Letter from the President – AAMFT Restructure Report

Denise Parent, LMFT, President of CTAMFT

by Denise Parent, LMFT, President of CTAMFT (president@ctamft.org)

Hello everybody, welcome back, after one of the most gorgeous summers I can remember!

Both AAMFT and CTAMFT have been busy! Stay tuned for our September E-News, which is coming out shortly. In the meantime, we feel it’s important to discuss the many changes underway at AAMFT, which will certainly impact us on a local/CT division level. I encourage you to please read this closely and share your thoughts with us, as well as AAMFT.

It is our understanding that next month, AAMFT’s restructuring task force (or DASC), is likely to recommend that AAMFT move toward centralizing services at AAMFT in order to create a more uniform MFT “brand.” We believe that AAMFT is heading toward creating a structure similar to the American Counseling Association (ACA) in which members will be invited to join the national organization and optional practice specialty groups – eliminating geographic divisions like CTAMFT.

AAMFT’s rationale is that in order to adapt to changing membership demographics, service inequities from state-to-state, and to address the needs of the future – structural change is necessary. Any changes will likely take four to six years to realize, and will depend on an AAMFT Board vote this October, followed up by a full membership vote in order to change the AAMFT bylaws.

The logistical process of any change has not yet been discussed. These decisions will create the organization that represents our profession in the coming years. The CTAMFT Board and the five MFT academic programs in Connecticut feel strongly that no matter what structure is decided upon, there needs to be a strong association presence locally for employment advocacy/legislation, as well as support for students, new professionals and clinical members as they navigate their careers.

On behalf of CTAMFT, I strongly encourage you to share your thoughts with the AAMFT task force (DASC) via their Community Forum.

Furthermore, we’d like you to share your opinions with us at CTAMFT. Please link here (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8FTCBTT) for a short (we promise!) survey. The intent is to learn from you the local services you count on and value as members of CTAMFT. Your opinion counts and we’re hopeful you will take a few minutes to respond.

In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to contact us at CTAMFT. I can be reached at president@ctamft.org.

Letter from the President – Happy New Year!

CTAMFT President, Denise Parent, LMFT (president@ctamft.org)

As we enter the New Year, I have been thinking about the communities our collective MFT “family” is embedded in. Last month, I attended fellow member, Nelba Marquez-Greene’s, “Love Wins” conference and admired the Sandy Hook families’ many initiatives to “Choose Love” and carry on the lives of those lost by developing strategies to strengthen communities everywhere.

The Ana Grace Project

At the Love Wins Conference, Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Bruce Perry talked about the importance of relational connection to survival, saying that optimal human conditions include having about 40 people in our extended relationship circle. He commented that many of our modern day problems have grown out of setting up social structures that create isolation and ignore the fact that humans are not naturally sedentary beings.

This led to me wonder how we as MFTs can more actively connect our “systems” with non-therapy initiatives, as well as join our colleagues in social work, counseling and psychology, to create a stronger community with a coordinated vision to support families? This lofty idea immediately drove me to check Facebook and watch a few minutes of HGTV, because it seemed to imply an enormous amount of work!

MFTs have always believed, at least in theory, that we are already, and always will be, interdependent beings. Possibly the work of connection is merely to remember that we are already connected, and as a social constructionist might say, act “as if?”

This would involve remembering to invite others to our MFT “party,” as well as to attend other, different gatherings to absorb the value they might add to our ideas. It could involve building relationships by committing to providing strong collaborative case management. In keeping with this, we have planned to explore neuroscience as a foundation and extension of our relational perspective at our April conference.

CTAMFT’s Board of Directors has spent a great deal of time reviewing the impact of the MHPAEA final regulations and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (see Susan Boritz’s article). We have also been discussing what a public relations campaign for MFT in CT might look like, as well as explore what Connecticut organizations and people influence mental health care delivery systems. This year, we hope to move into using these experiences (off the couch now!) in a thoughtful and productive way. You are welcome to join our efforts in whatever way you find meaningful!

Thank you for the many ways you make CTAMFT a vibrant association – by supporting us through your membership, encouraging others to join our membership, participating in CTAMFT initiatives or committees, attending our fall workshop, our spring conference or by shooting us an email when you have a thought or question! As we enter 2014, I wish us all at least 40 connections with friends, family and warm community.

Wishing you health and happiness in the New Year!

CT LMFTs in the News

As the anniversary of the tragedy that took place in Sandy Hook comes upon us, “MFTs” have been in the news.

Our of our members, Nelba Marquez-Greene, was recently featured on WFSB-TV and in The Newtown Bee, remembering her daughter Ana Grace, as well as highlighting next week’s “Love Wins” conference, which launches the “Ana Grace Project.” View the clip below or read the Newtown Bee article.

WFSB 3 Connecticut

Learn more about and/or register for the “Love Wins Conference.”

Also, last night (11/25/13), Jeff Schutz, BOD Member and Treasurer-Elect, was featured on WVIT-TV as an LMFT.

We are proud of our Connecticut LMFTs!

Letter from the President – Season of Change

Dorothy Timmermann, LMFT, CTAMFT Board President

With the leaves changing outside our windows, many of us experience internal shifts in the way we experience our days. We “hunker down” so to speak, getting to work on what we have to do. That is what your Board is all about these days. We are very busy forming committees, redefining goals, planning for workshops and the conference, preparing the budget, building a legislative task force, and more. We are a very active Board and we hope you will find our energy contagious. Whether it is in your own work or if you have extra capacity and would like to get involved with CTAMFT, we encourage you. We are a community that is here for your benefit. Let us know what you need and how you would like receive support from us. We are listening!

Letter from the President

Building Community
Dorothy Timmermann, LMFT, CTAMFT Board President

Last month, the Board of Directors was welcomed at Central Connecticut State University for a Networking Breakfast followed by our November Meeting. We were so pleased at the warm hospitality and the nice turnout from CCSU students and faculty, as well as others in our community that found the location convenient and were motivated to join the conversation and make connections. This has been the essential goal of “The Board on the Road” and we plan to continue this next spring, hoping to reach many of you from all areas of our state. In the meantime, we hope that members will reach out to us with ideas, needs, hopes and wishes. We have a number of committees that would benefit tremendously from your involvement as well.

So how do we stay in touch?

connect

We are continuously exploring ways to refine our communications platform and the latest exploration prompted us to revitalize our CTAMFT Blog which you will easily see by clicking here and reading more!

This space will complement our other communication vehicles by providing more space for dialogue and a nice format for our E-News; along with offering opportunities for members to share articles, book reviews, and other interesting information. We welcome submissions to the Blog at ctamft@snet.net and you can follow the Blog by email or RSS feed for your convenience.

In addition to our Blog, CTAMFT has several other communication platforms and each has an intended purpose in serving our membership.

Our website, ctamft.org, has many resources and functions including linking all of our communication vehicles together in one place. It is also the place to see a complete list of CEU Opportunities (under Professional Development) and register for our own events including the Annual Conference which is scheduled for April 20, 2012 (registration will open shortly for that).

The Connecticut Connections Newsletter, published twice annually, is our organization’s way of communicating in a more formal fashion what we hope is most relevant and useful to our membership.

Our Facebook page provides a quick and timely way of communicating to and among each other especially with content regarding events and happenings.

Our Listserv continues to be a fantastic avenue for sharing career opportunities, referrals, available office space, new groups forming, and so forth.

We also have the Connecticut Forum on the AAMFT Community which is a place for discussion to and from your Board of Directors in a members-only space.

social network

Finally, our Marketing and Communications Committee tell me something about the future developments with the use of LinkedIn specifically for networking purposes and even the possibility of Twitter on the horizon. Oh my!

So thank you all for taking the time to connect in one way or another with CTAMFT. The season is getting busy but I hope you join my sentiments in feeling great about being part of our community that shares the common ground of enhancing our lives as MFTs, both personally and professionally.

All my best,
Dorothy