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Inland Empire Chapter of CAMFT



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  April 2015

 
  The Professional Exchange - IE-CAMFT Newsletter
 

April Featured Event

April 24, 2015

9 AM - 11 AM

Sex Offenders:  Advances and Challenges with

Garry Raley, LMFT, Certified Sex Offender Treatment Provider

This program will clarify the myriad of conflicting and convoluted issues for therapists when sexual offending arises in individual, couple, or family therapy. Using research driven practices, participants will increase their practice skills and knowledge for clinical interventions.
          Objectives:  
  • Participants will understand causes of sexual offending and how to assess risk
  • Participants will gain knowledge of special treatment considerations and the "containment model"
  • Participants will understand options and how to utilize a decision tree when working with offenders

          Garry Raley, LMFT is a California State Certified Sex Offender Treatment Provider with New Day Institute, Riverside.     



 Loma Linda University Behavioral Health Institute, 1686 Barton Road, Redlands, CA 92373

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WE WILL BE VOTING AT OUR APRIL MEETING!


IE CAMFT 2015-2016 Slate of Board Nominees

Co-Presidents: Sherry Shockey-Pope and Judy McGehee

President Elect: Open

 Past President: Janine Murray 

Financial Officer: Garry Raley 

Secretary: Janell Gagnon


Program Chair: Ilse Aerts

Membership Chair: Carol A. Bouldin

Hospitality Co-Chairpersons:

Annette Compton,Jeanne Joslin, Janetta Peltz:

 Board Members At Large:

Marie Louise Bosin, Doreen Van Leeuwen

Newsletter/Website:  Carol A. Bouldin

Newsletter Reviewer: Marie Louise Bosin

CEU Chairpersons: Marie Louise Bosin, Garry Raley




This issue:

  April Featured Event

2015-2016 Slate of IE-CAMFT Board Nominees

  At Our Last Meeting

  Welcome New Members!

Announcements

  President's Message

 Upcoming Events
 
AT OUR LAST MEETING . . .

Worries No More! The Design of a Little Helper

Children/adults often have severe anxiety due to something traumatic that has happened in their life or something beyond their control. Creating a worry doll provides the client a way to release their worries and give them to the doll, keeping them away from the client.

Ms. Borrayos presented the significance, origin, and the purpose of creating worry dolls; how to use them for case management, therapy, or as an ice breaker; and identified the types of mental disorders with which this technique works best.  She has provided us with the following article, edited somewhat for clarity and length. 

Worry No More!

By: Mercedes Borrayo, LMFT

 

Working with children is difficult and trying to engage them in therapy is challenging to say the least. One of the most important steps in working with children and adults in a therapeutic setting is establishing rapport as cited by Norfolk, Birdi and Walsh, 2007. People want to feel like they are important and that they matter to the person attempting to engage them in therapy. In order to begin establishing rapport there are some techniques that can be used. Children and adults seek mental health treatment for several reasons: they were sent by their school due to negative behaviors; the legal system sent the person; or the individual initiated therapy because he or she feels the need for more assistance. Whatever the case may be, it is important that the person feels that the provider is empathetic towards them.

Creating worry dolls with your clients, individually or as a family activity, is an intervention that can be used by professionals and paraprofessionals alike; any client of any age who has problems with anxiety can benefit.  Diagnoses of ADHD/ADD, Anxiety, Depression, and PTSD are some of the most common disorders for both children and adults currently, as cited by Silverman, Pina and Viswesvaran (2008).  Therefore, an intervention like worry dolls that will assist the client in improving their anxious behaviors is important, though it works with less common diagnoses as well.

Worry dolls serve several tasks:  they assist clients in learning how to slow down, take deep breaths, concentrate, and focus, just to name of few of the benefits. Upon the creation of the worry dolls the therapist may inquire as to the choice of colors, etc. the client has chosen.  A paraprofessional can work on relaxation techniques, focus, and learning to share and to take turns. Research by Kercood, Grskovic, Lee, and Emmert, (2007), suggests that a child who has difficulties with attention will have a higher probability of completing the task at hand if using tactile techniques. Being able to develop fine motor skills also gives children an advantage as they progress in age (Brambring, 2007). In addition to giving clients the opportunity to improve their motor skills, this intervention provides a sense of comfort to children who are struggling with sleep problems. It is estimated that as many as 40% of children have difficulties with sleep even if it is for a short period of time (Alfano, Zakem, Costa, Taylor and Weems, 2009).

Clients who create worry dolls have an advantage over those who purchase them at the local flea market or other locations. These dolls become individualized and personal, not to mention the sense of accomplishment of having created their own masterpiece. Worry dolls go back as far as the Mayan culture. Recently in Guatemala during the civil war, parents wanted to provide more help to their children who were suffering anxiety and sleep difficulties due to the political conflict, so they sought out the help of shamans. The parents made one doll for each day of the week in order to help their children sleep and not be afraid. As cited by Huss, Sarid & Cwikel, 2010, “Using art as a self-regulating tool in a war situation…the creative arts…are especially effective in counteracting the stress of war situations...”

The purpose of these dolls is to take bad dreams and worries away from the person, and when they are made by the clients themselves they become more personalized and meaningful. The dolls serve as substitutes and are tools for symptom management. Depending on the discipline/scope of practice, on what the therapist will be working, or for what s/he will be looking during the creation of the dolls will vary.

 

Welcome New/Returning Members!

Kasey Andruski, Michele Martin

ANNOUNCEMENT:  Some Members of IE-CAMFT are starting a Writers' Club!

If you're interested in joining us, contact Carol A. Bouldin or Marie-Louise Bosin through the Member Directory on the website



NOTICE:  At our February Law & Ethics seminar, some of our attendees apparently had difficulty getting served by the hotel restaurant in a timely manner and had to fore-go their lunch in order to return to the seminar on time.  If you were one of these people, we are offering a 15% discount for the L&E seminar next year.  If you are interested in receiving the discount, please contact Jeanne Joslin for more information.  Sorry for any inconvenience you may have experienced! :-/

 

President's Message

Master Level Intern Labor for Free

 

As I leave my position as President this month and a new State CAMFT Board is voted in, I think it’s important to ask, “What do you want?” and “Where are we going?”

 It seems this profession has often been shaped more by therapists, who have made administrative or legal mistakes, as opposed to the heart of what we provide.  CAMFT has 31,000 members and the Board is comprised of 12 members who make the decisions for the greater majority.  We, who do daily do the “good work”, should be who defines us.  Now is our chance to identify who we are and how we are viewed by other mental health professions and the public.

A lingering concern of mine is the lack of pay or low wages for MFT Interns.  Whoever let that be a standard was not honoring the time, education, and amount of money it takes to get a Master’s degree.  When I was an undergrad and being an MFT/MFCC was a male-dominated profession, there seemed to be more of an acknowledgement of the education required for the job.  At that time, the hours required to take the test for licensing was 1,500 hours.  When the time was doubled to 3,000 hours, it also doubled the length of time we were not being fairly paid for a master’s level education.  What does that say about our profession and what it takes to get a license?  I’m sure the thought behind the increased hours was a better “qualified” therapist.  What other profession expects this amount of “training” with little or no pay or benefits or stipends.  And when we do get our license, we are trained to do pro bono work, as part of the job. 

 I see graduate students, who are working on their 24 hours of counseling.  Most speak of the hardship of trying to pay their bills, including me, while they work for free in their Internships.

We teach our clients, “If we don’t respect ourselves, how could we expect others to respect us?”  This is a clear sign of a problem not just related to Interns, but to a lack of valuing the significance of our contribution.  Whoever originally approved of this standard for not paying interns sold us all out.  MFT Interns have the right to be compensated for their work because it is a reflection of who we all are and where we came from.  

I hope you will speak up for what is a concern of yours because we all need each other.

Thank you,

Janine Murray, MFT  


 
Upcoming Events:

Resilience and Compassion Fatigue - May 22, 2015

Problem Gambling is Not a Major Issue.... Wanna bet? - June 26, 2015

IE-CAMFT Board Retreat - July 24, 2015

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