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The Redwood Empire Therapist
RECAMFT's Online Newsletter
January 2026
Don't miss out! Fri., Jan. 9th, in-person event in Petaluma!!
RECAMFT's 51st Annual Membership Meeting including lunch, networking, and 2-CE training:
"From Shame to Intimacy: Helping Clients Build Connections in a Burnt Out World" Presented by Author David Khalili, LMFT, Board-Certified Sexologist
This event will not be live-streamed nor recorded. If you'd like to participate, please join us in Petaluma on January 9th! Open to RECAMFT members and non-member therapists. Networking Activity - We will be engaging in a fun activity based on interests to make connections and build relationships. When you register, you'll choose from these nine (9) topics: Trauma | Kids and teens | Couples | IFS | EMDR Neurodivergence | LGBTQ | Sex and intimacy | Open Topic And we will have our monthly continuing education program during this in-person event! "From Shame to Intimacy: Helping Clients Build Connections in a Burnt Out World" with author David Khalili, LMFT, Board-Certified Sexologist
David F. Khalili, LMFT is a licensed marriage and family therapist, board-certified sexologist, and founder of Rouse Relational Wellness, a boutique couples and sex therapy center in San Francisco. He’s authored Mental Health Workbook for Men and Sex Worriers: A Mindfully Queer Guide for Men’s Anxiety to Sex and Dating to enhance men's relationships with themselves and others.
"Support & Safety During Crisis: Treating Undocumented Families Facing ICE & Detention" Presented by Sandra Espinoza, PsyD, LMFT 2 CEs, on Zoom 9 AM to 11:15 AM This introductory workshop will prepare clinicians with the knowledge and tools to support undocumented clients and families impacted by the threat of deportation. Recent research highlights the urgent need for such clinical awareness. Personally knowing a detained or deported person, particularly when the individual is a family member, is strongly associated with poorer mental health among U.S. citizens (Pinedo & Valdez, 2020). This webinar will provide clinicians with specific skills to assess and address the relational ruptures, attachment disruptions, and trauma responses that often accompany deportation-related family separation. Participants will learn how to integrate trauma-informed, culturally-sensitive, and systemic approaches in their work. Practical interventions, case examples, and strategies for navigating clinical and community-based challenges will be included. |
This 2-hour workshop will equip therapists with essential tools to guide their clients toward deeper connection. The training will explore strategies for identifying needs and pleasure, fostering comfort in discussing sex, and collaboratively creating new sexual expectations. This training integrates a biopsychosocial approach to assessing sexual concerns with relational interventions, empowering mental health professionals to effectively support clients navigating intimacy in today's demanding world. Participants will enhance their clinical skills and help clients move from shame to authentic intimacy.
Fri., Feb. 6th, 9 AM
Featured member
Did you miss the BBS-MANDATED 3 CE Telehealth course?
Telehealth: Law & Ethics, Technology, and Best Practices for Connecting with Your Clients with Dr. Lisa Wenninger, PhD, LPCC, BC-TMH Catch it on video here, and get your mandated 3 Telehealth CEs. Return to top Our own Tara D'Orazio is running for Director at Large on the state CAMFT Board - please VOTE for her!
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 for our members. (Note: "For our members" was added to the Mission Statement by the Bylaws Task Force on May 19, 2025). | Dear RECAMFT Community:
I am honored to lead RECAMFT as your 2026 President! I am also humbled and a bit daunted, knowing that I follow a long list of strong dynamic leaders - several of whom have gone on to lead at the state level in CAMFT. We are one of CAMFT's largest and most dynamic chapters so I feel the weight of this new role even more. I am also keenly aware that we are one of many professions in the midst of change as technology continues to bring benefits and challenges. All of this presents me with a wide range of opportunities in terms of how to serve our membership better. Recently I was reading a newsletter from my favorite yoga teacher, Jean Grant Sutton of Integrative Yoga Therapy, where she spoke about focus and equanimity. She illustrated the point about selective attention using the well known test of asking viewers to count ball passes among players with most people not noticing a person dressed in a gorilla suit walking through the group. Now, more than ever, there is so much competing for our attention and focus; it is easy to become distracted or overwhelmed, or pulled in too many directions. We can lose our focus I want my focus for RECAMFT to be about membership engagement. We have 900 members to date, yet do not see or hear from so many. What do you value about RECAMFT? What do you need more of or less of? What could we offer that would engage you more? I will hold "Listening Sessions" in the near future to engage with you, and find out what is on your minds and how RECAMFT might help. I work with a wonderful group of extremely hard-working volunteers on our Board, most serving on and/or chairing several committees. I have also seen a big drop-off in the number of non-board member volunteers over the 13 years I've been involved with RECAMFT. I am hopeful that I can inspire more of you to become involved. I am seeking more balance for our board members by growing our committees to be fully staffed, and getting more volunteer involvement - believing that "many hands make light work." I've made wonderful connections with colleagues, and great friends through RECAMFT. We have every type of volunteer opportunity from positions on the Board, joining a committee, helping with events to stuffing name tags! Please consider volunteering - email info@RECAMFT.org, or email me at RECAMFTPresident@gmail.com.
In the midst of all of that we are facing as individuals, families, communities and nations, I wish you calm, peace, and equanimity. Pat Hromalik, LMFT 2026 RECAMFT President
Please note: our new email address is info@recamft.org.
Bring any craft you like, get on Zoom with us and visit with your colleagues while we knit, sew, paint, draw, cook, create, etc. (Note: No Crafting Circle in April.) Join us at our next meeting:
Not consultation, just a great way to get some ideas about how to handle your sticky case. Friendly and open group. Learn more here.
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and our balance. Jean says, "Equanimity (Upekkha) strengthens the brain by acting as a form of 'weightlifting' for the neural pathways responsible for focus and emotional control", and she is striving to help her students develop the "cognitive resilience and inner harmony needed to navigate the year ahead with a steady, unshakable focus."
Pat Hromalik, LMFT is the President of RECAMFT's 
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Don't miss this exciting course on cutting-edge therapy - AI in Mental Health Presented by industry leader, Dr. Rachel Wood, PhD, LPC, 3 CEs
and the Dangerous
Presented by
Dr. Rachel Wood, PhD, LPC
Friday, April 3rd, 2026
9:30 am - 12:55 pm PT
Zoom, 3 CEs Artificial Intelligence is shifting the relational bedrock of society; are we ready for it as mental health professionals? AI is already in your practice, whether invited or not. Hundreds of millions of people are using AI chatbots for emotional support, which means that most clinicians have clients who are turning to chatbots in between sessions. How do we conceptualize this in the therapeutic context? How do we assess for this? What are the potential implications of AI-attachment? AI is being seamlessly interwoven into clinical tools such as EHRs for documentation, scheduling, and note summarization. Utilizing these tools requires thoughtful engagement in order to uphold the highest ethical standards of privacy, informed consent, confidentiality, and most of all the therapeutic alliance itself. Before diving into these tools additional considerations include addressing algorithmic bias and our ethical responsibility to advocate for marginalized communities. All of this and more will be explored in this insightful, nuanced, and balanced presentation of AI in mental health. Educational Goals This presentation will equip participants to think deeply and consider the impacts of AI as an administrative tool, as an emotional support for clients, and as a broader shift for the relational bedrock of society. Learning Objectives At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to:
About our speaker, Dr. Rachel Wood, PhD, LPC (Colorado) Dr. Rachel Wood has a PhD in cyberpsychology and is a licensed counselor in the state of Colorado. As a researcher and therapist, Rachel raises awareness about mental health and the future of synthetic relationships. She invites mental health professionals to reflect deeply on the implications of AI usage in practice and in client’s lives. Dr. Wood enjoys her work as a speaker, workshop facilitator, and strategic advisor. |
AI in Mental Health: the Good, the Bad, 
FREE to Members - Visit our On-Demand CE Video Library!
Multiple new ONLINE offerings! Find all the latest here (including 6 CEs Law & Ethics)
Check it out! RECAMFT's On-Demand CE Library link: https://recamft.thinkific.com/
Catch "Sleep and Postpartum Mental Health" with Kristina Anzell, LCSW (on-demand) - FREE to members!
This is a 2.0 hour, 2.0-CE training with Kristina Anzell, LCSW. Sleep deprivation is one of the most common, and least understood, experiences of the postpartum period. For new parents, disrupted sleep is not just exhausting; it can impact physical healing, emotion regulation, cognitive functioning, and increase vulnerability to perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. As therapists we want to address this but often feel unsure about how to address sleep with postpartum clients, especially when infant sleep patterns are unpredictable and uncontrollable.
To see a preview of this dynamic program... click here.
Members - you can access recordings of our zoom events from 2024, 2023, 2022, and 2021 in our new on-demand library which has been migrated over to Thinkific (https://recamft.thinkific.com/).
- NEW! RECAMFT On-Demand Programs: https://recamft.thinkific.com
- NEW! RECAMFT discount codes are posted for members only here: https://www.recamft.org/member-discount-codes (requires sign-in using your RECAMFT member email/password)
Topic List
Addiction
- Attachment Infused Addiction Treatment Theory 2 CEs with Dr. Mary Crocker Cook, PhD, LMFT
Anxiety & Depression
- Identifying and Treating Imposter Syndrome 2 CEs with Stevon Lewis, LMFT
- Mental Wellness in the Digital Age 1.5 CEs with Julie Frumin, LMFT
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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Evidence-Based Treatment Strategies That Work! 3 CEs with Dr. Robin Zasio, PsyD, LCSW
- Three Underlying Beliefs That Cause Anxiety and How to Change Them, A CBT Approach 2 CEs with Jennifer Shannon, LMFT
- Understanding Hoarding Disorder 1.5 CEs with Dr. Robin Zasio, PsyD, LCSW
Couples
- Part 1: Intro to PACT – Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy 2 CEs with Dr. Hans Stahlschmidt, PhD
Eating Disorders
- Treating Binge Eating Disorder with Self-Compassion: A Trauma-informed Approach 2 CEs with Erica Thomas, LMFT
- Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy: Update on a Transformative Treatment Option 2 CEs with Evolve Mind Wellness Staff
- Telehealth: Law & Ethics, Technology, and Best Practices for Connecting with Your Clients 3 CEs, with Dr. Lisa Wenninger, PhD, LPCC
- How to Write a 10-Minute Treatment Plan 3 CEs, with Barbara Griswold, LMFT.
- What Should be in Your Notes, But Probably Isn't 3 CEs, with Barbara Griswold, LMFT.
LGBTQ+
- Affirmative Family Therapy with Gender Diverse People and Their Loved Ones 2 CEs, with Dr. Shawn Giammattei, PhD
- Working with Dissociative Disorders & Plural Communities 4 CEs, with Serenity Serseción, PhD, LMFT
- How Sexuality Influences the Clinical Picture for Female Clients, 2 CEs with Dr. Jenn Kennedy, PhD, LMFT
Neuro-Biological
- The Neurodiversity Paradigm: Autistic & ADHDer Adults 3 CEs with Katy Higgins Lee, LMFT
- Transforming Trauma: The NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) 3 CEs with Brad Kammer, LMFT
Sleep
- Sleep and Postpartum Mental Health 2 CEs with Kristina Anzell, LCSW NEW!
Members can watch the video, pass the test, fill out the evaluation, and download your certificate. It's that easy! You can earn CEs for any recorded event if you didn't already earn CEs from the live event. And our RECAMFT Thinkific platform keeps track of all your CEs and Certificates! Return to top
Exciting Prelicensed events planned for 2026! Greetings Prelicensed RECAMFT members! We are looking forward to hosting multiplel events in 2026 and are planning a panel discussion about different career paths prelicensed members can pursue in mid February. Other events will include additional networking opportunities, as well as specialized events with topics including preparing for licensure, and other community building activities like a book club and outdoor events. If you have any questions or concerns about the road to licensure, and how RECAMFT can help, or want to connect with Brian, please email info@recamft.org.
Chair, Prelicensed Committee RECAMFT Director at Large Scholarships for Pre-Licensed andNewly Licensed Members | Hello RECAMFT community! We are so excited to share some of the upcoming monthly CE events. RECAMFT Zoom presentations
Are you interested in seeing what we have coming up? Consider microvolunteering with the Programs & Conferences Committee! Microvolunteering opportunities: providing support at in person CE events; driving outreach to potential speakers for CE events; writing up a short article about each presentation for the newsletter ("What You Missed"), and more! Reach out to info@recamft.org if you have ideas of how you'd like to help out. Gwendolyn Watson, LMFT, she/her Programs Chair Programs & Conferences Committee 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. Check out RECAMFT's Library page for books authored by our members! Have you written a book? Be sure to let us know so we can include it on our Library page. Email info@recamft.org.
Emeritus Membership is now available! Are you retired, age 65+, and have been a RECAMFT member for 5 years, and CAMFT member for 10 years? If so, you might qualify for our new Emeritus Membership. If you want to just offer consultation to other therapists, but don't offer therapy, you can even appear in the directory. More: https://www.recamft.org/emeritus |
Upcoming events
| Featured member
If you are not currently enrolled in the listserv, please email therapy@recamft.org and ask to be added. 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 recamft@groups.io If you do not want to be on our listserv, you can delete your account or write to info2recamft.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! Please note: our new email address is info@recamft.org. |
Our listserv has around 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
Contact info@recamft.org to advertise a job. Featured member | Highlights from RECAMFT's Board of Directors Dec. 12, 2025 Board Meeting on Zoom
Photo of the Dec. 2025 Zoom Board meeting:
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We love our Sponsors!
We are grateful to our Sponsors who are our community partners in putting on our in-person Petaluma Annual Members Meeting and 2 CE event with Board Certified Sexologist, David Khalili, LMFT on Jan. 9th. Don't miss it!
| Thank you CPH Insurance for being a $1000 Sweet Bay Sponsor for our Jan. 9th event!
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Thank you to Pura Vida Recovery for being a $500 Pacific Dogwood Sponsor for our Jan. 9th event!
| Thank you to Olympia House Rehab for being a $500 Pacific Dogwood Sponsor for our Jan. 9th event!
| Your agency could be here! Find out all about our Sponsorship programs by clicking here.
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Please note: our new email address is info@recamft.org. | Featured memberFind out more about advertising with RECAMFT here. |
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We Need You! Jobs for Awesome Volunteers
We need help with
Please send an email to info@recamft.org if you can help. | This month we'd like to thank the following awesome volunteers who, in addition to our Board of Directors, are helping us plan future events! Prelicensed Committee Membership / Networking Committee Board of Directors - congrats to these new Board members!
Thank you to our volunteers who help make RECAMFT great! |
The Final Straw
by Damon Karson, AMFT
Introduction from Dr. Jean Hayes, PhD, LMFT: As a CAMFT Certified Supervisor, I cannot express the joy I feel giving back to Associates what has been given to me by my own mentors on my journey to having become an LMFT. I want to introduce a new member, Damon Karson, AMFT, to our professional RECAMFT Community who was joined with me in semi-weekly supervision over the past year to develop his clinical skills and and personal growth. I hope you enjoy reading Damon's account of his journey.
Some moments in life arrive quietly, but land with unmistakable finality. They are not dramatic explosions so much as the last grain of sand tipping an already-full scale—the moment when something long tolerated is suddenly no longer survivable. These “final straw” moments are not always easy to recognize, but on a particular morning in the spring of 2018, I experienced one that would change the trajectory of my life.
Years before this fateful morning, I had graduated from UC Davis with degrees in Biological Sciences and Spanish, without much sense of how to apply my aptitudes. Of course, as a well-to-do 22-year-old with no clear vision, I had about as good a chance of finding my “life’s calling” as a fish has of climbing a tree. After bumbling through various companies for a few years, I finally landed at an international biotechnology company in a sales role. At last, I was using my science degree! At last, a job that paid well! At last, something that made people raise their eyebrows when I told them what I did at dinner parties!
It did not take long for the veneer of money and success (a term I didn’t yet understand as ambiguous) to fade. Soon, my Sundays filled with dread, and Mondays felt like walking to the gallows. I hated bothering people—and that was 90% of my job. Buy more. Do more. Work more. Get people to sign the damn deal! In those days, I understood the torment of Sisyphus.
But the slow degradation wasn’t my final straw. That came during an ordinary meeting with my superiors, who, unprovoked, began to tear into my work performance. This struck me as curious, because I had just spent a transformative month journeying through South America, riding a high of zest for life and its wonders. I couldn’t have screwed up that badly while I was on PTO, could I? Normally, this would have crushed me. I would have turned to dust in my chair as I was reprimanded. But not this time. This time, I felt warm—like the winds of change were guiding me out the door.
I submitted my two weeks’ notice shortly after, and the time had come to ponder my future. How could I make the world a better place? What skills did I have to do so? And, perhaps most importantly, what did I spend my time and energy doing—whether or not I was getting paid for it? After two months of rumination, I applied to graduate school to begin my journey toward becoming an MFT.
The journey has been far from smooth. My first completed practicum was invalidated three weeks before I was set to graduate based on a technicality (my appeal was, sadly, denied). I failed my first capstone presentation (for reasons I did not agree with) in my final year. I have hit delay after delay with licensing. In fact, had I known it would take nearly seven years to fully reinvent my career and obtain my LMFT, I might not have started.
And yet, a most joyous lesson began to take shape. The adage “journey before destination” can feel like a tired phrase, but in the development of a therapist, the journey is not a sightseeing tour—it is an indispensable time of growth, questioning, and exploration. I fell in love with the idea that becoming a better human being made me a better clinician. I became inspired by the abstractions of my cases and the questions they raised. I could also feel myself tuning into the natural warmth that so many humans are desperate to express, but have stashed away amid the pain and torment they have endured on their life’s path. That warmth belongs in the world, and I became enamored with helping people unlock it.
While my journey has been long and winding (and most definitely did not go according to plan), I now find myself greeting days with gratitude and taking on more and more challenging cases—ones I would not have touched with a 10-foot pole as a younger clinician. There are so many people to thank who have gotten me to this point; I can only hope that one day I will be that person for another. To those reading this: thank you for all that you do. Enjoy your own journey, and know that you are appreciated. The night is often darkest before dawn.
Damon Karson, AMFT, (he/him) is supervised by Dr. Jean Hayes, PhD, LMFT. He works in a private practice in San Diego.
Link to our Therapy Groups page and a PDF of current offerings - RECAMFT.ORG/Therapy-Groups CLICK HERE to learn more about local group offerings, and payment to advertise your group. 
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We are very grateful to have Emily's wise counsel for another year on our Board of Directors! Thank you, Emily!! P.S. RECAMFT also benefited from Emily's talented husband, Brandon, who provided muscle and some graphic design work throughout the year. What a great guy Brandon is! Thank you for all your hard work supporting Emily and RECAMFT! Above photo of Emily Larkin at the April 2025 Board Retreat by Laura Strom. Bottom photo L-R Dianna Grayer, Emily Larkin, Laura Strom, and Thea Privette at the Pride Booth, May 31, 2025 by Mark Stackpole. |
As president, Emily pushed to have RECAMFT take out a booth at Sonoma County Pride, along with working with Redwood Psychological Association to march together in the parade.
Thank you for reading this month's newsletter! RECAMFT is great because of involved members like you!! Please note: our new email address is info@recamft.org. |
Are you looking for help? Find therapists offering free natural disaster and crisis sessions here. Please check out MySonomaStrong.com. Visit the NAMI Warmline. Take a trauma-informed yoga class. We will recover together! ¿Buscas ayuda? Encuentre terapeutas que ofrezcan sesiones gratuitas de crisis y desastres naturales aquí. Visite MySonomaStrong.com. Visite la NAMI Warmline. Toma una clase de yoga informada sobre el trauma. ¡Nos recuperaremos juntos!
Redwood Empire Chapter of California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists |
