Are you creative? Please 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. (Note: No Crafting Circle in April.)

Join us at our next meeting:

• Fri., Feb. 13th, 11:30 am -12:30 pm
• Second Friday monthly - no meeting in January
• Register here                    

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/

On-Demand CE Video Library - FREE to members! 

Catch "Three Underlying Beliefs That Cause Anxiety and How to Change Them, a CBT Approach" (on-demand) with Jennifer Shannon, LMFT, author, CBT expert - FREE to members! 

Clients often present with chronic anxiety and stress that do not fall into a clear-cut diagnosis with a specific protocol. In these cases, the therapist must conceptualize what contributes to the client's problems and use this to formulate and guide the treatment plan. This can be confusing, and we often get lost in the content of what the client is bringing in week to week. In these cases, it is very helpful to focus on underlying assumptions. This helps clarify and better understand the common themes contributing to a wide variety of problems. There are three underlying assumptions that contribute to most, if not all, problems related to anxiety. The three assumptions are Intolerance of Uncertainty, "What I don't know might kill me," Over Responsibility, "If others are not okay, I am not okay," and Perfectionism, "I cannot make a mistake."

In this on-demand CBT workshop, participants will be introduced to a simple worksheet that will help guide both conceptualization and treatment for a wide variety of problems. This training will address underlying assumptions and the behaviors that reinforce them.

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

• 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

The RECAMFT Board extends its heartiest congratulations to Gwendolyn Watson whose colleagues voted for her to win the 

Laura C. Strom Distinguished Board Member Award for 2025! 

Here's some of what her colleagues said about Gwen, who distinguished herself when she jumped in feet first as RECAMFT's Programs Committee Chair and a Director at Large. 

"Gwen has done an extraordinary job as a brand new board member, jumping into the position with both feet and turning our Programs Committee into a smoothly running machine! Thank you SO MUCH, Gwen! I also like how her brain works and brings in new ideas".

"Gwen has jumped in the programs role with both feet, despite not being involved with the board before. She has quickly picked up the role and has been very thoughtful about seeking out a variety of speakers with diversity and strong appeal".

Read more about Gwen's award here: https://www.recamft.org/Board-Award

We love our Sponsors! 

Supporters & Sponsors - We appreciate you! 

Members Messages

Members please submit your messages by the 15th monthly to have them appear in the Newsletter

(500 word maximum)

How the Power of Gentle Presence Keeps Relationships Safe

by John Amodeo, PhD, LMFT

As I was writing The Power of Gentle Presence, I asked myself: What are some of the core things I’ve learned over 45 years as a marriage and family therapist?

One thing that’s become clear is that love isn't enough to make a relationship work. What more does it take? One essential element is creating a climate of emotional safety.

This might sound simple: don’t criticize, shame, or show contempt, listen well, practice kindness, and communicate respectfully. But as I often say to my clients—what’s simple isn't always easy.

Staying Connected to Our Self

The love and intimacy we long for can’t be forced, manipulated, or controlled—something we see repeatedly with our clients, and, if I might gently add, perhaps even in our own lives. As clearly as we think we see things, our attempts to change our partner or promote our viewpoints usually backfire.

Even if we’re right about what we’re seeing, our attempts to persuade or “enlighten” our partner usually come across as critical and shaming—which bolster defensiveness rather than invite connection.

As Richard Schwartz emphasizes in his Internal Family Systems work (IFS), relationships thrive as we stay connected to our Self, which includes qualities of calmness, compassion, curiosity, and connectedness.

Self-connection creates a climate for emotional safety—one that invites people toward us rather than repels them. Our challenge is to monitor and befriend the protective parts of us that get activated when we’re triggered by real or imagined threats to our safety and well-being.

How Gentle Presence Comes Into Play

What we’re up against when we experience a threat to connection is the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response. This natural reactivity pulls us away from our Self. A sharp word, a critical tone, a sarcastic glance can unsettle us more than a root canal.

A key to softening our protective reactions is the quality of presence we bring to the feelings that arise in us as we interact with people. If we can find a way to respond rather than react, we’re more likely to maintain emotional safety in the relationship.

Our challenge is to stay resourced. Our practice is to pause before reacting—noticing what’s happening in our body and meeting it with a gentle presence, which enables our emotions to soften and settle.

Rather than reacting with blame, criticism, or shutting down, we can then respond from a more grounded, compassionate place. It is this self-presence and self-compassion that enables us to respond in a kinder way, which is more likely to maintain emotional safety and connection. Even legitimate anger can then settle in a way that enables us to report what we’re feeling rather than acting it out.

In Buddhist psychology, mindfulness of feelings and mindfulness of body are two aspects of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. We don’t have to do this perfectly. But the practice of bringing a gentle presence to the full range of our human experience not only helps us find more inner peace—it also gives our relationships a better chance of staying safe and satisfying.

John Amodeo, PhD, LMFT, is the author of the new book, The Power of Gentle Presence: Insights for Inner Peace and Deeper Relationships. He has been a Marriage and Family Therapist for 45 years, with offices in Marin and Sonoma County.. 

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An Appreciation of Change

By Brian Crites, LMFT

RECAMFT Board Director at Large, Prelicensed Committee Chair

This article will be published in the RECAMFT February newsletter, a time between the New Year and the early hints of spring. A time of rebirth and renewal, and a time when many of us set new intentions, goals and resolutions for the remainder of the year ahead. Many of these objectives are aimed at growth, change, and personal or professional development, which requires an openness to change and a dedication to practicing our new ways of being. It is in this welcoming of change and commitment to practice that I find parallels with growing as a clinician in the field of psychotherapy.

This year I will be observing my 10th year as a licensed psychotherapist, and as I look back on where I started and where I am today, I recognize significant change not only in myself as a clinician, but in the field as a whole. I have a deep appreciation for the ways in which the discipline grows and develops year by year. As an adherent to evidenced-based practices, I welcome the opportunity to learn from newly published studies, articles, and treatment protocols in the service of treating my clients with the best informed approach.

My journey from pre-licensed clinician to where I am today serves to illustrate how the field of psychotherapy is dynamic and continues to grow. I have specialized in treating obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) for the entirety of my career and want to share some of the exciting changes I have seen in my clinical journey. As I began my work, I was primarily using a protocol called Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). This is a treatment developed in the 1970s and refined in the 1980s and has shown to be effective for helping clients manage their OCD symptoms. I was so excited to learn a protocol with proven benefits and a structure that I could pass along to my clients to help them in managing their symptoms. It was encouraging that a disorder that can cause such interference in a person’s functioning and intrapersonal well-being had a treatment that could be effective. However, this treatment was shown to only be effective in 60-80% of clients.

I became aware of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and its ACT Enhanced ERP approach to OCD somewhere around 2018. Though the studies showing the efficacy of ACT enhanced ERP predate this, it began to be more widely disseminated around this time, and once again I felt a surge of enthusiasm and excitement as I learned another protocol to use in helping my clients with OCD. I quickly learned as much as I could about this approach and sought training and consultation in order to add this to my clinical repertoire. It felt good to have options, both with evidence supporting their efficacy, to offer to my clients.

Recently, I was introduced to a new offering for clients with OCD – Inference Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT). Yet again, the field of research has yielded more data informing new treatment approaches to better serve those suffering with OCD. This non-exposure-based approach is an alternative for clients who have found ERP ineffective or wish for a more cognitive-based approach to managing their symptoms. I am in the early stages of learning this new method, but once again I find myself excited to learn more about what is shown to be helpful and effective for those with OCD.

In a similar way to how we look forward to our personal growth and change over the course of a new calendar or solar year, I find myself excited and eager to continue growing my clinical practice. I understand that evidence-based practices are not without their critiques (and rightfully so), and I look forward to hearing them and reading about new findings and ideas in the service of moving towards progress so I can better serve my clients. It is encouraging to know that just as we are never done growing and changing as humans, neither are we done developing as clinicians. I can’t wait to see what is next!

Brian Crites, LMFT is a RECAMFT Director at Large, and Chair of the Prelicensed Committee. A college professor, he teaches MFT students, and practices at the Santa Rosa Center for Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Santa Rosa, CA. 

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