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.

Dear SCV-CAMFT community, by the time you are reading this we will almost be in spring. It is a time in California when we see such beautiful growth and blooming of flowers and trees, in this gorgeous place we call home. And yet now as we are about to send out the latest newsletter, I am having to revise what I wrote a few weeks ago for my message to you. At that time, the coronavirus was still not so serious here, or at least we were less aware of the growing crisis coming our way.

Now, however, it is top of mind. Just today as I write this we have been informed that Santa Clara County and surrounding counties are implementing highly restrictive rules governing people’s ability to gather, to move about, and to live their normal lives. This is hitting everyone hard and some much more so than others, with economic, health, and child care challenges. We as therapists will provide important emotional support to many during this time of change and uncertainty. We need to remember to nourish and care well for ourselves even as we also provide emotional support and ballast to our communities and clients.

The board has had to make some changes to our upcoming programming because of the crisis, including having to cancel our CEU luncheons and day long that were scheduled between now and May 31. On March 27, we would have had Tom Tarshis, MD, MPH, speaking about “Evidence Based Psychotherapies” for our luncheon and CEUs. For the April 24th luncheon, Maureen Johnston, LMFT, was scheduled to present “Gender & Identity: Providing Gender Affirmative Therapy to All our Clients.”  And on May 16, Marty Klein, LMFT was to have done a day-long training on “Couples Therapy 2020: When Old Problems Require New Solutions.” We know this is disappointing and SCV-CAMFT will keep you updated.  

On a positive note, we hope that our fall law and ethics day-long workshop will still be able to go forward. Please SAVE THE DATE for September 12th, a Saturday, to gather with Ben Caldwell, PhD.

Additionally, the board has decided to offer only online meetings for our newly licensed and pre-licensed support group meetings for that time period as well. We hope this will make it possible for therapists to get the support they need, even while we are restricted from traveling. If this works well, we hope to continue to make online participation available even in groups that also have in-person participants in the future. Please check our website scv-camft.org to find out how to participate.

In our more normal news that I want to cover, we have the honor of welcoming another new board member to our SCV-CAMFT Board. Jyoti Nadhani is an associate who works with families and couples (you’ll meet her on page 2). Jyoti is already bringing her creativity and ideas to the board.  She will be in charge of the law and ethics training that we will have in the fall. Her technological expertise is already helping the board think about connecting our members in new ways. Stay tuned for that.  

In February, five board members attended the leadership conference put on by state-wide CAMFT in Burlingame. It was exciting and stimulating to hear ideas from other chapters and to network with each other. We who attended are bringing these ideas back and discussing them as a board. We were especially taken with discussions about how to engage members and how to create a sense of community. We are in the early stages of rolling out capabilities on our website that will connect members who share special interests. We will keep you informed and let you know when this is up and running.

We hope you enjoy this latest newsletter. Our editorial committee, comprised of Chair Dominique Yarritu and board member Rowena Dodson, is working hard to bring you relevant and interesting articles and information on a more regular basis. You will meet Dominique in this Newsletter (see page 5), where she tells you a little about herself. The theme for the articles is Teens. We have three articles about working with Teens: one on working with transgender teens, one on working with families and teens, and the other about accessing acute care for suicidal teens.

It was great to see many of you at the training by Dr. Elaine Brady on Sexting and Pornography on February 28th, “From Teen Sexting to Revenge Porn - We’re Mandated!” We had a packed room and lots to think about from Dr. Brady’s presentation.

I hope to connect with each of you in the coming months and look forward to hearing from you with your ideas and hopes for our chapter.  And I wish for you, your families, and all our communities, health and safekeeping as we navigate this unprecedented health crisis.

Stay Well,
Jacqui