President's Message

Momentum-ship

Jenni Wilson, LMFT, President

Hey Membership… you up?… I’ve got some things on my mind…

Look, I know things are hard right now. All the exercise, meditation, and SSRIs in the world can’t change the reality that too many of us are worn down and burnt out, as our profession too often bears the weight of all the expectations put upon us to “fix” what’s broken in people – when too often it’s the systems around us that are broken, and breaking people. We’re lucky if our work can simply help folx to accept what’s not in their control, finding ways to exist within these broken systems while working towards sustainable change. Hell, we’re lucky if WE can simply find ways to accept and exist within these systems ourselves.

Coming at us fast and furious, the problems in our country, and in the world, are larger than our human brains and bodies were built to fully comprehend and carry. It’s difficult to understand one important issue or horrific scandal before our amygdalae become flooded with the overwhelm of ten more incomprehensible events hitting our newsfeeds and timelines on the daily. It’s sometimes challenging to find any sense of volition with the constant mishigas, mess, and violence pulling us down like quicksand, killing momentum as we become frozen in our fear, rage, or disbelief.

Conserving energy by powering down on the couch bingeing mindless distractions or revving up energetic self-righteousness by mainlining political rage through 24/7 news channels, is understandably easier than sitting with these feelings of impotence. 

In conversations and consults, I note how everyone seems to be struggling to some degree questioning if what any of us are doing matters or could even make a difference – while also feeling guilty and powerless to affect change. When the Universal becomes too much, I look to the Local – flipping between the Macro and Micro channels in my mind – what power do I truly possess in this time and place in which I’m standing? How is anything I’m doing relevant?

I’m saved from the siren song of Despair whenever I refuse the rage-bait and focus on the people and efforts dearest to my heart and closest to home, which includes LA-CAMFT and all those new to this profession. Often a stranger in a strange land, myself, I’ve long sought to help others feel welcome and comfortable, normalizing the experience of uncertainty in our steps and the awkwardness of initial interactions, while humanizing myself by using my missteps and mishaps as examples and cautionary tales – of which there’re many. Where possible, I want to help others foster healthier connections, make meaning of their lives, build fulfilling careers, and minimize feelings of loneliness on the road to whatever’s next. I find being of service often reduces, if not cures, what ails.

This is why I see Mentorship as another Joyful Act of Resistance that we can offer to our colleagues.

In 2017, LA-CAMFT launched a “Membership Mentor Program,” garnering great interest, with the initial effort attracting 44 applicants to be mentors and mentees. Then, as quickly as it started, POOF!  It was gone. What happened? Well, it wasn’t due to lack of interested participants, but due to a shortage of invested leadership. A program like this takes a lot of time and energy to coordinate, and the dedicated Mentorship Committee Chair was mostly flying solo, resulting in the silent dissolution of this promising endeavor by the start of 2018.  Momentum was lost.

Flashforward to January 2021, when then LA-CAMFT Diversity Chair and (at the time) future 2023 President Christina “Tina” Cacho Sakai accepted the challenge posed to chapter leadership during the 2020 Anti-Racism Roundtable and formed a committee of licensed and pre-licensed therapists of color to design the LA-CAMFT Therapists of Color Mentorship Program (TOCMP). The TOCMP was the first of its kind amongst CAMFT chapters with a clear mission: to ensure quality mentorship for therapists of color by therapists of color.  The committee Tina formed spent thoughtful time on the program’s purpose statement, guidelines, interest form, marketing, launch date, and more.  It is clear now: The Committee was key.

The response to the TOCMP over the past 4 years has been overwhelmingly positive due to the commitment of the exceptional Committee members and the skilled stewardship of TOCMP Chair Keonna Robinson, LMFT, who assumed the mantle when Tina became President in 2023. The program was so well received, that chapters across the state developed their own offerings based on what LA-CAMFT was doing, and sought guidance from the TOCMP Committee. Most recently, in 2025, 26 Mentors were matched with 43 Mentees with a satisfaction score of 4.5 (of 5) amongst a third of participants who completed the program’s evaluation survey, and the Committee grew stronger. How cool is that?

The success of the TOCMP shows how important it is for an undertaking like this to be led by a group of LA-CAMFT members who are passionate about building and maintaining a mentorship program.  To build a larger initiative open to all members, we need enthusiastic and committed members willing to volunteer their time and energy to making it happen. When people have said they wish the general membership had an offering like the TOCMP, I urge them to step up and invest in creating it, as Tina, Keonna, and many others have invested in bringing the TOCMP to life over the past five years.

So, is that you? Would you like to be part of building a larger Mentoring Program for the LA-CAMFT Membership to launch next year? Because we need you for it to happen – or it probably won’t.

If you might be excited by the prospect of helping make meaningful change happen, for the chapter, the community, and up-and-coming therapists like you are or once were, let me know at President@lacamft.org. Or find me at the 4/24 online CE-event on working with “ADHD in Couples” presented by Grazel Garcia, LMFT, or at the Spring Celebration Event on May 15^th at Cheviot Hills Park – I’ll be there. Join me!

Let’s keep the Momentum-ship going in 2026, making the world a little better one therapist at a time - one Joyful Act of Resistance at a time. 

Paz y Amor.

JJVW - Jenni June Villegas Wilson

Jenni J.V. Wilson, LMFT (she/her): As a collaborative conversationalist passionate about empowering and advocating for marginalized groups and underrepresented voices, Jenni uses an integrative approach based on post-modern principles to provide culturally-mindful and trauma-informed therapeutic services and clinical supervision. She works with creative, anxious, mixed race/culture, and co-dependent clients on improving and eliminating toxic relationships, while increasing authentic expression. She has a BA in theatre from Occidental College, an MA in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University LA, and is trained in EMDR, Brainspotting, and certified in Narrative Therapy. She is an accomplished writer, has produced/co-hosted multiple podcasts, worked in addiction treatment for nearly a decade, and sees the “worried well” in her private practice in Sherman Oaks. Website: www.JenniJVWilson.com