CAMFT—a Trade Organization for LMFT’s
CAMFT chapters were formed so that therapists and interns could come together in a geographical area to learn from each other, receive CEU's, network together, and support each other in a work that often is lonely and isolating. The expectation is that our CAMFT leadership in San Diego would support and encourage this group of people to hone their skills, interact with home groups, and be a force for change in how insurance would understand what Marriage and Family Therapists learn in grad school, as well as how we practice our art and skill.
With the bylaws vote last year, we voted to keep our organization a trade organization specific to LMFT’s. While we love to have other licensed mental health therapists join with us in the learning process and to network, we did want a place for MFT's to voice our needs in mental health arenas, like Veterans Administration work, Department of Mental Health, and as Medicare Providers. There is clearly enough folks who can benefit from LCSW's, MFT's, and the like.
But just as other organizations come together to form a "voice" to meet the needs of their members and meet the mental health needs of the public, we chose to have our "voice" remain clearly as Licensed Marriage, Family Therapists. I believe we have now formed a strong voice stating our needs, and will go on to meet the needs of the public by being a Membership of Marriage and Family Therapists for LMFT's. LCSW's have long had their voices heard through their National Social Workers Forum. Thank you to those who were alert to changes that would have changed CAMFT into an organization that would not have been specific to our profession and may not have had our best interests at heart.
We look forward with confidence to the coming year in which our newly-elected President, Laura Strom, and newly-elected board will lead us in becoming a more transparent, democratically-run organization that will be for the benefit of all of its members as well as the community at large.
Judy McGehee
IE-Chapter Co-President
