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- 2023-02 Newsletter
| Legal & Ethical, 2 CEs Seductions and Arrogance: Client Presentations and Therapist Vulnerabilities that Lead to Legal and Ethical Violations Presented by: Ronald Mah, PhD, LMFT |
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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.
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Hello RECAMFT community and welcome to month two of 2023. I don’t know about you, but it has been a bit of a rough start to this new year and a challenging end to 2022. One of the things I like most about each new year, is the newness for adventures yet to come. This may be the hopeful romantic in me, my wandering soul, or my optimism. I enjoy the newness of each coming year. Maybe it is the spring with the earth in bloom and the days getting longer where it feels fresh, sparkling, and new versus the darkness of winter. No matter why, each year is a fresh start. This choice of how I see the world helps me to navigate the unexpectedness which tends to pop up when I don’t want or need it. This worldview is part of the mindful living I practice to improve my distress tolerance and ride the waves of uncertainty, changes, and disappointments. I, too, experience moments of anger at the world, sadness, worry, and other challenging emotions. I feel them, then I push through using mindful living practices to help navigate the ebbs and flows of life. Most of the time, I return to my baseline balance. There are times, where settling back to a baseline is more challenging and takes longer. Those are days I lean into mindful living. Mindful living is mindfulness. This includes being aware of the thoughts interfering with daily functioning such as anxious thoughts, helps defuse the anxiety, and allows me to reframe my thoughts. I am able to reassure myself, able to calm the parts of me needing some soothing, and allows me to resume whatever I need to do. I teach this to my clients and clinical staff I manage. Am I met with skepticism? Absolutely. Do I also note how “zen” or “calm” I appear”? Definitely. This is really about system regulation, calming energies and coming back to the center of the autonomous nervous system rather than being in fight/flight or freeze/collapse. When my clients or staff start practicing mindful living, they too see the benefits of this practice. The next level I am working on is throughout the year maintaining my outlook of new adventures to come instead of dreading the end of a year. As we navigate this year together, may you find your anchor, may you be able to ride the ups and downs in life, and look forward to more adventures on the horizon while weathering the storms. With compassion,
Gina L. Culver, MS, LMFT President, RECAMFT.org
Coming March 3rd! NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM)
Presented by: Brad Kammer, LMFT, LPCC Friday, Mar. 3, 2023 9:00 am - 1:15 pm Zoom, 4 CEs with one 15-minute break Register here. Prelicensed 3000 Hour Club Meeting is the first Friday monthly on Zoom (for now), 3-5 pm. Speaker in the first hour with the second hour reserved for group discussion. Jan. 6th "Using Assessment Tools to Improve Patient Care Coordination" with Laura Strom, PsyD, LMFT. Register here. Feb. 3rd "Working with Clients Presenting with Psychosis Symptoms" with Gina Culver, LMFT. Register here. Mar. 3rd "Understanding Collaborative Divorce" with Randy Cheek, LMFT. Register here.
Below is a photo from the January meeting. Debbie Melmon, Reid Harper, Ingrid and one additional person not pictured attended Laura Strom's talk.
Please consider giving a tax-deductible donation to our Joe and Pamela Ward Scholarship Program to continue our program of financial support for our emerging clinicians who face high expenses and low pay.
The funds that make these awards possible have been generously donated by members of our chapter and are doubled by matching funds authorized by our Board of Directors. Your donations will go twice as far! We have raised $2070 towards our goal of $5250 which funds the scholarship program for 2022, 2023, and 2024. We are $3180 away from our goal! Please visit www.recamft.org/scholarship to give a tax-free donation today!
The all-new Spirit of RECAMFT Award is intended to highlight or showcase our members who are working in the community to support the mental health profession and the well-being of our community at large. It is for those members who may not necessarily be seen but have contributed to unmet needs and or advancements in the mental health profession. At the heart of this award is acknowledging someone who embodies all of the aspects of RECAMFT’s mission, values, vision, and commitment to the profession and mental well-being within the community. Find out more here. Return to top We STILL need help with
Please send an email to therapy@recamft.org if you can help. Return to top |
Participate in the Justice Project : Antiracism by 12/31/23 and receive a lovely Certificate of Achievement for your wall! Click 
Our listserv has over 400 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 
Gina Culver, LMFT is a 
Transforming Trauma: The NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) for Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences and Resolving Complex Trauma
Meet RECAMFT's Prelicensed Chair and Director at Large, 
Announcing the 
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Thoughts from the Racial & Social Justice Committee (RSJC) CAMFT Calls for LMFTs to Reduce Barriers for Mental Health Treatment with BIPOC By Katharina Kienböck, LMFT
The Racial and Social Justice Committee has been proud to create the next track of our Justice Project: LGBTQ+ Affirming Care. We hope you are as excited as we are about the selection of readings and videos to choose from, to support our ability to show up more fully for our clients: LGBTQ+ Affirming Care. At the same time, we are glad to continue to offer our Anti-Racism Track: RECAMFT Justice Project: Anti-Racism. If you have started it last year, but haven’t had a chance to finish it, you can still use this year to complete it and receive a Certificate of Achievement that you could hang in your office or add to your website. Otherwise, please come check out the page and start with watching the documentary 13th! Last year’s attendees expressed great appreciation for the nudge to watch this powerful film, and felt that it was deeply impacting their perspectives and outlook on how to understand their own position in relation to race and racism. As part of the track this year, participants will have the opportunity to discuss the readings and the documentary in a workshop in the fall with Dr. Shawan Worsley, PhD, LMFT, LPCC and explore what it means to be an antiracist therapist. CAMFT, in their statement Statement on Racism, Racial Trauma, and Access to Mental Health Care for BIPOC from June 2021, said the following: “Often, suggestions for reducing stigma and improving access to care are focused on things that BIPOC can do to reduce internalized stigmas or educational efforts to encourage BIPOC to seek mental health care. However, therapists must work towards making mental health care settings and the services we provide safer for BIPOC to engage in. CAMFT encourages all therapists, and White therapists in particular, to consider ways they can reduce barriers to care for BIPOC by:
CAMFT is committed to advocating for racial justice and equal, fair, and culturally responsive mental health care for all.” At RECAMFT, we want to continue to stand with CAMFT in this commitment. It is easy to let things fade into the background, with ever more worries, concerns, and crises coming at us from so many angles. Yet we, particularly those of us who are White therapists, need to stand for Antiracist practices within our community as well as the world at large. It takes diligence, care, courage, open hearts, open ears and perseverance.
“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” You can find this quote and more about Black History Month and this year’s theme here! Here’s to a 2023 where we support each other in that process! Katharina Kienböck, LMFT Racial and Social Justice Committee Co-Chair RECAMFT Director at Large
| RECAMFT's Racial and Social Justice Pledge
We strive to advocate, educate, collaborate, and strategize for positive racial and social justice change within our membership and our community. Got a sticky problem? Come discuss it confidentially with your colleagues at our next Ethics Roundtable
Check out all the following events!
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February is the perfect time for us to be thinking about this, as it is Black History Month. Each year a theme is chosen, and this year it is Black Resistance. 
Not consultation, just a great way to get some ideas about how to handle your sticky case. Friendly and open group. Learn more 
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 needs a chair. This is a fun one, choosing the speakers for the coming year. Is it you? We also need a couple of people to help us review presentation applications. Can you help? Send your interest to therapy@recamft.org. |
Happy 2023 from the Programs & Conferences Committee! Do you want to see the applications and have a say in the events we We are now accepting speaker presentation applications for our Sept. 2023 - June 2024 speaker season. If you have a topic of interest to present on, we encourage our members to share your passions and knowledge. Please complete the speaker presentation application and send to therapy@recamft.org. CE events are typically held on the first Friday monthly (except July and August), for 1.5 to 6 hours, depending on the type of presentation. The link for the speaker application is: https://recamft.org/presentation-application. The Programs & Conferences Committee is so excited for the CE events we are offering this year including our second year launch of The Justice Project focusing on LGBTQ+ Affirming Care (the Antiracism track is still available to complete as well). As a membership benefit, the monthly presentations are generally included in the cost of dues, and we offer special member pricing for premium events such as our annual Law and Ethics, or all-day conferences. Find our Current Events page for more information: https://recamft.org/Current-Events. Redwood Empire CAMFT (RECAMFT) is the place to be in 2023! Did you know if you miss one of our live Zoom CE events, they are recorded and you can watch them later? Find them in the Members Only section. Some recordings are also available for CEs.
2/3/23 – Dr Ronald Mah, PhD, LMFT “Seductions and Arrogance: Client Presentations and Therapist” [2 law & ethics CEs]. Register here. 3/3/23 – Brad Kammer, LMFT “Transforming Trauma: The NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) for Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences and Resolving Complex Trauma” [4 CEs]. Register here. 4/7/23 – Dr Anish Shah, MD “Treatment Resistant Depression and Psychosis : A Biopsychosocial Perspective” [3 CEs]. Register here. 5/5/23 – Dr. German Ascani, MD and guests for a panel discussion on “Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy - Update on a Transformative Treatment Option” [2 CEs]. Register here. Stay tuned for more upcoming events!
We would love to hear from you and have you join our team. Email your interest to therapy@recamft.org. With gratitude, RECAMFT Programs & Conferences Committee |
offer to our members? We are looking for members to help out with writing the monthly "What you Missed" article for our events. We need help behind the scenes by helping the Chat or Q&A in Zoom. Whether you can help out one time or want to help more often, please send an email today to 
Here's what you don’t want to miss this year!
Thanks to the membership voting to increase the Board size from 9 to 12 members, at the January 13th meeting, the Board added the following Directors at Large to our table: Jean Hayes (2 year term), Linda Block (1 year term), and Katharina Kienböck (1 year term). The Board also appointed Tara D'Orazio as CFO through 12/31/23, completing Kira Kayler's term (for some strange reason Kira wanted to stay home and play with her new baby instead of managing our monies. We just can't figure that out!?!). Here is a photo from the January Board meeting. Member and past Director at Large Annette Seibel was also in attendance.
At the December 9th Board meeting, the Board decided to allow for 25 free Law & Ethics seats (6 hr L&E to be offered in late spring) for those members who complete the 2023 Justice Project: LGBTQ+ Affirming Care and fill out the Attestation form located here.
Get the latest Therapy Groups Listings here! |
LOTS MORE PAGES AND GROUPS - CLICK HERE to be taken to the Therapy Groups page which has a link to pay for an advertisement, a directory of clinicians who offer groups, and a PDF of the latest Therapy Groups quarterly newsletter.
| Find out more about advertising with RECAMFT here. |
Members! Your SHORT DESCRIPTION is the most important thing on your profile. Why? Because that shows in our
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How RECAMFT's Justice Project Inspired My AIDS Lifecycle Ride 
Dear Community, I am grateful for this space to share a personal mission/passion that may also be of interest to RECAMFT community members. Have you started the thoughtfully curated LGBTQ+ Justice Project (found under the “News and Events” tab on the RECAMFT website)? While I’ve not yet completed all components, I’m motivated to do so. I recommend the project to all members with potential contact with LGBTQ+ clients or simply as a means to gain allyship awareness and skills in support of LGBTQ+ community. Before I proceed, please allow an important acknowledgement. I identify as cis-gender straight white male. These identities engender much privilege. I hope for this privilege to foster benefits via informed efforts toward allyship with LGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities. There is much work to be done.
As we therapists often do, I seek opportunities to express a voice of advocacy. As a voter, I vote in support of progressive social policy. As a therapist, I seek such opportunities whenever LGBTQ+ issues are in the mix. Now my attention has turned to an additional advocacy channel for this often marginalized community. This year marks my 60th journey around the Sun. With much reflection, I have settled on my preferred celebration for the occasion.
The universe always hears a mission/passion and responds in kind with invitations to express it. The year 2023 synchronistically brings my 60th birthday and the RECAMFT LGBTQ+ Justice Project. How’s a socially conscious, recently minted avid cyclist to celebrate and honor the occasion? In a moment of soulful insight, cherished worlds collided! 1) cycling, 2) progressive, affirmative community and 3) valuable social advocacy all land in one place together! YES, The AIDS LIFECYCLE (ALC)!
With hope, awe, humility, compassion and joy, I announce my intention to ride the ALC in June, 2023 from San Francisco to Los Angeles (545 miles!). This is an epic ride for great causes - a cure for AIDS and social justice and community services for LGBTQ+ community. The event is a major fundraiser for two non-profit organizations: the SF AIDS Foundation and the LA LGBTQ center. Details on the efforts and services of these organizations can be found in the links in this article’s footer. My solidarity commitment:
Allied souls please reach out. All ALC related inquiries welcome. Cyclist, Roadie and Home Hero participant applications are all currently open on the ALC website. Blessings in solidarity, Rex Rex Burington, LMFT (Rider in the image) Cell: 707-595-8788 Email: liminalstream@gmail.com Donation Link: https://giving.aidslifecycle.org/participant/Joy-Peddler Weblinks for further information:
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Call for Submissions for the February 2023 Issue of The RECAMFT Therapist!
February is Black History, American Heart, and Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. We especially welcome submissions where these themes intersect with mental health. Please send your submission (500 word max) to therapy@recamft.org by the 15th. Questions? therapy@recamft.org.
In 2016 after serving as RECAMFT's CFO, and then President Elect, Bob Dalzell became RECAMFT's President during a year filled with excitement. In November a national presidential election resulted in an upset in which Donald Trump was elected via the Electoral College to the presidency, defeating Hilary Clinton who won the popular vote. In brighter news Simone Biles became the GOAT (greatest of all time) of women's gymnastics at the Rio Olympics. Bob always brought the best energy to the Board meetings, with loving thoughtfulness and care (plus great hugs) that made everyone feel welcomed. We miss you, Bob. A LOT. Thanks for all you've done for RECAMFT! More pics of Bob during his Board tenure. The second pic is Bob receiving his CAMFT Outstanding Leader of the Year Award from the CAMFT President. In the third he is posing at Law & Ethics with speaker Dave Jensen, JD.
Want to see all our Past Presidents? Click here. Return to top Thank you for reading this month's newsletter! RECAMFT is great because of involved members like you!! |
Past President 
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Redwood Empire Chapter of California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists |
