back to December 2024 newsletter 
by Liliana Ramos, LMFT

Today, I am writing my last message to you as president of the chapter. It has been an amazing whirlwind year with a new board. I am so grateful that I was blessed with amazing board members who were dedicated to making SCV-CAMFT a successful chapter. I look forward to holding the past-president position on the board. Thanks to all of our members for making SCV-CAMFT possible.

My journey with SCV-CAMFT started out as a volunteer while I was a student, trainee, and AMFT. When I received my license and started my private practice, I found the need to connect with other therapists. I decided to apply for the Director-at-Large position on the SCV-CAMFT board, working on the newsletter and helping with events. Then I decided to step up to becoming the president. Although it felt daunting, the amazing board that Ursula and I built became a team that was committed to making SCV-CAMFT a success.

We started the year with having to find new support group members, worried about being able to provide the same level of support for our members. The result is that our Support Group Director found amazing support group leaders for the current group and started five new support groups. The only sad part about this is that we lost our Black Therapist support group. We will always be grateful to Erica Braddock for leading this group that provided a safe space to Black therapists in our group.

Moreover, Our Director of DEI began the Cinema Therapy Club that she and her volunteer plan and share every month. It has become quite popular. In 2024, she worked with other board members to ensure that we were providing a diverse, inclusive, and equitable opportunity for our members. Our Director of Programs had quite a lineup of events for 2024 and is feverishly working on the 2025 events. Our Director of Membership spread the Coffee Talk to include the far ends of our chapter like San Mateo County. Now we have more members enjoying networking at our coffee talks. Our current treasurer re-started our sponsorship program. Look for more information in 2025. Our President at Large and Director of DEI launched the TDC scholarship and helped clinician’s with their preparation to licensure. We can’t forget our secretary who is managing to make a difference to our mental health community while running a private practice and spending time with her busy family’s sports schedule. Her documentation and contributions are valuable in capturing the history of our chapter. Last but not least is our administrator, Nancy. She is the person behind the scenes who makes the chapter run smoothly.

We also started with plunging into social media and changing the newsletter. As the year went on the social media posts and newsletter took several turns. Our Director at Large took over the newsletter in October. We finally decided on using Canva and having either a board member or volunteer create and post the material. This evolved to dividing the Director of Technology and Director of Social Media positions. Our social media volunteer decided to join the board in late October.

We are saddened to lose Vidur Malik, our Director at Large, who has taken our newsletter to a new level of a monthly publication. With him stepping down, we will go down to a quarterly newsletter because of the time commitment to create a newsletter. Thank you, Vidur. We hope that your new career endeavors bring you joy.

We are also saddened to lose Rachel Costella, our Director of Membership, who grew our coffee talk to go to the peninsula so that our members who live in San Mateo County have the opportunity to meet fellow SCV-CAMFT members without having to drive down to the South Bay. In addition, she gave us an event to remember at the annual membership event. Thank you, Rachel. We hope next year brings you joy.

At the annual membership event, we recognized our amazing volunteers and those who volunteered to be interviewed this year. The board can’t do all the things that we need to do to support the chapter without all of you. Last, but definitely not least, we would like to thank all of our chapter members. Our chapter is successful because of your membership and participation.

As we end 2024, we welcome our new board members who begin their 2-year term on January 2025. We welcome Liz Ojeda as our Director of Membership, Rosario Puga-Dempsey as our Director of Sponsorship, Brandon Hoshiko as our Director of Technology, Kassidy Butterworth as our Director of Social Media, and Gia Reyes as our Director at Large.

We are still interviewing for a Treasurer and a second Director at Large. If you want to start a new adventure, working on an amazing board that is making a difference in our community, please reach out to Ursula or I.

I believe that the 2025 board will be even a better board under Ursula Jorgensen’s leadership. As we each look at 2025, I hope that we set our goals, and wonder what the future holds. I leave you with a quote from Sarah Ban Breathnach. “Take a leap of faith and begin this wondrous new year by believing.”