Influential Women Features Dr. Rhea V. Almeida For Advancing Liberation-Based Healing

SOMERSET, NJ, UNITED STATES, September 30, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Founder of the Institute for Family Services brings connection and community into therapy, professional training, and organizational change

SOMERSET, N.J. — Influential Women features Dr. Rhea V. Almeida, MS, Ph.D., LCSW, founder and executive director of the Institute for Family Services (IFS), for her work advancing Liberation-Based Healing across clinical practice, education, and institutions.

For more than 30 years, Almeida has challenged approaches that treat people’s difficulties apart from the relationships and conditions shaping their lives. Her work considers how family, culture, race, gender, class, migration, and institutional power affect both harm and opportunities for healing. At IFS, the guiding message is care rooted in connection and community.

Almeida developed a liberatory perspective grounded in three pillars: critical consciousness, empowerment, and accountability. IFS brings these principles into therapy and the training of mental health professionals. It also works with organizations seeking to move beyond diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statements and initiatives. Its organizational training helps leaders and teams examine how power operates in policies, decisions, relationships, and everyday practices—and translate liberatory principles into organizational structures and processes.

Founded in 1990, IFS has a longstanding clinical practice, a strong publication record, and decades of experience training mental health professionals. Its team offers Liberation-Based Healing and systemic therapy for individuals, couples, children, adolescents, parents, and families. IFS currently welcomes new therapy referrals throughout New Jersey via Zoom. Spanish-language services, early and late-evening consultations, PPO insurance, and sliding-fee options are available.

Almeida also founded the annual Liberation-Based Healing Conference. Each of its past 20 gatherings has been co-hosted by a university in the United States or Canada, bringing academic partners into sustained conversation with clinicians, educators, artists, activists, and communities. The 21st conference, on November 6–7, 2026, invites participants to examine what must change in the institutions where people learn, work, and seek care.

IFS welcomes connections with university faculty and departments, clinical educators, and organizational leaders interested in bringing liberatory praxis into training, institutional structures, and community life.

Explore Liberation-Based Healing and organizational partnerships:
https://www.instituteforfamilyservices.com/liberation-based-healing-hub/

Request a therapy appointment:
https://www.instituteforfamilyservices.com/request-an-appointment/

Explore the 2026 conference:
https://www.instituteforfamilyservices.com/event/liberation-based-healing-conference-2026/

Influential women profile:

https://influentialwomen.com/connect/rhea-almeida

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