Los Angeles Chapter — California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
Voices — December 2022
Leanne Nettles, LMFTPresident, LA-CAMFT
Thank You 2022
The end of the year is upon us! As I look back on this year of my LA-CAMFT presidency, I am so honored to have had the opportunity to lead so many wonderful people with such bold and courageous hearts, passions, commitments, and love for each other and the work we do. In this final President’s Message before I pass the torch to our incoming President, Christina Cacho Sakai, I’d like to reflect on all the amazing work done in LA-CAMFT throughout 2022, and thank those awesome volunteers who have been involved.
At the beginning of this year, I wrote about the key word which has developed as a theme and vision throughout my presidency: Community. I wrote about 3 aspects of community that I hoped to emphasize this year: (1) Community Mental Health, (2) rebuilding community in a time of social distancing during the pandemic, and (3) the community aspect of DEI (Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion) that often goes ignored: belonging. Here’s some of what LA-CAMFT has done to live out this vision during 2022:
For Community Mental Health (CMH), LA-CAMFT has been doing more outreach to pre-licensed folks who work in CMH organizations through our 3000 Club under the amazing leadership of our Pre-licensed Representative, Carissa Lataillade, and Co-chair Tyana Tavakol. We have increased tracking of members in community mental health through our revamped membership application. We have held more programming on weekends and evenings so those who may work in CMH during traditional weekday hours could have more of an opportunity to participate. We have also recruited a new Membership Chair, Jill Landefeld, who has passion and experience working in CMH organizations, and is planning to expand our membership outreach efforts in the coming year to include more CMH agencies.
In rebuilding community during the pandemic, LA-CAMFT has developed and implemented several initiatives through 2022. Our Mid-Month Meetups have been fun and connective, non-work focused activities held on the 15th of each month to build community amongst our membership.
Our Special Events Chair, Tiffany Sainz carefully and safely planned 4 in-person events across this year to help people build community. Our Board members and Diversity Committee volunteers also participated in tabling at the in-person CAMFT conference this year where many smiles, hugs, and handshakes were had after a long time in isolation.
Our Speaker Chair, Elizabeth Sterbenz and Networking Events Chair, Di Wilson also brought back the much-sought networking time to our CE Networking events, giving people an opportunity to connect and reconnect with colleagues.
When working on belonging as community-building through the lens of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, LA-CAMFT truly shone through in 2022! We have strived to make LA-CAMFT a space representative of all, where people can see themselves reflected in the leadership and programing, and where people from diverse cultural backgrounds can feel like they truly belong. From 2021-2022, the LA-CAMFT Speaker Chair collaborated with the Diversity Committee to plan CE events with expert speakers and researchers to include cultural topics such as Liberation Psychology, Decolonizing Therapy, Therapy with Mixed-Race Clients, Spirituality & Mental Health, and LGBT+ Affirming Treatment. At the beginning of each networking event, we share an Indigenous Peoples land acknowledgement, encourage the written display of gender pronouns beside our names on Zoom meetings, and emphasize LA-CAMFT’s Declaration of Inclusion, Diversity, and Anti-Racism to increase inclusivity and belonging. Using feedback from the virtual Therapist Anti-racism Roundtables held in 2020 and 2021, along with survey responses from the community, we have developed the and implemented the following initiatives:
In addition to these awesome initiatives, we have seen an almost 9% growth within active LA-CAMFT membership, an increase in Diversity Committee participation with 18 volunteer members from diverse cultural backgrounds, and the ethnic and cultural diversity on the Board of Directors increased from 20% BIPOC to 60% BIPOC in 2022!
This is only a snapshot of some of the amazing work that has been done by our amazing group of volunteers on our Board, committees, and special interest groups. While there are too many individuals to name here, I would like to express my deepest gratitude in particular to the following Board members and leaders who have made incredible contributions to making LA-CAMFT a success throughout 2022:
And to you, our readers and members, thank you for making 2022 a positive year in LA-CAMFT history! None of this would be possible without people like you who have committed to making Los Angeles a better place for mental health providers, clients, and communities. You are truly changing the world, one day at a time, one client at a time.
As I pass the torch to our new President and Board, I want to express my gratitude for entrusting me as your leader this year. I am looking forward to continuing to help and watch as LA-CAMFT grows to greater heights than ever before!
Journeying together in community, blessings to you.
Leanne Nettles, LMFT2022 President, LA-CAMFT
Leanne Nettles, LMFT is a School-based Clinical Program Manager in a community-mental health agency and an Adjunct Professor at Pacific Oaks College. She specializes in child and adolescent therapy, while practicing and supervising from a systemic and structural therapy approach. Leanne works to advocate for cultural diversity and equity within the field, and is passionate about training quality mental health professionals to serve low income, historically disenfranchised communities using a team-based, collaborative approach.
LA-CAMFT 2022 Annual Holiday Party
at Clearview Treatment Programs
It’s time to celebrate with friends and colleagues at LA-CAMFT’s Annual Holiday Party! All are invited to come gather together in celebration of another terrific year for our community. Please join us for delicious food, laughter, and musical merriment!
Event Details: Sunday, December 11, 2022, 1:00 pm-4:00 pm (PT) Where: Clearview Treatment Programs911 Coeur D'Alene Avenue, Venice, CA 90291
For questions, contact Tiffani Sainz, Special Event Chair at specialeventschair@lacamft.org.
Register Here
Lynne Azpeitia, LMFTVoices Editor
Getting Paid: Private Practice Success Without Stress — Top 10 Articles to Make Your Practice Even Better This Season
‘Tis the season to be giving, so, my gift to you is 10 of the best articles I’ve come across this year — ones that give the best answers to the questions that therapists have about how make and keep their practices profitable and successful — without having to spend a lot of time or money or effort to do so.
Each of these articles is a short and easy read — and every single one of them is chock full of the best tips and information that therapists can quickly and easily use to make their practice better any time of the year. Reading any one of them will definitely give you more private practice success — and without stress!
So, if you have a little time during this season to reflect on your practice and how to make it better, stronger, more profitable, and more, take a look at one of these and see what you think.
Lynne Azpeitia, LMFT, AAMFT Approved Supervisor, is in private practice in Santa Monica where she works with Couples and Gifted, Talented, and Creative Adults across the lifespan. Lynne’s been doing business and clinical coaching with mental health professionals for more than 15 years, helping professionals develop even more successful careers and practices. To learn more about her in-person and online services, workshops or monthly no-cost Online Networking & Practice Development Lunch visit www.Gifted-Adults.com or www.LAPracticeDevelopment.com.
Middle Eastern North African (MENA) Therapists Community Group
Next Meeting: Friday, January 6, 2023 9:30 am-10:30 am (PT)
Online Via Zoom
Free Registration
The MENA Therapists Community Group is a safe place across the Middle Eastern and North African therapist diaspora to build community and a sense of belonging. We hold an inclusive space to process the impact of cultural biases experienced by people of MENA descent and the effect it may have on our work as mental health professionals. Within the process, we will strive to create healing, support, and empowerment. We will collaboratively exchange ideas, experiences and resources while acknowledging cultural differences and shared similarities. As the poet Khalil Gibran states — “The reality of the other person lies not in what he reveals to you, but what he cannot reveal to you.” — our community will create a place to be seen, heard, and understood.
Open to LA-CAMFT Members and Non-Members
First Saturday of Each Month
Location: Zoom Meeting
For more information contact Akiah Robinson Selwa, LMFT at aselwa@sunrisetherapycenter.org.
Event Details:
For:
Licensed Therapists, Associates, and Students
Event Details: Friday, January 6, 2023, 9:30 am-10:30 am (PT)Time of Check-In: 9:30 am
Where: Online Via Zoom Upon registration for the presentation, you will receive a confirmation email that includes a link to our Zoom meeting.
Cost: No Charge
Registration is open and available until the group begins.
Questions about Registration? Contact Tyana Tavakol, Perla Hollow, & Tania Osipof at DiversityCommittee@lacamft.org.
Chellie Campbell,Financial StressReduction Expert
In A Zillionaire World Everyone’s Win is Your Win
“A person will be called upon to account, on Judgment Day, for all permitted pleasures he might have enjoyed but did not.” — the Talmud
Don’t you just love the idea that you will have to answer for it if you don’t enjoy your life? Can you picture God asking, like a father reprimanding his daughter, “Did you have all the fun you could have had today, young lady?” The Buddhists say that before enlightenment you chop wood and carry water, and after enlightenment you chop wood and carry water. In the Sufi stories, I noticed that often after a disciple became enlightened, he became a merchant. He would sell goods, provide value, receive value, and live simply.The truth is simple: Life is rich and wonderful, and the more we appreciate it, the happier we get. You have to be happy now—you can’t wait until your goals are achieved. The moment of achievement only lasts a moment. Then there’s always another goal, another game to win, another vacation to take, another dollar to earn. Revel in the daily wins, the little joys, and you will be happy every day. Time magazine, in an article on happiness, stated that often happiness was based on comparison to others. If you have a 3-bedroom house and your neighbors have 2-bedroom houses, you’re happy. But if you have a 3-bedroom house and everyone around you has 4 bedrooms, you’re dissatisfied. That’s only the viewpoint from the neighborhood, though, not the viewpoint from the stars. On the Zillionaire Scale, there will always be people who have more bedrooms and those who have fewer bedrooms. And there will be people with no bedrooms at all. Which end of the scale are you going to focus your attention on? Are you going to look down the scale and feel rich like a Zillionaire or up the scale and feel poor like a Zero? Are you going to look up the scale and be a bitter and envious Angry Tuna? Or look down the scale, feel guilty and burn your own bedroom down because someone else doesn’t have one, like a Timid Tuna victim? Comparisons can inspire you to do better, or defeat you, depending on how you view it. I heard a story about two farmers who lived next to each other. One farmer had a beautiful cow, and the other farmer didn’t have a cow. One day, God appeared to the farmer without a cow and said, “I will grant you one wish. Today, you can have anything you desire. What do you want?” The farmer said, “Kill my neighbor’s cow.” Isn’t that sad? He didn’t wish for a better cow, or two cows, or a herd of cows. His wish was for his neighbor to be brought low. He wanted equality with his neighbor, but equality in his limited view meant they both were poorer instead of both being richer. That’s Angry Tuna thinking. A Shark might say, “Kill my neighbor’s cow and give me ten cows.” But he’s creating another Angry Shark on the other side of the fence who’s going to want to retaliate. So now both farmers spend all their time, energy, and money on War Machinery to kill each other’s cows. It’s Zero thinking in a zero-sum game. Zillionaire farmers would get together and find a way to build a herd of cows—enough for each of them, with a surplus to share. Each meeting of WRS (Women’s Referral Service) one of my networking groups, we share with the others at our table about a topic of the day. Whenever the topic is “Tell about your greatest business success,” I have noted with interest that people rarely focus on the award they won or the big contract they got. They don’t talk about the fame, acknowledgement, raises, promotions, or prizes they won. They talk about what they helped others win. One after the other, with glowing smiles, each person mentions a particular client that they helped to solve a problem or gain a cherished desire. Their faces shine as they tell their favorite story of the client they helped to win a $7 million contract, or the client they helped overcome their fear of public speaking who got a standing ovation. The energy of that joy permeates the room, and I feel it at all the tables in the room. People who can revel in other people’s happiness are the biggest winners in life. They’re winning vicariously all the time—it’s a constant adrenaline happiness rush. That is the gift that keeps giving to you: When you help others, their win is your win. Their success is your success; their happiness your happiness. When someone in my workshop walks into class excited over the good fortune that they just can’t believe happened to them, their excitement and joy spills into me and it is mine as completely as it is theirs. When I attended the Worthwhile Referral Sources Annual Awards banquet one year, I clapped loudly for all my friends who won. When one gentleman came up to me afterwards and said, “Sorry you didn’t win anything this year, Chellie,” I looked at him in astonishment. “Four out of five of the top winners thanked me from the podium and said I helped them get where they were. I think I’m the biggest winner in the room!” To know this joy is why teachers teach, and why parents are proud of their children. Because giving an assist is just as valuable as scoring points in the game themselves. Touchdowns are made by teams, not individuals. The quarterback throws the ball, but he has to have a receiver. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Just as a fellow human being, I participated in his adventure; I stood outside my house where I could see the TV and the moon in the sky at the same time. I watched him take that “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Yes, yes, me too, Neil! I’m there with you! My taxes helped build your ship. Your win is my win. Send out spaceships. Take time to savor your achievements, and celebrate those of the others around you. Bask in the glory, then relax and enjoy the day. Warm in the sunshine, chart the path of raindrops, learn from a book, channel surf the TV, listen to a teacher, marvel at a painting, ponder a philosophy, enjoy a movie, a comedian or a play. Have dinner with a friend, join a sports team, indulge in a hobby. Walk on the beach. Invite someone else to walk on the beach with you. Feel blessed. Feel rich. Every day you do this is living a rich life.
Chellie Campbell, Financial Stress Reduction Expert, is the author of bestselling books The Wealthy Spirit, Zero to Zillionaire, and most recently From Worry to Wealthy: A Woman’s Guide to Financial Success Without the Stress. She is widely quoted in major media including Redbook, Good Housekeeping and more than 50 popular books. She has been treating Money Disorders like Spending Bulimia and Income Anorexia in her Financial Stress Reduction® Workshops for over 25 years. Her website is www.chellie.com.
LA-CAMFT TOC Grant Award Committee
LA-CAMFT Grant Award for Pre-Licensed Members Who Are Therapists of Color
The LA-CAMFT Grant Committee is pleased to announce that LA-CAMFT will be awarding two grant awards In for LA-CAMFT Pre-Licensed Member Associates, Trainees, and Students who are Therapists of Color.
If you are not an LA-CAMFT member, in order to apply for the award, you must first join LA-CAMFT.
Registration for the LA-CAMFT 2023 Grant Award for Pre-Licensed Members who are Therapist of Color opens on January 2, 2023. Registration closes on February 25, 2023. The drawing will take place on February 26, 2023.
Please read the information below regarding the description of the grant award, criteria for applying, application process, and selection process.
Description of the LA-CAMFT Grant AwardEvery 4 months (3x per year), a grant award will be offered to two applicants who meet the following three criteria:
Grant winners will receive:
The $500 award can be used at the recipient’s discretion based on their own individual needs (whether it be for BBS fees, testing materials, memberships, living expenses, etc.).
Confirmation for what the Grant Award money is used for will not be required.
Application and Selection ProcessInterested Pre-Licensed LA-CAMFT members who are Therapists of Color can complete the 2023 Grant Award Application on the LA-CAMFT website.
The selection process entails using a Randomized Generator of the applicants who met the full criteria and complete the application online in order to take out human bias and decrease activation of one's trauma history.
The drawing will be recorded via Zoom and posted onto social media along with an announcement naming the grant winners, who will also be contacted via email directly.
Registration for the LA-CAMFT 2023 Grant Award for Pre-Licensed Members who are Therapist of Color opens on January 2, 2023. Registration closes on February 25, 2023.
The drawing will take place on February 26, 2023.
Best regards,
The LA-CAMFT TOC Grant Committee
Tracy Bevington, LMFT
Self-Care, Carrots and Chocolate Cake:Making the Hard Decision to Do What's Best for You
Self-care is pretty self-explanatory. The simplest definition is the act of taking care of yourself. It sounds simple, but the reality is it’s pretty tough.
Taking care of yourself is a foundational exercise that includes the basics: Are you eating well? Are you getting enough sleep? Do you exercise? Are you engaging in positive emotional connections? Is your level of stress reasonable?
Self-care is not necessarily something that's going to make you feel good in the moment; it's almost the opposite. When you’re engaging in self-care it's often something that you don't really want to do, but you know it's good for you. Exercising: who really wants to go exercise? Meditating: even if it's just for a few minutes a day, can be challenging to commit to. Good self-care is easier said than done. It can be hard to find the time to make it happen or to get yourself to actually do it.
What about massage, nails, a blow out at Dry Bar? Does that count as self-care? Sometimes it’s self-care but more often it’s self-indulgence. Actions like that are easy and often don’t have lasting effects, but they feel great! There's a huge misunderstanding of self-care and self-indulgence.
Self-indulgence, is about going out with friends or getting your nails done or going shopping, eating out or drinking, watching TV, going to the movies, eating junk food. These are all things that people confuse with “I'm taking care of myself because I’m allowing myself to do things that I don’t usually get to do, and it feels good. It re-energizes me.”
That’s all true, but when you think about it, isn’t that like what you hear an addict say? “Oh it just really helps me out in that moment. It relaxes me. I have it under control. It's not a big deal.”
Participating in self-indulgence is not quite as drastic as doing cocaine, but too much of it is not good for you. It’s all about balance. I'm not trying to say that going out and drinking or having dinner is a terrible thing and you should never do that. What I'm saying is if that’s the only kind of self-care that you’re doing you're not actually taking care of yourself.
I like to explain self-care by imagining there is a plate of yummy carrots sitting in front of you and right next to them is a plate of chocolate cake. And by the way, it’s the most delicious chocolate cake you've ever seen in your life.
If you’re not thinking about it, which one of these plates are you going for? I think most of you are going to say, ‘Chocolate Cake’ (unless you have a thing for carrots). Most people go for the chocolate cake and that is self-indulgence. It's saying “I deserve that chocolate cake because I've been working hard. It's going to taste good and I'm going to feel good and it will be all right.”
Now technically, although the reason for the cake makes complete sense, the carrots are the better thing for you. Eating carrots is self-care. It’s about making the hard decision to do what's best for you. Doing what’s right could mean going to bed early instead of staying up late to watch an extra show on Netflix. It could mean waking up early so you can exercise or meditate instead of getting that extra 30 minutes of sleep.
If you think about all the choices that you make in your life, there are a lot of times when you’re going to be caught between “Do I choose carrots or do I choose chocolate cake?” I'm not saying you should only eat carrots. What I'm saying is we’ve got to have some kind of a balance. You're not taking care of yourself if you're never eating carrots.
As therapists, it’s important to maintain a balanced life with plenty of self-care. It’s tough to give more than you have to give. Refuel yourself and set an example for your clients and your family. And remember, choosing chocolate cake too often leads to weight gain, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and an overall unhealthy you. Go for the carrots!
Tracy Kovacs Bevington, LMFT, is owner and founder of Pacific Marriage & Family Therapy Network, a group psychotherapy practice with 15 clinicians and offices in Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, and Manhattan Beach. Tracy enjoys working with Adolescents, Families, Couples, and people of all ages struggling with anxiety. As a supervisor, Tracy works with Associate MFTs, and enjoys mentoring these clinicians and others by helping develop their careers. Learn more about Tracy and Pacific MFT Network at www.pacificmft.com.
Black Therapist Support Group
First Saturday of this Month
Next Meeting: Saturday, December 3, 2022 12:00 pm-1:30 pm (PT)
A safe place for healing, connection, support and building community. In this group, licensed clinicians, associates and students can come together and process experiences of racism (systemic, social, and internalized), discrimination, implicit bias, and micro-aggressions, along with additional experiences that therapists of African descent encounter in the field of mental health. As the late great Maya Angelou once said, “As soon as healing takes place, go out and heal someone else.” May this space, be the support needed to facilitate that journey.
Event Details: Saturday, December 3, 2022, 12:00 pm-1:30 pm (PT)Time of Check-In: 11:50 am
Where: Online Via Zoom
Once you have registered for the presentation, we will email you a link to Zoom a few days before the presentation.
Cost:
No Charge
Online Registration CLOSES on the date of the event.
(Registration is open and available until the group ends.)
Questions about Registration? Contact Diversity Committee, diversitycommittee@lacamft.org.
Sandi Bohle, AMFTSpecial Interest Group (SIG) Chair
LA-CAMFT Special Interest Groups: We Want to Hear From You!!
Keep your eye on your inbox in January 2023 for an email from Sandi Bohle, the Chair of LA-CAMFT’s Special Interest Groups (SIG) regarding the SIG Survey.
We are looking to expand our special interest groups. Currently, the Somatic SIG is the most active, and we are in the process of rebooting our LGBTQIA+ and Expressive Arts SIGS.
What would you like to see? What interests you? Would you like to volunteer to be a chair of a SIG?
This is your chance to be heard.
Sandi Bohle, Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist, is in private practice in Pasadena, supervised by Douglas Sadownick, Ph.D., LMFT. Specializing in complex trauma, Sandi works from a Psychodynamic approach synthesized with Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and EMDR while incorporating humor, play, and somatic modalities to help individuals address the various challenges that life and relationships often bring. Website: sandibohletherapy.com.
LA-CAMFT Diversity Committee Presents:
Asian American Pacific Islander+ Therapists Circle
Third Friday of Every Month
Via Zoom
A safe and empowering place for therapists of the Asian diaspora to experience healing, renewal, and belonging. We will collectively process experiences of racism and internalized oppression. We will also explore the coexistence of privilege and marginalization along with invisibility and hypervigilance. This space will help us appreciate and reclaim what we have in common while honoring our differences. Grace Lee Boggs notes, “The only way to survive is by taking care of one another.” May this circle embody her words.
Third Friday of this Month Location: Zoom Meeting
For more information contact Rachell Alger, rachellalgermft@gmail.com.
For: Licensed Therapists, Associates, and Students
Event Details: Friday, December 16, 2022, 1:00 pm-3:00 pm (PT) Time of Check-In: 12:50 pm
Where: Online Via Zoom Once you have registered for the presentation, we will email you a link to Zoom a few days before the presentation.
Online Registration CLOSES on the date of the event. (Registration closes 1.5 hours prior to the meeting.)
Questions about Registration? Contact Akiah Robinson Selwa at diversitycommitee@lacamft.org.
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