by Jacqui Gerritsen, LMFT

Jacqui has been licensed since 2007. She joined the SCV-CAMFT board in 2015, initially as the Communication and Technology Director. She has a private practice in Palo Alto and San Mateo and is certified in TEAM-CBT level 2. She works with teens and adults and uses both a family systems model as well as a supportive, humanistic approach.

Happy Holidays to you all!

As we come to the end of the year, it’s traditional to look back and see what we accomplished both personally and professionally. So, I’d like to review our chapter accomplishments. But first I’m sorry to say we are losing one of our board members at the end of this month. Elle Scott, LMFT is leaving us to start a new adventure. She is opening a group practice in Morgan Hill January of 2020. It will be called South Bay Therapy Center. It’s an exciting project helping an underserved area. We will miss her and wish her much success in her endeavor.

Next I’d like to welcome our two new board members, Rowena Dodson, LMFT as a director at large, and Mary Van Riper, LMFT as president elect. We are thrilled to have them on the board as they bring their ideas, energy and enthusiasm to our chapter.

This year we were able to offer something a little different for our law and ethics workshop. Benjamin Caldwell, PsyD presented on Tough Calls, Moral Dilemmas and Technology. I’m pleased to say it was our highest attendance to date for this type of workshop. We’ve had positive feedback from our members regarding Ben’s presentation style, so we have plans to bring him back in 2020.

Fortunately, we were also able to provide a day-long workshop in June by Roy Huggins, LPC, NCC, the founder of www.personcenteredtech.com, who spoke about our obligation to protect client health information. He provided concrete advice on staying HIPAA compliant in our increasingly tech driven world (#1 encrypt your computer!). He is also a practicing therapist whose mission is to help anxious therapists feel less anxious about technology.

For our 2019 speaker series we had five presentations. In January, Suma Singh, MD presented Update on Opioid Use Disorder, Overdose, and Treatment. Brandy Vanderheiden, LMFT, SEP, talked to us about Somatic Experiencing®: A Body-Mind Approach to Healing Trauma and Increasing Resiliency in February. In April we learned about Conjoint Therapy with High Conflict Couples from Steve Darrow, LCSW and Mary Crocker Cook, LMFT, LAADC, LPCC, CADCII. Treating Older Adults with Depression and Anxiety: A Compassionate and Effective Approach was presented by Edna Wallace, LMFT, LPCC, CGP in May. And in October, Marty Klein gave a presentation on How to Talk to Patients and Couples About Sex and Why They'll Thank You if You Do. In September we offered a North Region Networking Event: In Practice Together, sponsored by reflect. This took place in San Mateo, and the founder of reflect, Jonathan TranPham, gave a brief presentation on Insights on the Business of Private Practice. Free drinks and hors d'oeuvre were available.

We were thrilled to have our annual membership celebration last month. For the past two years, instead of the usual Friday night cocktail party and 1 CEU presentation we tried something different. The rationale being we can avoid Google traffic, avoid traffic in general, and change the time of day. We experimented and did a Saturday brunch. The result was wonderful! We had different people attend and overall a completely different energy. If we do a brunch again next year, I invite you all to attend and meet some new people.

For 2020

In May we have Marty Klein presenting Couples Therapy: When Old Problems Require New Solutions. Marty is a long time member and supporter of SCV-CAMFT. His workshops are always well attended and feedback from attendees state that Marty is a thought provoking, practical and entertaining presenter. His workshop will be May 16, 2020. Location TBD.

Currently we don’t have confirmed dates for our other 2020 events. Those will be announced when they are confirmed. I want to thank all of you who have helped make our events and our chapter so successful this year! We can’t do it without our wonderful members! The board’s goal is always to make our chapter better and serve all our members to the best of our ability. We hope to offer a robust 2020 and to engage more of you, as we work to make our chapter even better. 

If you have ideas about how to invigorate ourselves as an organization, we’d love to hear from you. We, all of us together, are what make SCV-CAMFT a vibrant, living organization that meets the needs of its members and facilitates our ability to do our best work for our clients. I invite you to become more involved in SCV-CAMFT this coming year.  And we welcome your feedback and action to help us improve and grow together.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Jacqui