Our Community

back to June 2024 newsletter
By Alex Mackenzie, LMFT, Director of Support Group SCV-CAMFT

We will be starting a new LGBTQIA Therapists' Support Group meeting on the last Wednesday of every month from 10--11  starting July 31st, led by member, Liz Ojeda.  Members should watch for announcements and can sign up on the SCV-CAMFT website.   This free monthly support group is for LGBTQIA+ members to build community, network and support one another within a safe space for self care, resource sharing, consultation, networking, and exchange of ideas.

This group is free of charge for SCV-CAMFT members, and open to non-members, who can attend 2 meetings before joining the chapter.  

Liz's Bio: 
“Liz Ojeda (she/they) is a Queer, Mexican-American therapist. Liz has worked with children, youth and families impacted by various forms of violence. She specializes in trauma and transition, identity development, alongside navigating institutional challenges and oppression. They have a particular interest in working with survivors of IPV/DV, QTIPOC Transitional Aged Youth (18-24 y/o), and First Generation Students. Liz currently works with the group practice, Era Center, serving survivors of sexual trauma and impacted communities through the provision of psychotherapy, outreach education, and consultation.”

Hello SCV-CAMFT Members,

I am writing to inform you that the board has decided to change a few things in regard to membership profiles. Most notably, we changed the gender options to be more inclusive and added an ethnicity option, both of which you can decline to respond to, if you choose.

In a perfect world, we would have no need for categories like race, sexual orientation, or gender. These labels are rooted in the accumulation and preservation of power and inequality, and their existence in our world today is a sobering reminder of that. However, we think it is also important to acknowledge the imperfections of the world we live in so that we can do our part to dismantle inequitable systems and advocate for those who have been most impacted by those systems.

We ask you to share how you identify in terms of race and gender in order to create opportunities for our members to be in inclusive spaces and to receive support with managing the toll of systemic inequity. We use this information to create support groups for members to gather around shared identities, so that we can take care of ourselves as we support our clients' efforts to battle those same inequitable systems.

Another big change is that ALL members can now add a profile photo. If you add a photo, it will show in your 'Find a Therapist' public profile. 

The 'Cultural Focus' field has been updated and we encourage you all to review your profile and update this field to accurately reflect your professional competencies.

When you log in, you will be brought to your profile page. Select "Edit Profile" to see and update all the changes. If you need help with this, contact us at mail@scv-camft.org.

Save your changes by scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking SAVE.

If you have any concerns or feedback about the information we request from our members, please feel free to reach out to us at mail@scvcamft.org. Our goal is for our chapter to feel inclusive and welcoming for everyone. Since we live in a world with so many broken systems, this will happen in fits and starts, and we grow by receiving your feedback and reflecting on it.

Thank you,

Vidur Malik
SCV-CAMFT Director at Large

Back to Winter 2023 Newsletter
I am truly grateful for the opportunity to assume the role of treasurer for the board. It is an honor to be entrusted with this position of financial responsibility. Amanda Cortez, LMFT is not only a therapist but also the proud owner and founder of Yes To Therapy, a mental health service collective, specializing in individual, marriage, and family therapy. As a graduate from John F. Kennedy University, she holds a MA in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy. Her passion lies in helping clients who have endured childhood trauma, as she has acquired expertise in utilizing therapeutic modalities such as Internal Family Systems and Brainspotting. Additionally, she finds great fulfillment in collaborating with other therapists who are eager to advance their careers. Amanda hopes to facilitate personal growth and professional development within the therapy field. When she is not immersed in her work, she enjoys indulging in activities that bring her joy and relaxation. One of her favorite pastimes is spending time with her huskies, she finds solace in running, hiking and traveling.

Marté J. Matthews is pleased to join the board as Director of Programs because the programs offered by the chapter were the main reason for her joining in 2009. She has worked with children and families in a variety of settings, schools, nonprofits, community-based and private practice since 1999. She looks forward to working with the community of therapists on the peninsula, south bay and beyond to offer engaging events and workshops to the chapter in 2024-25.

Last Saturday, we had a great coffee talk at Crema Coffee Roasting on the Alameda. The theme was “community.”  It truly was a community of regular attendees and new ones too.  It was a community of therapists who were chatting, exchanging ideas, connecting, and supporting one another.  It was an amazing way to begin a Saturday morning.  We hope to see you in the future.

Congratulation to Brandon Hoshiko, Director of Technology and Communications, for Winning Outstanding Chapter Leader Award at the CAMFT Leadership Conference.

As the director of Technology and Communications, Brandon has gone above and beyond to facilitate hybrid programs that allowed our members and non-members to attend presentations in-person while livestreaming to others who preferred the online option. Brandon has spent many hours of his free time to educate himself in various recording technologies, invested in new equipment to make the process as smooth as possible, and enthusiastically engaged others in dialogue to create recordings that would be as good as the live option for others to watch. The board is grateful for Brandon’s engagement and active participation in making our chapter a successful educational organization.

This category will demonstrate how successful the chapters were in developing cultural consciousness within their membership, educational programs, and Board. See all the awards

Position statement/DEI Action plan

• Early in January, the chapter posted for the first time, and with the guidance of our Director of DEI, Moitreyee Chowdhury, our statement and position in terms of DEI.

• The action plan for 2022 was to increase diversity oriented programs and start to think about how to refine such programs (as events and articles for our newsletter) for 2023.

• Throughout 2021 and early 2022, the goal was to increase diversity within the board of directors, which resulted in bringing on members from various backgrounds, personally and professionally.

Education Programs and Speakers

Diverse topics were addressed throughout 2022 in our events programs:

• The athlete population, its associated mental health issues, and ways to address them therapeutically, a luncheon offered by Megan Hankins-Maldonado, LMFT, an athlete herself

• A luncheon program about how to heal the Latino population of intergenerational trauma through community involvement, a presentation given by Ana Morante, LMFT

• Partnered with Sacramento Chapter to offer a luncheon online presentation by Shawan Worsley, LMFT, about strategies for effective discussions around race and racism

• In an effort to address issues pertaining to the transgender community, we offered a hybrid program led by Maureen Johnston, LMFT, that covered how to understand and assist families of gender expansive children.

• Linda Johnson, LMFT, LAADC, presented a very well received workshop on the mental health trends and needs in juvenile justice, emphasizing the need for unwavering governmental and community support for mental health programming in this population.

• We have addressed an important issue within the Indian community by providing a luncheon on the topic of the immigrant child within a South Asian perspective. Kalpana Asok, an Indian LMFT and writer was our choice to address this topic.

• We created a Social Justice column in our newsletter and reached out to individuals from the BIPOC community to speak about their involvement in various areas:

• • Ellie Vargas, LCSW, founder of BACIE (Bay Area Center for Immigration Evaluations) was interviewed by Liliana Ramos, LMFT, our Director-at-Large, to speak about the relevance of therapeutic skills in doing immigration evaluations, her own work doing these evaluations and her continued quest for therapists to get involved.

  • Dr. Sherry Wang, professor at Santa Clara University, was also interviewed by Liliana Ramos, about cultural humility and social justice in the therapeutic encounter.

  • One of our community focuses was Perry Clark, LMFT, interviewed by Dominique Yarritu, PhD, LMFT, our president and discussed his role and experiences as a self-identified neurodiverse, LGBTQ, black male therapist.

Networking events

• Coffee talks in the summer time that reached out to our diverse membership community and the prior registrants to our various programs who are non-members.

• In an effort to connect various groups through the understanding of and exposure to diverse celebrations, Moitreyee Chowdhury, our Director of DEI, has been offering multiple email blasts on a monthly basis recognizing the contributions and celebrations of the various communities our chapter is made of. Some examples are: religious and spiritual holidays, Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, Elders months, with supporting educational offerings such as linked articles and videos.

Special interests groups/committees

• We are proud to offer a Black Therapist support group, led by Erica Jenkins, LMFT; the participants are members and non-members, some finding support from far regions such as Washington, DC and Mexico (providing therapy in the Bay Area).

• We continue to brainstorm to integrate other special interests groups and to look for volunteers interested in leading special interest committees.

Membership and volunteer outreach

• The outreach was done through our Facebook and Instagram presence as well as by using the CAMFT list, and posting in various therapy listings with the intent to bring on students, trainees, and associates as a priority.

Donations/Scholarships/Grant programs

• Our chapter is in the process of devising a scholarship program to encourage the new generation of therapists to join the chapter: it would aim at mental health students, trainees, associates in various universities/graduate schools around the bay area.
  

Back to Summer 2022 Newsletter

Back to Summer 2022 Newsletter

We enjoyed seeing our members again in person at Michael's for the presentation Supporting the Supporters: Understanding and Assisting the Families and Friends of Gender Expansive Kids, Teens, & Adults with Maureen Johnston on May 20, 2022.

Thank you board members Brandon, Vanessa, and Liliana, and volunteer Justin for getting our first hybrid event at Michael's off the ground!

• Brandon Hoshiko  
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• Vanessa Ventura   
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• Liliana Ramos
  director-at-large@scv-camft.org
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• Justin Gillespie
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