Conference News

Thank you to all who attended this year’s Annual Spring Conference: “The New Brain Science of Connection.”  We are thrilled to have shared this experience with over 300 practitioners.  Across the board, feedback to all of the keynotes and presentations was outstanding!  We do take all input into consideration when planning for future conferences; so thank you to those of you who gave us your input.

Business Update

In addition to what’s covered in relation to the conference theme, CTAMFT also takes the opportunity, while we have so many members in attendance, to bring members up to speed on the state of CTAMFT.  If you missed the conference, please link here for a copy of the 2013 Business Report (which includes financials).

Poster Session Awards

This year CTAMFT’s Poster Committee received a record-breaking number of poster submissions.  We are also pleased to share we received submissions from all five MFT programs throughout the State.  There were 12 posters on display at this year’s conference, which were voted on by CTAMFT’s Board of Directors.  Congratulations to the following Poster Award Recipients, who each received $100.

 

Allison Collins:  Therapist Attachment and the Therapy Relationship (Collins, A. M. & Parker, M. L.)

The existing research supports the role of clients’ attachment style as an influence on the therapeutic relationship, which affects clinical outcomes. However, therapists’ attachment style has been relatively unexplored in the development of the therapeutic relationship. The goal of this study was to explore attachment style differences in the development of the therapy relationship. Findings have implication for clinical education and supervision.

Selena Gürman:  Partner/Parental Acceptance and Psychological Adjustment of Asian Adults (Gürmen, M.S., Ki, P., Rigazio-DiGilio, S. A., & Rohner, R. P.)

Parental acceptance-rejection theory predicts psychological adjustment tends to be affected by perceived partner acceptance and remembered parental acceptance. This study explored three questions with Asian adults in US: (1) Is partner acceptance correlated with psychological adjustment associated with parental acceptance? (2) Do remembrances of parental acceptance predict the association between partner acceptance and psychological adjustment? (3) Are there gender differences in these relationships? This study provides information to clinicians about Asian adult clients who deal with parental and partner acceptance and rejection.

Hyeseong Kang:  Clinical Use of the Story Stem Method in Marriage and Family Therapy: Theory, Research and Practice (Kang, H., Yoo, Y., & Robinson, J.)

Young children are known to have a limited capacity in describing their inner experience. The MacArthur Story Stem Battery (MSSB) is a standardized doll-play story-completion technique that can explore young children’s internal representations of family relationships. We provide the overview of theories and research of the method.Further, we discuss potential clinical usefulness of MSSB in marriage and family therapy, along with comparing story responses of a typical child with those of a child whose family is presented with specific problems.

Service Awards

Service to the Organization: Dorothy Timmermann is this year’s recipient of CTAMFT’s “Service to the Organization” Award.  Dorothy has been a Clinical Member of AAMFT since 1992.  She has been an Executive team Officer on the CTAMFT Board since 2008, when she began as Secretary through her Presidency, from 2010-2013.

Dorothy applied the same grace to taking minutes as she did to running the annual conference.  During her tenure, she reorganized staffing structure, gently moved the CTAMFT Board to create and hold to a strategic plan, and she welcomed speakers and members to the organization in such a warm and characteristic way that any leader with the luck to learn from her could not help but be influenced for the better.  Link here to read more about this recognition.

Service to Families Award:  This year, in honor of our conference theme of innovation, we are marking the way that love and relationship tends to break new ground.  The CTAMFT Board is delighted to present the Service to Families award to a couple who has terrifically impacted the fields of family studies, family therapy and family medicine. They have both blazed individual trails, while expanding their influence exponentially as a partnership.  Dr. Robert Ryder and Dr. Jeri Hepworth are this year’s honorees.  Link here to read more about this recognition.

2015 Conference

Save the date!  CTAMFT’s Annual Spring Conference is scheduled for Thursday, April 30-Friday, May 1, 2015.  Based on attendee’s recent feedback, we are planning some exciting changes for the 2015 conference.  Stay tuned for more information!

Professional Development Update: Spring Book Reviews

In the spirit of our recent conference, for our Spring book review, we invited members to review books written by our conference keynote presenters, Dr. Kelly McGonigal and Dr. Lou Cozolino.

Thank you to Elaine Bentley Baughn, MS, LMFT, who reviewed “The Neuroscience of Change: A Compassion-Based Program for Personal Transformation” (Sounds True Audio, 2012) by Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D. and to Joan Calvert, Ed.D., LMFT, who reviewed “The Neuroscience of Human Relationships: Attachment And the Developing Social Brain” (2^nd Edition) by Louis Cozolino, PhD.

 Link here to read the Spring Book Reviews:  http://www.ctamft.org/ohana/website/?p=63905640.

Letter from the President – Happy Spring

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

I hope by the time this news gets to you we will have daffodils and tulips, as well as longer warmer and sunnier days!

Ethics Committee

CTAMFT has been working hard since we last talked. The Ethics Committee met for the first time in January, as a newly formed committee following our Fall Conference about Ethics. The committee set a goal to research and implement practical ways to connect and support supervisors, as well as clinical members with state level ethical practice information and legal consultation. Meetings will continue, and you will start to see information coming out of this committee within the coming months. If you are interested in joining this committee, you are encouraged to contact us at ethics@ctamft.org.

2014 CTAMFT Annual Conference

I’m looking forward to seeing you on April 24 and 25 at our 2014 Conference about neuroscience—to celebrate the evidence that our brains are shaped by relationships – not drugs! As a reminder, you can earn up to 11.5 CEUs if you attend the entirety of this year’s conference.

I encourage you to learn a little about our keynotes this year, as we are thrilled with the level of professionals we’ve recruited for this year’s conference. Dr. Kelly McGonigal, who will be speaking on Thursday recently spoke at TEDGlobal in Scotland. See this talk and get a taste of what’s to come at our conference.

On Friday, Dr. Lou Cozolino will present a keynote and run a workshop. Read here to learn a little more about Dr. Cozolino.

We have also carefully selected Connecticut-based speakers, who will cover topics from Neurofeedback to Mindfulness to EMDR and self care. In addition, we have a large poster session (12 posters!) planned with high-quality participation representing student research from all five of the State’s MFT programs. We’ve built in several opportunities to network, including a Thursday evening networking event, as well as a special event to connect students with potential employers, called “The Professional Showcase.” Time has been built in to Friday so you can meet and catch up with your peers, get a book signed by Dr. Cozolino and more.

Legislation & Advocacy

On the legislative and advocacy front, we continue to navigate the process of obtaining the LMFTA (Associate), a license for new graduates working under supervision. This year is a short legislative session, and we hope to press ahead even though our scope of practice request was not chosen for committee review by the Department of Public Health (in spite of a letter of support from NASW’s Connecticut Chapter).

We have also supported the Community Mental Health Centers Association regarding the ability for Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) to bill for services delivered by supervised students, as this could affect some of our student internship sites and post grad options.

Thank you to any of you who took the time to review and think about the new COAMFTE accreditation standards and post comments, or to those of you who asked the public health co-chairs to consider the LMFTA license. We depend greatly on the volunteer support of our members in any initiatives at the state level.

We have been conscious of the need to build relationships with other mental health system partners and understand the need to raise the profile of how MFT fits into the bigger interdisciplinary picture. I would like to talk with you about positive relationships you may have with specific legislators and members of the State Department of Education, School Social Workers, School Counselors, School Psychologists, DCF, DMHAS or DSS. Furthermore, I plan to invite a network of colleagues from these organizations to talk about how MFTs can partner and enhance the broad picture of the mental health delivery system in CT through collaboration.

And finally

In honor of Spring and you, from “What to Remember When Waking” by David Whyte:

“…What urgency calls you to your one love?
What shape awaits in the seed of you
to grow and spread its branches
Against a future sky?”

 

It’s Almost Here!

Trumbull Marriott

The 2014 CTAMFT Annual Conference: The New Brain Science of Connection

As MFTs, we are taught to consider all aspects of our clients’ lives. Most of our time and abilities are spent looking at the big/macro picture to work with our clients. How much do we know on the micro level of our clients’ internal experience in terms of brain processes?

Over the past decade, with the improvement of technology and understanding of what that technology tells us, information has become accessible. The more we can become familiar with these discoveries, the better this information can be used and applied.

This year’s conference “The New Brain Science of Connection” was designed to bring technical research data and implementation specifically to our field of practice. We are presenting six speakers who will offer this information in a compelling and engaging manner, in which you can use in your own practice. We’ve designed a conference that presents you with a range of opportunity to learn more about this exciting field and how we can use this knowledge as clinicians to treat our clients.

The Thursday April 24 afternoon keynote speaker is Dr. Kelly McGonigal, who has been named as one of Forbes.com’s “20 Inspiring Women.” Dr. McGonigal is a health psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University, and a leading expert in the new field of “science-help.” She is passionate about translating cutting-edge research from psychology, neuroscience, and medicine into practical strategies for health, happiness and personal success. Last June, Dr. McGonigal gave her “stress confession” at TEDGlobal in Edinburg, Scotland. At our conference, Dr. McGonigal will feature the latest scientific thinking on compassion, including the psychology, biology and neuroscience of empathy, compassion and altruism.

On Friday April 25, we are thrilled to share that Dr. Lou Cozolino, Psychologist and Professor of Psychology at Pepperdine University, will be giving a keynote presentation in the morning titled, “Psychotherapy and Science,” as well as an afternoon workshop featuring “The Social Brain.” Recently Dr. Cozolino authored The Neuroscience of Human Relationships: Attachment and the Developing Social Brain. He will be bringing his expertise in this topic to this year’s conference attendees. Read a review about his latest published work. You will be able to purchase his books at this year’s conference, as well as attend a book signing on Friday.

Furthermore, we have lined up four clinicians in Connecticut who bring a unique perspective to this year’s conference, including Jeff Schutz, LMFT, who will introduce attendees to Neurofeedback (NFB), including a live demonstration. Karl Speirs, LMFT, will highlight the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) Model, on which EMDR therapy is based. Dr. Ingeborg Haug will explore the concept and aspects of mindfulness, aspects of its Buddhist roots and secular variations. Jayne Dean’s workshop guides attendees through a unique mind-body exercise with “Shake Your Soul: The Yoga of Dance.”

To learn more about each of the keynote presentations and workshops available at this year’s conference, please visit our Website.

You can register for Thursday only, Friday only or the entire conference online, or download a copy of the registration to mail in.

If you have any questions, please contact Shannon Eterginio at manager@ctamft.org.

We can’t wait to see you there next month!