The educational program is open to Jewish (and allied) graduate students or professionals in mental health or a related field. Anyone with a valid passport and appropriate access to travel is welcome to join on the cruise itself.

Much of the discourse in the Jewish community over the past few years has focused on solidarity and speaking with a unified voice. Sometimes, this is extremely valuable. However, we’ve noticed that the space for our culture of “two Jews, three opinions” has vanished, and so has what had been an emerging orientation toward amplifying untold stories and unheard voices and experiences within the community. From a mental health and emotional wellness perspective, this has had the effect of increasing distress and discord within community, families and even individuals themselves. Therapists have not been immune. This sailing and its programming are designed to lovingly offer opportunities and the structure for Jewish therapists to come home to themselves within community while building the skill and mindset with which to support clients and community through a number of current, related concerns and give clinicians the chance to learn about underrepresented Jewish communities in our rich, global tapestry.

As far as we now, this is the first cruise of its kind: centering and catering to Jewish clinical and cultural considerations and speaking to pieces of the Jewish experience that have been neglected in recent years of increased community distress. We’ve taken you to Israel to light the way through trauma and we’ve taken you to the Pacific Northwest to get in touch with Nature and community during Lag B’Omer. Now we’re taking you to the Southern Caribbean to connect with less dominant Jewish narratives, including those that live within you! This cruise also offers a rare opportunity to travel with family or friends while still connecting with our professional community and chipping away at CE goals.

Saturday March 27 – Sunday April 4, 2027. We will be sailing from and returning from Fort Lauderdale, Florida and flight arrangements are your own domain. As registration progresses, we will provide means for attendees to connect with each other to arrange transportation from the airport, etc.  JTC will not be organizing this domestic transportation.

Not for JTC, but there will be for the cruise. Many attendees are choosing to cruise with family or friends outside of Therapistville, but if you’re going solo and don’t want to pay the single-occupancy upcharge with Celebrity, we’d be happy to put the word out to try and find you a match.  No promises, but we can try.  You and your travel companion would need to sort out other logistics between yourselves, which are minimal, like whether you want a drink package (as every adult in the room needs to choose the same plan).

Your registration fees with JTC 12 NBCC credits which are endorsed by an accredited partner organization.  Depending on interest and need, and given enough time, we may be able to fill out the paperwork and provide the documentation for your regulatory body to consider approval if NBCC is not a standard credit organization for them, but we cannot make any promises on their behalf. If you will be submitting, please register ASAP so that we can support your goals.

Your cruise fare and fees (paid to Celebrity) include your cruise itself plus the things that make it happen (port fees, etc).  For more precise details, refer to Celebrity Cruises.  If you require kosher meals or anything beyond the scope of our educational experience (extension cords, distilled water, child care, etc), please reach out to Celebrity and ask us if you come up with no success.

These are the inclusive rates for everything but flights (deposit, meals, lodging, programming, CE credit, and goodies listed just below) except for the Guest ticket, which does not include CEs. For current JTC Sustaining Members (with or without a directory listing), your inclusive rate is $540. For the trip and a 1-on-1 professional development meeting with Halina Brooke after the trip, your inclusive rate is $720. For non-members who do not opt for professional development, your rate is $630. Guests (non-therapists) will not have access to CEs, and your inclusive rate is $250. You will be invoiced and billed by the JTC Stripe account, first for your deposit and separately for additional payments, with reminders going out regularly until the ultimate due date.

We’re a small team and, to manage labor, the deposit is non-refundable from time of registration and the full ticket is non-refundable at 60 days before departure. However, those who need to cancel may apply their deposit to other JTC experiences, including on-demand CE courses to be offered by JTC starting later in 2027, which will include an on-demand iteration of the courses offered on this sailing.

Yes!  Your family/partner/friend(s) are welcome to join on your cruise. While the educational programming onboard is for JTC registrants only, we will be having a special Shabbat get-together that family and friends are very welcome to attend and there will be one small shore excursion that will be optional, for a small fee.

We are thankful to have worked with Celebrity to arrange private and accessible spaces for our programming that can accommodate smaller and larger groups, so are excited for whatever group composition is drawn to this experience. We have the presence to support a smaller group and the facilitation practice to manage a larger one, but we do have an internal cap and so we encourage you to register as soon as possible.

Our itinerary has four full sea days with three port days in the middle. Each sea day only includes one three-hour block of workshop, with two morning learning sessions and two in the afternoon, so you will have plenty of time to explore the ship and enjoy your favorite ways to find joy. We will also have a special Shabbat gathering Friday night that your travel companions are welcome to attend and an embodied Havdalah meditation to get us ready to wrap our journey together and get back to the “real world.”

On port days, we do have one optional but exciting experience ashore, in either Aruba or Curacao (tbd) where we will have a private experience with documentarians sharing about under-represented and emergently shrinking Jewish communities, including that of Venezuela, near our ports of call.  You’ll have the rest of the time to yourselves to participate in ship-sponsored shore excursions or customize your days on your own.

Yes!  Please remember that you won’t be able to bring children or travel companions to the JTC workshop portions of our itinerary, and that childcare is not available for children under 3, and that childcare hours and specifics are handled by Celebrity.  If they are qualified to join the ship, they can come with you!  Generally, that means a valid passport and no travel restrictions to the destinations of this cruise.

Celebrity is able to accommodate a number of dietary, lifestyle and allergy needs but you must communicate these with Celebrity.

We’re beyond grateful that Celebrity has a long track record of accessibility and strong accommodations for passengers with mobility struggles and chronic illnesses. For nuanced situations, peaking to them with specific questions about the cruise itself is your best bet. If you have any specific needs related to your participation in our JTC program onboard, please speak with us so we can best support you.  We’d love to support those with unique vision, hearing, learning, and other differences and can best do that if you reach out directly.

No: as always, the Jewish Therapist Collective is a big tent organization. Our journey is restricted to only Jewish participants out of respect for the common culture and shared needs and goals, but things like observance and the label of your branch doesn’t matter. Our only requirement for participation is that you’re open to the idea that not everyone’s “What Being Jewish Looks Like” is the same, and that’s a good thing!

We will provide the times of the four onboard sessions as well as our Shabbat gathering by the end of December, but if you need them sooner, please reach out.

We will be meeting from 9:00 AM – 12 Noon or 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM each sea day (two of each) plus for Shabbat dinner onboard and one optional shore excursion.

The theme of this event is to really lean in, hearing and honoring the vibrant and unique lives and experiences within the Jewish community and hone clinical skills and frameworks in support of this endeavor.  Programming is deeply meaningful but thoughtfully scheduled so you have plenty of time and space to relax, connect and restore outside of educational sessions, some of which will highlights include:

– Person-In-Environment: The past few years have been an incredible agent of unity and solidarity; now it’s time to circle back to who we are as individuals, as stewards of healing, and beyond our clinical roles in our communities. We’ll draw from various identity and life path theoretics to meet each other, and ourselves, anew.

– Bravery in Divergence: A crucial component of multicultural competence often overlooked is navigating ways in which shared identity labels may be lived and expressed differently within a given culture. We’ll discuss complexities like rupture/repair, transference/CT, and dialectics in this context. We’ll draw from prepared case studies as well as the body of participant wisdom in the room for this crucial session.

– Shalom Bayit. We’ll explore the topics of family discord, enmeshment, estrangement, the languaging of familial relationships, and Jewish considerations in navigating these tender and timely topics. Concepts of social scaffolding, migration, chosen family, and others will be explored through role-playing and embodied practices.

– Embodied Boundary Practices: Shifting gears between clients, workplace roles, and even between work and leisure can be covert burnout culprits. We’ll explore rituals and strategies to open and close the workday, workweek, and individual sessions – energetically and spiritually.

Our experience at sea is designed to be experienced as a complete set as each piece flows with those before and after, and the sequence and careful curation amplify the depth and learning, so please plan to attend the whole thing.  If you miss a session for reasons out of your control, your certificate will be modified for accuracy.  Affiliated professionals in the healing arts, education, other kinds of healthcare and therapy, and clergy/chaplains are welcome to join with the understanding that the educational material will rely on a body of knowledge with which you may not have as much experience, owing to differing professional and educational backgrounds.

We’ve designed this experience with copious access to free time while still preserving four strong learning experiences onboard and a soul-nourishing shabbaton. We will also be available to you during the cruise if any sensitive topics invite any distress, so we can support you.  However, we’re excited to be onboard together on a ship with many opportunities for grounding, comfort, relaxation and support as well.

We recommend you rely on Celebrity’s guidance on this, but generally, you want to generously overestimate your cushion time.  Consider flying in at least one day before and flying out a day or two after, to be extra safe, but there should be ample flight options that will get you to the ship in time.

While we can’t recommend a vendor, we want to remind you that not all travel insurance carries the same coverage so you’ll want to look at the details of the policy. Some people reach out to their credit card companies first to begin getting ideas of price and coverage.  Celebrity offers some coverage, as do several credit card companies and private concerns.

We highly, highly recommend you get travel insurance. The deposit is non-refundable but those who must cancel will be able to redeem it for on-demand versions of the workshops we’re offering on board and others. The balance is refundable until 60 days before, but we’re happy to provide you with the materials to provide your travel insurance provider should you need to cancel.

Please message connect@jewishtherapists.org with questions. Don’t ask them in the Facebook group or in a DM to JTC leadership on Facebook because we’ll likely miss it. Email is your best bet!