Leanne Nettles, LMFT
President, 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:

• Free, ongoing monthly Therapist of Color Support Group.
• Free, ongoing monthly Black Therapist Support Group.
• Free, ongoing White Therapists Anti-racist Group.
• Launched Asian American Pacific Islander+ Therapist Circle.
• Began development of Middle Eastern and North African Therapist Community Group, Latinx Therapist Support group, and LGBTQ+ Special Interest Group which are slated to launch in 2023.
• Selected 6 recipients for the Therapist of Color Grant Award.
• Facilitated 2 rounds of the groundbreaking Therapist of Color Mentorship program.
• Revised the membership application to be more inclusive of diversity (e.g. self-identification of race/ethnicity, Language, LGBT+, Pronouns).

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:

• President Elect: Christina “Tina” Cacho Sakai, LMFT
• Past President: Jenni June Villegas Wilson, LMFT
• Secretary: Jennifer Stonefield, LMFT
• Special Interest Groups Chair: Sandi Bohle, AMFT
• Special Events Chair: Tiffani Sainz, AMFT
• Pre-Licensed Representative: Carissa Lataillade, AMFT
• Pre-Licensed Co-Chair: Tyana Tavakol, AMFT
• Sponsorship and Community Relations Chair: Darlene Basch, LCSW
• Former Membership Chair: Lucy Sladek, LMFT
• Current Membership Chair: Jill Landefeld, LMFT
• Former Marketing & Communications Chair: Uriah Cty, LMFT
• Speaker Chair: Elizabeth Sterbenz, LMFT
• Chief Financial Officer (CFO): Valerie “Billie” Klayman, LMFT
• Networking Events Chair: Di Wilson, LMFT
• Diversity Committee Chair: Akiah Selwa, LMFT
• Board Member at Large: Jonathan Flier, LMFT
• Volunteer Spotlight Leaders: Keonna Robinson, Pearla Hollow, Rachell Alger, Stara Shakti, Marvin Whistler, Randi Gottlieb, Lynne Azpeitia, and countless others!

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, LMFT
2022 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.