Our Community

The Santa Clara Valley chapter was represented at the 2025 CAMFT Chapter Leadership Conference on February 7-8, 2025, at the Hilton San Jose, CA.

L to R: Amanda Cortez (president-elect), Rosario Puga Dempsey (director of sponsorship), Marté Matthews (director of programs), Ursula Jorgensen (president), Kassie Butterworth (director of social media), Alex Mackenzie (director of support groups and mentorship), Liliana Ramos (past president)

 back to December newsletter 
A few new board members will be joining the SCV-CAMFT team in 2025. We are happy to introduce them to you!

 back to December newsletter 

back to September 2024 newsletter  
This is a support group for therapists who are 55+ and are retired, thinking about retiring, or contemplating a mid-life transition. The mission of this support group is to provide an opportunity for personal and/or professional growth in our later years.

This group is for licensed and retired chapter members who want to:

• Seek and provide support
• Exchange ideas
• Explore challenges
• Pursue professional and personal growth

This group will be facilitated by Alex MacKenzie and Liliana Ramos. The group will typically meet the first Monday of each month from 5-6 pm. We will meet online. To register for the group, go to https://scv-camft.org/Events.

We hope that you come and join us at our first support group on October 7th at 5 pm.

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.