities to thrive and overcome adversity.

Integrating Art and Creative Expression in Communities

Brief Learning Series

Multi-Session (10 hours)

This advanced 5-week course offers an immersive exploration of art-based techniques for empowering children, teens, and adolescents who have experienced trauma. Building on the Academy’s introductory course, Connecting Through Art and Creative Expression, this course will help learners expand and strengthen skills to support young people through creative expression. The techniques in this course can be used with young people who are affected by violence in a range of ways, including in their communities, homes, schools, the immigration process, or other oppressive systems.

Motivational Interviewing Certificate for Organizations or Teams

Skills-Based Certificate Program

Multi-Session (7 months)

The Motivational Interviewing (MI) Certificate program for organizations or teams provides comprehensive training, coaching, and implementation support that help organizations implement MI to improve services and outcomes. More than individual training, this unique program was designed to support the transfer of MI skills into practice in community settings. Selected organizations will identify at least 15 organizational leaders, supervisors, and direct care staff to participate in the program’s three tracks: MI Implementation Teams, MI Practitioners, and MI Supervisors.

Principles of Grief Support

Skills-Based Certificate Program

Multi-Session (10.5 hours)

This advanced course helps learners develop skills to attend to the emotional needs of people who are grieving. Drawing on current research and clinical practices, learners will deepen their understanding of what grief is and its emotional, physiological, and social impacts. This is an experiential course where learners gain concrete skills to help people process the pain of loss in 1:1 conversations and bereavement support groups. You will strengthen skills to cultivate presence with clients, validate others’ experiences, and support meaning-making and rituals, among others. This highly interactive course involves self-reflection, active listening, experiential learning, and skills practice in small groups.

Prerequisite: Understanding Grief and Loss: Supporting Bereaved Community Members

Trauma-Informed Organizational Practice

Skills-Based Certificate Program

Multi-Session (7 months)

The trauma-informed organizational practice certificate program equips leaders and supervisors to create environments that protect staff from the impacts of primary and secondary traumas and help them deliver compassionate, healing-centered care. It includes training, interactive coaching, and implementation support in two tracks: trauma-informed supervision and trauma-informed leadership. This program is designed for organizations or teams who participate in both tracks.

Understanding Grief and Loss: Supporting Bereaved Community Members

Brief Learning Series

Multi-Session (7.5 hours)

This course introduces current research about grief, loss, attachment, and resilience, along with helpful strategies for supporting bereaved people. Participants will learn culturally responsive and person-centered ways to support community members, employees, and co-workers who are impacted by grief, including when someone may benefit from therapeutic support. We will also explore how our personal experiences of loss can impact our work with bereaved community members. This is an interactive course that involves presentations, film, discussion, and role plays.

This course satisfies the prerequisite for the Skills-Based Certificate Program, Principles of Grief Support.