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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

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). 

May CARE Circle (Compassion, Acknowledgement, Recharge, Empower - formerly Compassion Fatigue) Support Group Meeting

Dear RECAMFT Community: 

As I write this message, we are experiencing such incredibly beautiful weather – March appears to be going out like a “lamb.” A week ago, I was in Chicago and the wind chill factor was below freezing; it snowed the morning I left and I arrived to sunshine and 88-degree weather in Oakland! What a juxtaposition! Essentially it was both very cold and very hot at the same time. If you are familiar with Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) you know that dialectics is examining and seeing that two opposing ideas can occur together. It is this duality that I feel so intensely now. I feel it in pleasure of the renewal and rebirth of such early spring and in the sadness of climate change and fear that our rain has ended and drought looms. I feel it with some dread approaching a BIG number birthday this month and at the same time, the energy I feel with my work and all the ideas and plans percolating within RECAMFT and some of our new board members and volunteers. I feel it in the pride I have in all the good work we and other caring professionals and volunteers do for the people in our communities, while also feeling such a range of emotions about all that is happening in our communities, country and the world.

After the last election I attended a circle for therapist offered by Pamela Rosen of Reparentive Therapy to express and hold feelings. She offered a poem written by Drew Lanham that I have since shared with clients and several times at our RECAMFT Care Circles. It is my offering to you at this time when we are feeling and holding so many strong feelings as it both acknowledges them, while holding our ability to continue, to do, to hope, and to find beauty, joy and gratitude.

To walk in a mad world,
but not be mad.

To not imagine how it happened,
but know the all too painful why.

To mourn hope’s demise,
but revive it from deep within.

To weaken at the knees,
but stand strong in my belief.

To feel broken,
but somehow begin the repair.

To have justice denied
but know it must come of my own making

To be empty,
but not full of hate.

To know despair,
but make short the relationship.

To have worth demeaned
but know my worth’s meaning.

To have no words,
but find something worthy to say.

To have confusion be the choice,
but see my own way clear.

To be bitter,
but find sweetness in kindred hugs.

To have the game cheated away
but my life’s practice soundly played.

To wallow in all this misery,
but wash clean in worthy mission after.

To be lost
but keep the bearing home in heart’s map.

To have the heaviness weigh two tons
but find lightness knowing I’m not alone.

To lose trust in so-called-friends and neighbors,
but find faith in those more mindfully close.

To want better in some tomorrow to come,
someday 
beyond this day
whenever that time might come,

These are my pleas, my promises to self, my solemn prayer;
To whatever God or gods might be listening this dark morning.

By Drew Lanham

Kindest regards, 

Pat Hromalik, LMFT

2026 RECAMFT President

Pat Hromalik, LMFT is the President of RECAMFT's Board of Directors. She has a private practice in Petaluma, CA. 

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Please note: our new email address is info@recamft.org. 

(L-R) Thanks to our speaker panelists: Lionel Cooper, Wendy Wheelwright, Kitty Chelton, Litsa Tanner, John Schneider.

Exciting Prelicensed events planned for Spring 2026! 

Greetings Prelicensed RECAMFT members!

I'm happy to tell you the RECAMFT Board appointed a 

 Prelicensed Director at Large! She will represent the prelicensed point of view on our Board. Please welcome Angela Sanville, AMFT and congratulate her on this appointment! 

We will be having a Prelicensed Meet & Greet on Friday, April 24th, 2026 from 5-7 pm at Brew Coffee & Beer House in Santa Rosa. Please come, bring your business cards, and fellow colleagues / students along. Non-RECAMFT members are welcome to attend. We look forward to seeing you there! 

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.

Brian Crites, LMFT, he/him

Chair, Prelicensed Committee

RECAMFT Director at Large

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Scholarships, Honors and Awards

Scholarships for Pre-Licensed and

Newly Licensed Members

We’re offering two scholarships to support our pre-licensed and newly licensed members:

• The Joe & Pamela Ward Memorial Scholarship offers three $1,000 awards and a free RECAMFT membership. Deadline: May 15, 2026.

• The Tzedakah Scholarship, in partnership with Therapist Development Center (TDC), offers $250 toward exam prep materials. Winners are drawn monthly through the end of 2026.

Learn more and apply at recamft.org/scholarship    Return to top

Hello RECAMFT community! We are so excited to share some of the upcoming monthly CE events.

RECAMFT Zoom presentations

• May 1st - Working with Grief and Loss among Asians and Asian Americans , 2 CEs, Christina Chang, PhD, Lic. Psychologist.
• June TBD
• No meeting July / August

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.

We look forward to another year of bringing you quality, enriching presentations which support your professional growth and development.

With gratitude,

Gwendolyn Watson, LMFT, she/her

Programs Chair

Programs & Conferences Committee

RECAMFT Director at Large

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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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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 https://groups.io/g/recamft.

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 

• Read individual emails
• Read a digest of 12 emails
• Or read online only

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 info@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! 

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• President welcomed the Board to our meeting. 
• President has the names of two law firms with whom we can consult on reverse DEI lawsuits and our vulnerabilities re: our Scholarship program and our Strategic Plan. 
• Angela Sanville, AMFT was appointed to the Board as the Prelicensed Director at Large (DAL). The Board welcomed Angela enthusiastically. 
• Elle Saunders spoke to Jonathan Flier from LA CAMFT about their Special Interest Groups (SIGs). She will do more research and is interested in setting up SIGs here. Examples of SIGs would be people who work with couples, using spirituality with clients, IFS practitioners, etc. 
• President Elect Jessica Heaney attended CAMFT's Day of Advocacy in Sacramento on March 12th. Jessica is interested in a SIG for Newly Licensed Clinicians. 
• Past President Emily Larkin and CFO Tara D'Orazio will attend CAMFT's Annual Conference in San Diego on May 1-2, and they will host a RECAMFT table there. 
• A new Spring Bloom theme campaign went out to raise money for the Prelicensed Scholarships. 
• DAL Brian Crites, Prelicensed Committee Chair, said the Feb. 27, 2026 Prelicensed Panel event was well attended, and he would like to offer this event annually. Five panelists spoke to the group. He envisions four events annually. This fall there will be a workshop on how to start a private practice. 
• $50 was approved for cloud storage for our videos. 
• $83.40 was approved for a professional level Doodle account to help with meeting planning. 
• We have been invited to participate in the Dyke March as well as the Pride March. Past President Emily Larkin, RSJC Chair, will present more on this at the next Board meeting. 
• Note: Board meeting Agendas and Minutes are available on the Members Only page. 

Photo of the March 2026 Zoom Board meeting:

• Top L-R:  Jessica Heaney, President Elect; Laura Strom, Secretary; Pat Hromalik, President;   
• 2nd row L-R: Tara D'Orazio, CFO;  Jean Hayes, Director at Large (DAL) / Membership Co-Chair; Emily Larkin, Past President; 
• 3rd row L-R:  Brian Crites, DAL / Prelicensed Committee Chair; Gwen Watson, DAL / Programs Chair; Angela Sanville, Prelicensed DAL
• 4th row L-R: Elle Saunders, DAL; Jenny Patterson-Kerr, DAL

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Can you help? Jobs for Awesome Volunteers

PROGRAMS Committee needs

Programs Co-chair:

·  Work with the Programs Chair to bring in diverse and interesting presentations.

·  Projected commitment: 1-2 hours a month every other month, plus 3 hours of event time on the month that is yours.  

Programs Advertising/ Social Media manager

·  Work with the Programs committee to promote events

·   One hour per month.

Programs Non CE event Coordinator

· One hour per month plus time at the events one or two times per year.

Programs Committee Member

·  One hour per month plus – support the committee and its members

RACIAL and SOCIAL JUSTICE Committee needs

RSJC Members (Openings for 5+)

·  One hour per month and a little more when we are involved in community events or launching a project.

MEMBERSHIP Committee needs

Social Media Volunteer

·  Post monthly events to LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram accounts.

·  One hour per month

Membership Committee Members (Openings for 6+)

·  Participate in committee meetings

·  One hour per month

Please send an email to info@recamft.org if you can help.     

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Got a sticky problem?

Come discuss it confidentially with your colleagues at our next Ethics Roundtable

Not consultation, just a great way to get some ideas about how to handle your sticky case. Friendly and open group.  Learn more here.

• Fri., June. 26th, 2026
• 10:00 to 11:30 am
• Zoom
• Register here.

Hosted by Gina Culver, LMFT, she/they. Thank you, Gina! 

Welcome to our newest Board Member!

Angela Sanville, AMFT

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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