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Culture Ally’s Antiracism Clinical Consultation Group provides a safe and empowered space for the intentional development of clinicians committed to engaging in antiracist clinical practices.
This group has a dual focus: (1) personal self-exploration and development regarding issues related to race and racism and (2) professional development of culturally responsive counseling skills to effectively and ethically address race and racism in one’s clinical practice. During this 2 hour session, there will be the opportunity for 3 case presentations that highlight issues related to race, racism, or pressing cultural politics.
Clinicians will utilize a structured format for their case presentations. The Culture Ally facilitator will provide the structure for the group, model antiracist collaboration, and help the group enhance their skills and capacity for antiracist clinical practice. This group is open to clinicians of all races and ethnicities. This space is intended to be gracious, not condemning. It entails uncomfortable learning, with the ultimate goal of supportive and constructive interactions.
Dr. Shawan Worsley, PhD, LMFT (she/her) is the Founder and Executive Director at Culture Ally. Dr. Worsley is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor. She holds a Ph.D. in American Studies, an M.A. in Counseling Psychology, and B.As. in African American Studies and International Relations. Dr. Worsley’s vocational goal is to help eradicate mental health disparities that impair the health and well-being of communities of color as she continues to provide therapy services through her private practice in Northern California.
Register here for this exciting event watching your colleagues in LIVE CONSULTATION with Dr. Shawan Worsley discussing racial issues in the therapy room!
Featured member | Past President's Message: Reflections on Pride and Juneteenth By Tara D'Orazio, LMFT 
RECAMFT honors Pride and Juneteenth with gratitude and recognition of the contributions to our field and our organization from our LGBTQ+ and Black/African American colleagues and pioneers in mental health and liberation. In the early hours of June 28th, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in New York City's Greenwich Village. The protest launched by bar patrons, neighbors, and activists, mostly Queer and Trans People of Color, came to be known as the Stonewall Uprising and sparked new life into a world wide gay rights movement. The following year, in 1970, thousands marched in the streets of Manhattan from the now famous Inn to Central Park, which became America's first gay pride parade. Today, Pride celebrations occur around the world to commemorate the Stonewall protest, celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, and continue furthering equality for gay rights. The 36th Annual Sonoma County Pride Celebration and parade is scheduled to be held on June 4th in downtown Santa Rosa with the theme of We Are Family. For further reading on LGBTQ+ history and the impact of homophobia on the Queer community, please see our reading and resource list.
Juneteenth, America's Second Independence Day, is celebrated nationally on June 19th to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans. On June 19th, 1865, General Order No 3. by Union Army general Gordon Granger proclaimed freedom for the enslaved people in Texas, the last Confederate state with institutional slavery, over two years after President Lincoln's signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Celebrations date back to 1866 and are today observed with a focus on African-American culture and tribute to the legacy of the fight for freedom. Traditions include public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation and the works of noted African-American writers, parades, pageants, cookoffs, church services, exhibitions, and more. The 52nd Annual MLK Juneteenth Community Festival is scheduled to be held on June 18th in Santa Rosa. To read more about the history of slavery and impact of enduring racism on Black Americans in the United States, please see our reading list. Return to top
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Our listserv has over 300 members on it, and is active daily with great conversations, resources, offerings, in search of, books, movies, office rentals, jobs, internships, etc. You can view the home page of our listserv at The listserv has been especially valuable as a lifeline to each other during the pandemic. But there are currently over 150 members who are not taking advantage of this vital resource and membership benefit we offer. Other therapist organizations automatically enroll every member into their listservs. So at the April 8th, 2022 RECAMFT Board of Directors meeting, President Laura Strom brought up the topic of automatically registering all/new members to the listserv. This was approved by the Board of Directors. If you are not currently enrolled in the listserv, you soon will be. You have the option of setting up your account to be
After you have been added to the listserv, you can change the way you receive the emails to any of the above choices. In Gmail the emails will appear under your Forums tab. To send an email to the listserv, simply address your email to If you do not want to be on our listserv, you can delete your account or write to therapy@recamft.org and ask to not be a part of the listserv. But we urge you to give it a try. You are missing out on a ton of meaningful collaboration with your colleagues. We hope you will enjoy being part of our online community! Coming soon.... Are you creative? Join us for our Crafting Group. Bring any craft you like, get on Zoom with us and visit with your colleagues while we knit, sew, paint, draw, cook, create, etc.
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The Programs Committee is calling for presentation applications to be submitted by May 31st.. Please let interested parties know and find out more here. We also need a couple of people to help us review presentation applications. This is a lot of fun, choosing the next group of speakers for our colleagues to enjoy. Can you help? Send your interest to therapy@recamft.org. | We STILL need help with
Please send an email to therapy@recamft.org if you can help. Come on! Please?? | Check out all the following events!
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Call for Submissions for the September 2022 Issue of The RECAMFT Therapist!
September is Suicide Prevention Month, Latinx Heritage Month, Pain Awareness Month, and Preparedness Month. We especially welcome submissions where these themes intersect with mental health. Please send your submission (500 word max) to therapy@recamft.org by August 15th. Questions? therapy@recamft.org.
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This June marks 53 years since police raided a gay club called The Stonewall Inn in New York City, looking to arrest “cross dressers” and people engaging in “gay behavior” in public. With gay marriage legal in all states since 2015, a recent publicly gay presidential candidate, and a current transgender US assistant secretary of health, one could say we’ve come a long way. But the dialectic of progress means things get worse as they get better, pendulating between progress to regress, back and forth, further in each direction until momentum tips the scale enough to go all the way upside down in a circle that accelerates, hopefully in the progress direction. We must throw our weight into this instead of being passive, just riding. Last March, Florida passed the Parental Rights in Education bill, aka the Don’t Say Gay bill. It bans instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity through third grade, meaning children of LGBTQ+ parents probably won’t see themselves reflected in books at story time. Maybe they won’t be allowed to draw and share pictures about their families; such laws get manipulated to sanction oppression in ways the un-targeted couldn’t begin to imagine. Across the US, violence against the LGBTQ+ communities is increasing, sometimes as hate crimes and sometimes as voter supported law and policy. That’s a ton of mental health problems and suicidal ideation in the making. In Sonoma County, we may have relatively less homophobic and trans or gender non-binary-phobic oppression than other places in the US. But it was only three years ago in west county on my kids’ first day of instruction at school we were greeted by our principal hoisting a glorious Rainbow Flag on a pole over his shoulder inclusively welcoming people of all types of diversity as well as the sight of red-faced parents yelling that their children were being “subjected to those messages”. The school hosted a restorative justice circle attended by over 50 parents. I expressed how as a bisexual woman I felt relief and safety at the sight of the flag. The next day my youngest kid got bullied at recess about me. I am lucky enough to have good skills, good support, and a good way to educate and support my kids. Not all LGBTQ+ folks have those skills and support. This June, for Pride, please consider doing what you can as a therapist and as a human to throw your weight into the equality direction for LGBTQ+ people whether you are LGBTQ+ or not, so that we can progress in the direction of human rights and freedom. Take an LGBTQ+ training or put up a safety sign in your real or virtual office and on your website. See https://www.hrc.org/resources/establishing-an-allies-safe-zone-program. Read some of the LGBTQ+ books at the Justice Project (https://www.recamft.org/justice). Go to a march. Get involved. The future safety of someone you love, whether a family member, friend, or a client, may depend upon it.
| RECAMFT's Mission Statement The purpose of RECAMFT is to promote and maintain professional competence and integrity with knowledge, innovation, compassion, humor and respect for human dignity and diversity. We do this by providing opportunities for networking, education and community outreach. RECAMFT's Racial and Social Justice Pledge RECAMFT is committed to equity including addressing structural racism and systemic injustice. We endeavor to be inclusive and value individuals from all ethnicities, ages, races, sexual orientations, genders, languages, abilities, religions, citizenship statuses, and socioeconomic backgrounds into our chapter and into treatment. We strive to advocate, educate, collaborate, and strategize for positive racial and social justice change within our membership and our community.
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Participate in the Justice Project by June 15th and earn your Law & Ethics for free this year! Click 
Thank you to CasanovaToral.com for your support and partnership with RECAMFT! CasanovaToral.com has been one of RECAMFT's longest time supporters and partners.
Find out more about advertising with RECAMFT here.
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Thank you to M.E.N. for your support!
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Members! Your SHORT DESCRIPTION is the most important thing on your profile. Why? Because that shows in our 
May’s presentation was “Modern Day Alchemy: Creativity and Transformation” presented by Felicia Matto-Shepard, LMFT, JA. As a Jungian Analyst, she uses art and images in her work with clients. She described different pieces of doing the work: psychological versus visionary art, individuation, the word images as “both a noun and verb,” and “how to engage an image.” As Felicia spoke, she shared images that either she, students or clients had created. I felt mesmerized and lost in her voice as each image arose. Though I lack any artistic talent (I draw a decent stick figure), I felt the images speaking to my soul. One of her first images was a vulture-like creature that leapt from her brain to attack a teacher. The vividness of her description felt so real I could imagine the creature even though it was not in her finished work. Felicia literally painted us the picture with illustrations and descriptions of her creativity process along the way. “What is alive in you right now?” we pondered in breakout rooms. Instantly, curiosity percolated throughout my body, but feeling stuck promptly and efficiently weighed it down. I felt frozen, wondering what might surface. Felicia seems to think alchemical art images allow our deepest fears to come forth onto paper or canvas, making them less frightening. Could I create images, too? 
I am definitely pondering this question, Felicia! This was an absolutely enthralling 90 minutes. See for yourself by watching the video. To learn more about Felicia’s captivating work with imagery and metaphor, visit her website for a list of workshops: https://feliciamattoshepard.com. With gratitude from the Programs Committee...
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Starring Luke Matthew Martin, JD, CAMFT Staff attorney. Find the recording here, and watch at your leisure. Please join us for our final Prelicensed Walk and Talk Event before our summer break. We start back again in September.
Got a sticky problem? Come discuss it confidentially with your colleagues at our next Ethics Roundtable
We're so proud of you and grateful for your service!! |
Meet RECAMFT's Prelicensed Chair and Director at Large, 
It's not too late to catch "Navigating the Road to Licensure"!
Next Walk & Talk
Not consultation, just a great way to get some ideas about how to handle your sticky case. Friendly and open group. Learn more 
Get the latest Therapy Groups Listings here!
LOTS MORE PAGES AND GROUPS - CLICK HERE FOR THE REST! | Click here to download RECAMFT Therapy Groups current through 8/31/22. Do you lead a group? To learn more about how to run your own ad email therapy@recamft.org.
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The RECAMFT Board of Directors (BOD) was pleased member Jennifer Scott attended. The Board discussed with excitement CAMFT's plan to hold the Fall Symposium on Sept. 9th in Rohnert Park at the DoubleTree Hotel! CAMFT invited our Board to hold our monthly meeting at the hotel (time slightly later than usual will be 10 am to 12 pm). CAMFT will offer some continuing education courses in the afternoon, and a reception for attendees, our Board and the CAMFT Board around 5 pm. More details will be forthcoming. We hope LOTS of our members can attend this live event. You can find the BOD meeting agendas and minutes in the Members Only section of our website.
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Greetings from Gina Culver, LMFT - RECAMFT's 2023 President 
Happy June to all the members of RECAMFT! The first few months of 2022 have flown by and it is hard to believe we are in June already. With reflection over the last couple of years, I have learned to embrace my anxiety and fears and say to myself, “Keep moving forward” and “Why not?” I like to think I am moving towards the self-confidence that I had in my late teens and 20s but with the wisdom I have accumulated over the years. Thank you to everyone who voted in December 2021 to elect me as your President Elect after having served as the Programs Committee Co-Chair and Chair over the last year. I am honored to be in this leadership role in RECAMFT to support you, the members, over the next few years. I have felt supported by and learned to rely on our Board of Directors, as well as by many other RECAMFT members, for mentoring and guidance throughout this journey. I also want to give my heartfelt thanks to the RECAMFT Board for awarding me the 2022 RECAMFT Outstanding Chapter Leadership Award. I was also recognized in the awards ceremony at the recent CAMFT Leadership Conference on February 4th for receiving this award. This was so unexpected and definitely is my love language (recognition)! I so appreciate RECAMFT for recognizing my contributions and I am happy to give back. Some of my areas of passion are:
I look forward to getting to know you as I am transformed through this presidential role. I am wholeheartedly delighted to watch RECAMFTs continued growth and change. What a ride this will be! With humble thanks from your President Elect, Regina "Gina" Culver 2023 President, RECAMFT.org
Julie is still a valuable and active member of RECAMFT and we're so grateful she saw us through the worries of computers changing to 2000 and causing international headaches! ;-) Thanks, Julie for all your hard work on behalf of RECAMFT as you guided us into the new millennia. Want to see all our Past Presidents? Click here. Thank you for reading this month's newsletter! RECAMFT is great because of involved members like you!! |
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Redwood Empire Chapter of California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists |
