President's Message

Akiah Selwa, LMFT
LA-CAMFT President

Happy New Year!

I am honored and excited about leading the LA-CAMFT Board and chapter as the LA-CAMFT President this year. I have been a member of LA-CAMFT since 2017. During the past eight years, I have been a member of the Therapist of Color Support Group, the Black Therapist Support Group, the Chairwoman of the Diversity Committee, and the President-Elect.

Why LA-CAMFT? Like most people, I'm a part of something significant because of a friend. My dear friend, former LA-CAMFT President 2023, Christina Cacho Sakai, LMFT, always gets me into good trouble! I heard and saw the great things my friend was doing in LA-CAMFT. I witnessed her growth as a leader and mental health professional. I wanted to be a part of an organization that did things to enrich and challenge the community of mental health providers in and outside Los Angeles County. I wanted to collaborate with other mental health professionals committed to equitable and inclusive practices. I wanted to be a member of a group that was open to conversations about our differences and willing to take genuine actions to change. I aim to continue this legacy and add something useful to it.

A little bit about me…No joke, I accepted my calling as a healer at the age of twelve ( I still use the conflict resolution skills I learned in middle school as a Conflict Manager for my peers). Over the last three decades, I fulfilled my calling as a domestic violence prevention advocate, sexual assault prevention advocate, assistant chaplain, trafficking abolitionist, mixed media artist, social justice activist, foster care/adoptions therapist, community-based therapist, clinical supervisor, and program manager for high-risk populations, the owner of my private practice, and the recipient of several certifications (such as Brief-Strategic Family Therapy, Somatic Experiencing Adv III, and SoulCollage®).

I have done a lot and learned so much on my journey thus far. Presently, I'm learning how to have an attitude of rest and hospitality. I'm more aware and taking action to decolonize my attitudes, practices, and focus, so that there is space for rest, joy, mistakes, wisdom, and creativity. I'm learning to create and maintain a physical and spiritual environment that invites me, my loved ones, and clients to be a true version of ourselves (hospitality). In short, I'm learning to move slower to move fast in the right direction.

Practicing rest and hospitality does not mean I plan to nap during 2025 and only wake up to host fun gatherings. No, "Let's Rise from a Place of Rest!” means let's take good care of ourselves and each other, let's work together to achieve more as a collective, let's set healthy boundaries with time and wealth, let's work smarter, not harder, let's make more space to fail and learn from our mistakes, and let's be equitable with our decisions. I am not an expert yet on “Rising from a Place of Rest"; I will grow in expertise like you in the coming year.

Can you imagine a world where everyone regularly enjoys rest? I know I don't know about you, but I'm tired of being exhausted and watching others push themselves beyond their capacity often. I hope this year, as your president, I can persuade you to reconsider rest and adopt rest as an essential component of your effectiveness as a mental health professional, I hope to promote rest and hospitality in LA-CAMFT and CAMFT by addressing the following five initiatives as the President of LA-CAMFT:

1. Clarify identified systems and practices with written formats and procedures.
2. Institute formal mentorship practices to pass down a legacy.
3. Ensure that DEI practices are evident in all programming.
4. Revive and restructure  SIG Groups.
5. Foster and maintain collaborations with other Southern California  CAMFT chapters.

I will reflect on each of these initiatives throughout the year in my monthly Voices article. I hope to dive deeper into each initiative to encourage and challenge your great work as a mental health professional.

Akiah T. R. Selwa, LMFT, is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a great sense of humor, a heart full of hope, and twenty-three years of experience as a psychotherapist. Akiah is the owner of Sunrise Therapy Center (STC) a private practice corporation that services all of California via a telehealth platform. Akiah approaches her work with cultural humility and humor that promotes acceptance, empowerment, spirituality, and creativity. Akiah will complete Somatic Experiencing training in 2025 with Somatic Experiencing International, is a certified SoulCollage® Facilitator (2024), and a currently in a two-year Spiritual Direction program with Stillpoint. When Akiah is not working as a therapist, she is a mixed media artist, having fun with my next crochet project, singing, or exploring nature.