Hi, This is Carol Rose Adkisson your IE-CAMFT President. Hope all is going well! I am curious how your practices are shifting with the advent of the vaccines and more and more businesses opening. My business remains a hybrid. Do you have concerns about liability? Are your businesses covid compliant? There are so many questions to consider during this Global Pandemic. We hope you are all well!

I would like to announce that our elections for this year have been completed.

The elected board members are:
President – Carol Rose Adkisson
President Elect – Paul Velen
Financial Officer – Steve Gray
Secretary – Sherry Shockey-Pope
Membership Chair – Ilse Aerts
Program Chair – Lynn Flewelling

Members at Large – Garry Raley, Cecelia Fabris andOmar Gonzalez - Valentino

If you are interested in becoming a member of the board, these are the official duties of each position. We are happy to assist you if you have any questions.

We are in the process of restructuring our bylaws, and there will be more news to follow in the upcoming President’s Message.

Our Law and Ethics Training was a great success. Partnering with State CAMFT was a new endeavor. See details of the presentation HERE. It was very relevant subject matter and we thank CAMFT for this excellent training.

We are always looking for new members for our various committees and board positions. There are many advantages to being on a board. I always say that the New Tribe that you create can support you…we lean on each other.

Giving back to your community by volunteering on a board is a great benefit, the feeling of helping is something we as clinicians are all too familiar with.

The board runs very seamlessly. We email throughout the month and have our (virtual) board meetings on the same day as the monthly trainings, which eliminates logistical concerns, such as driving to a location and getting back home, before and after the meetings.

I believe I have been involved with the board approximately six years (don’t quote me on that). I have networked and hired people from the meetings, made great friends and learned information on so many topics as our trainings are on varied subject matter. And in case you didn’t know, all members are welcome to attend our board meetings. Just email iecamft@gmail.com if you would like the link for the meeting. We would love your input and feedback and introduce you to how the board works.

Our upcoming training is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An Evidence Based Practice Which Tends to the Soul by Annabelle Parr,MA, MFT - more info check our website: www.ie-camft.org.

As we continue our virtual presentations, please remember to check the guidelines on our website.

Thank you for continuing to support IE-CAMFT and please share our trainings. We can’t do this without your support. We look forward to seeing you soon.

Carol Rose Adkisson, IE-CAMFT President

We are well into this year now.  How are you doing?  Are you beginning to go back to your in person office, or maintaining a telehealth presence?  I am telehealth all of the way, however my team that works for me have adopted a hybrid approach, some telehealth and some in person.  With the vaccines becoming more available and the third one on its way, are you getting more comfortable, getting out more and discovering what this new normal is and wondering how long this will continue?

The Spanish Flu lasted several years, I found a picture that reminded me so much of today and how we are living.  When I first saw this, it was a bit eerie, other than their old fashioned attire, I could swear I am looking at us today in our Covid-19 World. 

Elections This Month!

Hopefully by now you have received the upcoming elections information. The voting goes through March 31st, 2021, and we will announce the results in the upcoming President’s Message in April. Yes I said April...this year is moving fast!

The advantages of being a board member are numerous.  For one thing, the connections you make become a new Tribe in your life that you can support and also lean on. Giving back to our community by volunteering on a board is also a great benefit, that feeling of helping is something we as clinicians are familiar with.

The board runs seamlessly. We email throughout the month, have our trainings and board meetings on the same day, virtually, which eliminates logistical concerns, such as driving to a location and getting back home.  

I can only speak for myself, but over the years I have networked and hired people from our meetings, made great friends, and learned a ton from the many topics our trainings cover.

Please check your email and cast your vote! 
Nominees this year are as follows:

• President: Carol Rose Adkisson
• President Elect: Paul Velen
• Past President- N/A
• Financial Officer: Steve Gray
• Secretary: Sherry Shockey-Pope
• Membership Chair: Ilse Aerts
• Program Chair:  Lynn Flewelling
• Members at large:
• Garry Raley, Cecilia Fabris, Omar Gonzalez
  

Read the duties of each position HERE.

This brings me to our last meeting. Thank you Georgia King for your presentation on Immigration. Such a timely subject matter and so needed by the immigrants in our country.  

Our upcoming training is Working with Dogs in Practice: Clinical, Ethical, and Personal Consideration, presented by Hannah Herkert, M.A. Watch the interview with Hannah Herkert by Carol Rose Adkisson, IE-Camft board President.

Finally, our Law and Ethics Training will be April 9. Sign up as soon as possible. As a chapter member you receive a discount. Remember, the last three days you can no longer register.

We will have four great presenters that will teach on various law and ethics subject that are relevant and helpful to any clinician.  This course provides 6 CEUs for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEP’s.  Cancellation must be 14 days in advance for 100% refund, 72 hours for a 50% refund.  Less than 72 hours of notice of cancellation will result in forfeiture of payment.

Thank you for continuing to support IE-CAMFT, and please share our trainings with others.  We are always looking for new board members and committee members.  We can’t do this without your support. We look forward to seeing you soon. :-)

Carol Rose Adkisson
IE-CAMFT President

Am I crazy? Yes, that was a joke, or is this year speeding by?  One minute we are having a quite unusual New Year’s Eve and the next, clients are making appointments in March.  How is your year going so far?  Are you taking steps toward the goals you would like to reach this year?  I have heard so many people saying they are feeling hopeful, and I feel that too.  Yes, the vaccines have been rolling out, and depending on where you stand on that controversial issue, that may be the tipping point to a more hopeful year.  Or maybe your hope could be attached to something else.  I see lots of new babies being born; how can that not bring joy to the family members that bring a new life into this world?

I, myself, stay clear of politics and with this country divided, this may also be affecting how you are feeling.  The point is that therapists feel.  As a clinical supervisor, many of my staff question if that is ok. I always say you are a human, then please feel free to express your emotions in the way you need to, and of course, at an appropriate time.  None of us know how Covid will continue to play out with these newly added strains.  It seems so many people have their own Covid story, and they are very interesting to hear.  As we are unique humans, we all have had our unique story. Was your case mild, are you a long hauler, were you somewhere in the middle?  For me, I was a long hauler, about two months, with a few lingering symptoms; however, since having Covid, it really put me into high gear, appreciating my health.  How are you feeling?  I wish I could talk to each and every one of you and hear your stories.

I want to thank Dr. Ryan Witherspoon for his unique presentation last month, Censensual Non-Monogamy. I have heard many positive comments about his presentation.  I found he was well informed and helped us, as clinicians, navigate the world we live in today; understanding relationships are complicated. He gave us a peek into this world he understands so well.  If you are interested, you can see his pre-interview talk with me at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veJSDmDb_Go&t=190s

We are looking forward to this month's speaker, Georgia King, LCSW. She is presenting Immigration Evaluation Masterclass for Therapists on February 26.

Not many therapists know about the amazing opportunities available in the field of immigration law. Therapists can help immigrant families stay together and get asylum. Lawyers have a huge need for expert clinical assessments, and the field is wide open for therapists to get started. Read GEORGIA'S ARTICLE about how she got involved with immigration evaluation work. 

Watch our pre-presentation chat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnlFYbAWHj0.

I am especially excited about this topic, as I have written hundreds of immigration evaluations. It is quite a privilege to sit in the pain and trauma of possibly being separated by your loved ones.  Please sign up as soon as you can, remember we close registrations two days before the actual presentation.  

Mark your calendars!
6 hour Law and Ethics Training, April 9th 

There will be more information in the coming months. We are partnering with State CAMFT to make this experience educational and virtual friendly.

IE-CAMFT is here to offer us educational programs and also to allow us to network with each other.  Please come early to our events and get to know who is joining you at the training. 

For suggestions to make your virtual event experience optimal, check out our website: www.ie-camft.org.   

Board Elections in April! 

Here is the slate for the board for 2021-2022.

• President: Carol Adkisson
• President-Elect: Open Duties: Succeed to the presidency after one year. Perform the duties of the President in his or her absence or incapacity.
• Past President: N/A
• Treasurer/Financial Officer: Steve Gray
• Secretary: Sherry Shockey-Pope
• Membership Chair: Ilse Alerts
• Program Chair: Lynn Flewelling
• Members at Large: Garry Raley, Omar Gonzalez-Valentino, Cecilla Fabris, (Zanetta Van Putten?)

We are looking for volunteers and potential community and future board members.  If you are interested, please feel free to contact us at iecamft@gmail.com.  As a member of this board for a number of years, I have found this to be an invaluable experience, and we hope that you too would consider this as a positive season in your life.

Thank you for continuing to support IE-CAMFT. Please share about our trainings. We look forward to seeing you soon.

Carol Rose Adkisson
President-IE-CAMFT

 

When I became a therapist, I never imagined that simply by providing assessments for immigration cases, I could be instrumental in refugees getting asylum and families remaining together. I had never heard of therapists doing such a thing. I stumbled into this work by accident and it has led to some of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

One of the first cases I worked on was with a transgender man seeking asylum. He described the horror of being a transgender person in El Salvador and shared that in just a few years, more than 20 people in his community had been killed for being transgender, gay or lesbian. It no longer surprised him to see dead bodies in the street. He himself had been assaulted and tortured by a police officer, and this trauma was the basis of his petition for asylum. By conducting a mental health evaluation, I was able to document his PTSD symptoms, assess his credibility, and provide evidence to support his claim that he needed asylum. I’ll never forget his lawyer telling me that the case was successful and that my evaluation was crucial to winning the case. The joy that I felt being part of this life-saving process was so profound that I was immediately hooked.

Previously, my interest was solely in providing therapy. I graduated from the Smith College School for Social Work in 2008 and worked for several years as a therapist in community mental health and then at Walter Reed Military Base. I started building a private practice and thoroughly enjoyed my specialty, which was providing therapy for adolescents. But my career took a different turn when I moved into an office across the hall from several immigration lawyers.

One day, a lawyer asked me to provide a “psychological evaluation” for one of his cases. I’d never heard of such a thing and immediately refused, thinking (erroneously) that a therapist would need a doctorate for this kind of work. In fact, this field is wide open to master’s level clinicians and there’s no need to be bilingual or have any specialized experience. With the right training, it’s easy to effectively apply our clinical skills to the unique needs of immigration cases.

I found training that provided some basic information about immigration evaluations, and I jumped in. Because my office was across the hall from these lawyers, I was able to work closely with them and create highly effective templates tailored to each type of case. In time, we began hearing that our cases were winning at an incredibly high success rate. Lawyers started telling me that my assessments were helping them win cases they would have lost in the past. I came to realize that when a therapist understands how each case is structured, an evaluation can be extraordinarily effective. It can be the dealbreaker, determining whether a family will stay together, or an individual will escape life-threatening circumstances in their home country.

Over the past 10 years, I’ve provided evaluations for hundreds of immigrants from a wide range of social and economic backgrounds. My recent clients have been from Iran, India, Thailand, and China. I have pro bono clients who arrived in the U.S. with just the clothes on their backs, and I have wealthier full-fee clients who are engineers and computer scientists. I’ve found that incorporating these assessments has brought substantial growth and stability to my private practice.

As I began to realize the huge need for evaluations and the benefits to a private practice, I was shocked that so few therapists even knew about these opportunities, much less how to get the training to get started. So, I made it part of my mission to spread the word as widely as possible and support therapists who wanted to do this work. In 2017, I founded The Immigration Evaluation Training Center, and I have had the opportunity to train hundreds of therapists around the country. Therapists already have the skills necessary to conduct mental health assessments, and I show them how to use those skills most effectively for each type of immigration case. In my trainings, I provide the key to my success, so therapists can get started with ease and confidence. I supply a simple roadmap to guide therapists each step along the way. This includes knowledge about relevant legal concepts, detailed templates, and interviewing questions, as well as expert marketing strategies and ongoing support through consultation and online social media groups. Over and over, I see how my proven formula helps therapists provide highly effective evaluations and launch thriving practices.

I feel such gratitude that I discovered this obscure niche in the mental health field. This is some of the most meaningful work I’ve ever done, and it’s deeply in line with my own values. As someone with the unearned privilege of being a white, educated U.S. citizen, I’m grateful for the chance to use my privilege and skills to contribute to social justice, and I’m passionate about spreading the word because I know that so many therapists from all walks of life would love this same opportunity. We have the chance to be on the front lines of advocacy for immigrants and to make an impact that’s life-changing. The field is wide open for you to get started.

Georgia King, LCSW is one of the leading therapists providing clinical evaluations for immigration cases. Over the past decade, she has provided assessments for hundreds of immigrants from around the world with an exceptionally high success rate. She regularly appears in court as an expert witness and has been a guest speaker at Georgetown Law School and the Smith College School for Social Work. Ms. King is also at the forefront of training therapists, and since founding The Immigration Evaluation Training Center in 2017, she has had the opportunity to teach hundreds of therapists around the country how to provide expert evaluations and how to launch thriving businesses. She can be reached through her website www.TherapistImmigrationTraining.com.

Notification of Enforcement Discretion for Telehealth Remote Communications During the COVID-19 Nationwide Public Health Emergency

During the COVID-19 national emergency, which also constitutes a nationwide public health emergency, covered health care providers subject to the HIPAA Rules may seek to communicate with patients, and provide telehealth services, through remote communications technologies.  Some of these technologies, and the manner in which they are used by HIPAA covered health care providers, may not fully comply with the requirements of the HIPAA Rules.

https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/special-topics/emergency-preparedness/notification-enforcement-discretion-telehealth/index.html

Welcome to 2021.  Yes we made it here!  Unfortunately mental stress continues with Covid-19 at its highest rates and of course the event that happened at Congress days ago.  But still, I remain hopeful that today we can still move forward, and progress in positive ways in this year. 

Did you have any New Year Resolutions that you have created for yourself?  I like to think of them as goals.  I am currently off of sugar, not a resolution, just a decision to watch what I eat as this so affects our ability to be effective clinicians.  There is most definitely a mind body, i.e. stomach connection with our moods, only you can decide what goals will be effective for you.  As I think self-created structure is beneficial to battle any covid fatigue either you or your client’s may struggle with, I hope that you too are considering what goals will be best for this season in your life. 

We are looking forward to our speaker this month, January 22^nd, 2021.  I was able to interview Dr. Witherspoon, the link to see this interview is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGTi0rfAZjo. Ryan G. Witherspoon, Ph.D. is a California-based psychologist (PSY32022), clinician, researcher, author, and speaker.  Dr. Witherspoon regularly publishes peer-reviewed research on non-traditional relationships and sexualities, such as consensual non-monogamy and BDSM/kink, and frequently trains mental health clinicians in sex-positive approaches to working with these populations.  Learn more about Dr. Witherspoon’s work at www.RyanWitherspoon.com.

More info about his presentation content for our chapter, and to RSVP please go to our website: www.ie-camft.org and don’t hesitate to share with your colleagues.

Mark your calendars for our yearly 6 hour Law and Ethics Training, April 9^th.  There will be more information in the coming months. We are partnering with State CAMFT to make this experience educational and virtual friendly.

IE-CAMFT is not only here to offer you education, but also to allow us to network amongst our peers.  We invite you to come early to our event and get to know who is joining you at this training. 

We are also looking for volunteers and potential community and future board members.  If you are interested, please feel free to contact us as ie-camft@gmail.com.  As a member of this board for a number of years, I have found this to be an invaluable experience, and we hope that you too would consider this as a positive season in your life.

As we continue our virtual presentations, please remember this process is easy, and you can take part from the comfort of your home or office and even in your PJs if you like. Please do sign in early, and you must be present until the end. CEU time requirements are in place.  Also, you need to complete the seminar evaluation form in order to get your certificate.  The certificates are emailed in batches, so the earlier you complete yours, the sooner you will receive it, as most people submit theirs right after the seminar.

More suggestions to make your experience optimal, check out our website: www.ie-camft.org.   

Thank you for continuing to support IE-CAMFT! Please share about our trainings and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Carol Rose Adkisson
President, IE-CAMFT

Here we are, the holidays are moving forward.  If you didn’t attend our Holiday Party, we missed you!  Yes virtual is not ideal, yet we had a fun time, including food provided by the board via Grubhub Cards, an Ugly Sweater Contest, Virtual Games that I plan on playing with my children and my staff during this holiday season.

As our Covid-19 numbers continue to spike, and our state has shut down even more, it is very important to keep in mind self-care as a clinician.  We can’t be fully present with our clients without doing our own work.  I don’t think this can be said enough, please stay safe!  As a board we are responding to these unprecedented times, with interesting virtual trainings, and we are in the process of creating a process for streaming our trainings, we will let you know when our new system is unveiled.  

As we continue our virtual presentations, the process is easy. You can take part from the comfort of your home or office and even in your PJs if you like. Please do sign in early. You must be present until the end. CEU time requirements are in place.  Also, you need to complete the seminar evaluation form in order to get your certificate.  The certificates are emailed in batches, so the earlier you complete yours, the sooner you will receive it, as most people submit theirs right after the seminar.

Our website (www.ie-camft.org) provides some great suggestions to make your experience optimal.   

Feeling compelled to be a presenter? Please feel free to offer your presentation proposals.  You can use this link to offer your suggestions.

Thank you, Lisa Larson, for your presentation on Brainspotting: Part Two.  Lynn Flewelling was used as a wonderful demonstration.  As a Brainspotter myself, this modality has been effective for healing and offers help for increased resourcing in both positive and creative places.  If you missed her presentation, as mentioned previously, we are hoping in the near future to give you access to the recording and obtain CEU’s.  If you have any questions, do not hesitate to email us: iecamft@gmail.com.

Our upcoming training is on Consensual Non-Monogamy.  I’m sure that title may have grabbed your attention.  This virtual event is on January 22nd, 2021, from 9-11 am.  Of course, this event is offered free for IE-CAMFT members and $20.00 for guests.  This event, presented by Dr. Ryan Witherspoon, Ph.D., is bound to be booked out as it is an interesting topic. For Information about his presentation and to RSVP, visit our website event page.  Learn more about Dr. Witherspoon’s work at www.RyanWitherspoon.com.  Stay tuned for our video interview to be available online via Facebook and Linked-in.

We are also looking for volunteers and potential community and future board members.  If you are interested, please feel free to contact us as ie-camft@gmail.com.  As a member of this board for a number of years, I have found this to be an invaluable experience, and we hope that you too would consider this as a positive season in your life.

Thank you for continuing to support IE-CAMFT, please share about our trainings, we look forward to seeing you soon!

Happy Holidays!

Carol Rose Adkisson
IE-CAMFT President

Can you believe it’s holiday time?  I am still trying to wrap my brain around this.  It’s certainly been an interesting year, unfortunately between Covid-19, the protests, grief and loss, and many fires, this has been a challenging year.  As recently as this weekend and the culmination in an Historic Presidential Election.  

While researching on the normalization of life after historical events as we are living in, it is difficult to foresee how long it will take life to be normalized from here.  The Spanish Flu took some time, certainly with our medical and mental health advances, we can only hope that we will bounce back sooner.  However, for now we have a more virtual world. 

With that said, please continue to check in with your clients on any Pandemic Fatigue that they may be feeling.  This is a very real response to these difficult times. Here is an online article on Pandemic Fatiguehttps://www.wdgpublichealth.ca/blog/pandemic-fatigue-what-it-and-how-do-we-move-past-it.  

Continue to manage your own self-care structuring your life in a way that is meeting your needs and hence your ability to be as present with your clients as possible. 

Finally, I wanted to let you know that we will have a unique Virtual Holiday Party this year.  We will be discussing further details in the coming weeks.  I am looking forward to a celebration that is celebratory and fun. 

I want to thank our last presenter Dr. Talal H. Alsaleem who spoke October 23rd  on the subject of infidelity.  If you missed this presentation, please feel free to visit his website at https://talalalsaleem.com/ and/or visit amazon to get your copy of his book on infidelity.  https://www.amazon.com/Infidelity-Happen-Marriage-Complete-Affairs/dp/0692874828 

Our upcoming presentation November 20th, 9am-11am is Brainspotting: Part Two, by Lisa Larson, MA, LMFT. Our video Interview will be available online (social media) on Monday November 9th, 2020. Part 2 is another view of Brainspotting. It is not necessary for you to have attended the July training (Introduction to Brainspotting) to attend this training.  As a trauma specialist I find this and many other trauma techniques useful to add to my arsenal of healing tools. Her training will include a demo.

Please keep in mind this is a zoom event, and registration will close on November 18th.  Also, attendees must attend the full session in order to receive 2 ceu’s.  

As a brainspotter myself, I also use Lisa Larson’s Intake Process.  I am hoping she will return and teach this method to all of us clinicians.  Once I took her course, I have used this method ever since.  Your interest in this subject matter would be helpful.  

Please email iecamft@gmail.com, attention to Lynn, if you would like to do a presentation for our chapter or have any connections/suggestions for future presentations.  There is also a link at the bottom of our  Event page to submit your presentation proposal.

IE-camft is not only here to offer you education, but also to allow us to network amongst our peers.  We invite you to come early to our event and get to know who is joining you at this training. 

We are also looking for volunteers and potential community and future board members.  If you are interested, please feel free to contact us at ie-camft@gmail.com.  As a member of this board for a number of years, I have found this to be an invaluable experience, and we hope that you too would consider this as a positive season in your life.

As we continue our virtual presentations, please remember:

This process is easy, and you can take part from the comfort of your home or office and even in your PJs if you like. Please do sign in early, and you must be present until the end. CEU time requirements are in place.  Also, you need to complete the seminar evaluation form in order to get your certificate.  The certificates are emailed in batches, so the earlier you complete yours, the sooner you will receive it, as most people submit theirs right after the seminar.

Here are a few suggestions to make your experience optimal.   

1.     Download and install the Zoom application ahead of time.

2.    Log in at least 15-20 minutes early and sign in. That way, you have time if a problem arises.

3.    Have only one browser window open during the conference call. We don’t need to see your email, and you will have a better connection.

4.    Make sure you are in a quiet place, and if you can’t be, or your dog starts barking of your child starts to cry, please mute yourself. In fact, everyone will be able to hear better if everyone but the presenter mutes themselves.

5.  Wear earbuds or headphones as that helps with unwanted feedback and makes everyone’s experience better.

6.  If the quality of the video becomes a challenge, you can stop the video and continue with audio-only. 

Thank you for continuing to support IE-CAMFT, please share about our trainings, we look forward to seeing you soon.

Carol Rose Adkisson
IE-CAMFT President

It’s hard to believe we are seven months into Covid-19. This season has changed much of our work as clinicians. Covid-compliant businesses have become a normal way of doing business. Masks are now necessary by both therapists and clients in most counties. I wonder how you are managing your own choices with this. Have you moved your practice to tele-health, or are you still seeing clients in person with precautions? I myself moved to a hybrid, depending on the comfortability of my staff. Each client has their special requests to create that connection for the healing process to begin.

Of course we have been dealing with so many difficult struggles during this time. As was discussed in Therapy Amidst Chaos, the racial protests and difficulties are continuing. It breaks my heart to see this remain an issue in this country, with so many of us children of immigrants from all over the world. And yet this is very real and needs to be addressed in all areas.

Finally we have had so many fires across this state. People needing to leave their homes in a hurry not knowing if they will find a home when they come back. I realize that this is fire season, but it seems that everyday you here of another fire and someone listing they are safe.  

So many different difficulties that we are dealing with all at once. Not to mention globally because some of these problems are a global problem. Healing is so necessary and mental health is needed more than ever. I feel the stigma in many cultures has lessened. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard, I have never been to therapy, how does this work. That is a good sign to me that the admission of the need for help is a great first step.  

I want to thank Judy McGehee, LMFT and Sherry Shockey-Pope, LMFT  for presenting Suicide Risk Assessment & Intervention on September 25th, 9-3:30 pm.  Their presentation was comprehensive, very informative, and we couldn’t have asked for better resources to deal with this serious issue.  

Our next presentation is Introduction to Systemic Affair Recovery (SART) presented by Dr. Talal H. Alsaleem on Friday, October 23, from 9:00am - 11:00am.

Look for our upcoming interview on Facebook live in the next week.

IE-CAMFT is not only here to offer you education, but also to allow us to network among our peers. We invite you to come early to our event and get to know who is joining you at this training. 

It’s hard to believe we are seven months into Covid-19. This season has changed much of our work as clinicians. Covid-compliant businesses have become a normal way of doing business. Masks are now necessary by both therapists and clients in most counties. I wonder how you are managing your own choices with this. Have you moved your practice to tele-health, or are you still seeing clients in person with precautions? I myself moved to a hybrid, depending on the comfortability of my staff. Each client has their special requests to create that connection for the healing process to begin.

Of course we have been dealing with so many difficult struggles during this time. As was discussed in Therapy Amidst Chaos, the racial protests and difficulties are continuing. It breaks my heart to see this remain an issue in this country, with so many of us children of immigrants from all over the world. And yet this is very real and needs to be addressed in all areas.

Finally we have had so many fires across this state. People needing to leave their homes in a hurry not knowing if they will find a home when they come back. I realize that this is fire season, but it seems that everyday you here of another fire and someone listing they are safe.  

So many different difficulties that we are dealing with all at once. Not to mention globally because some of these problems are a global problem. Healing is so necessary and mental health is needed more than ever. I feel the stigma in many cultures has lessened. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard, I have never been to therapy, how does this work. That is a good sign to me that the admission of the need for help is a great first step.  

I want to thank Judy McGehee, LMFT and Sherry Shockey-Pope, LMFT  for presenting Suicide Risk Assessment & Intervention on September 25th, 9-3:30 pm.  Their presentation was comprehensive, very informative, and we couldn’t have asked for better resources to deal with this serious issue.  

Our next presentation is Introduction to Systemic Affair Recovery (SART) presented by Dr. Talal H. Alsaleem on Friday, October 23, from 9:00am - 11:00am.
Look for our upcoming interview on Facebook live in the next week.

IE-CAMFT is not only here to offer you education, but also to allow us to network among our peers. We invite you to come early to our event and get to know who is joining you at this training.  

We are looking for volunteers and future board members. If you are interested, please contact us as ie-camft@gmail.com.  As a member of this board for a number of years, I have found this to be an invaluable experience, and we hope that you too would consider this as a positive season in your life.

Thank you for continuing to support IE-CAMFT! We look forward to seeing you soon, and please share about our trainings.

Carol Rose Adkisson
IE-CAMFT President

First of all, I would like to take a moment of silence for the loss of Beverly Johnson. She passed a few months ago and we were just made aware of this sad news. Beverly Johnson was actively involved with IE-CAMFT in the past and was an amazing therapist. As stated by one of our board members, “Beverly was the most awesome therapist ever!” Her son, Jack Johnson, is also a licensed therapist. He will be continuing the family legacy and giving back to the mental health community.

I would like to apologize for missing our last meeting. Unfortunately I too was one of the many that struggled with Covid-19.  I am finally up and about and I am blessed to have had I believe a moderate case that will fully pass in time.  

The last training I participated in was Lisa Larson’s training “Introduction to Brainspotting: Trauma Therapy That Works!” on July 24th. I was fortunate to be her demo at that training, and received a deep healing from that experience. I was trained the next week and am happy to say I have joined the community of fellow Brainspotters! Lisa has agreed to come back and continue this training with a second presentation. I encourage you to join us. The more tools we have in our tool chest as clinicians the more effective we are with our clients.

I would like to thank the presenters of “Therapy Amidst Chaos; The Role of a Therapist in 2020 and Beyond” which was on August 28th. Thank you Anthony Carson, LMFT, Jamie Nelson, LMFT, Nicole Serrano, LMFT and Marissa Soria, LCSW!  I have heard nothing but positive responses from their presentation. Their diverse cultures brought together a dialogue about systemic change in the therapy room and to offer appropriate interventions and inclusive psycho-education.  

The presenters were from the following practices:
Anthony Carson - Hope Avenue Counseling - Colton
Jamie Nelson - Equilibrium Counseling Services - Rancho Cucamonga
Nicole Serrano -  NS Counseling - Rancho Cucamonga
Marissa Soria - Metztli Counseling - Upland

We at IE-CAMFT thank them for their willingness to open a dialogue around this sensitive, important, and timely subject. Together they gave us tools to continue this dialogue in our local communities.

Our next presentation on September 25th, from 9:00am-3:30pm will be “Suicide Risk Assessment & Intervention,” facilitated by Judy McGehee, LMFT and Sherry Shockey-Pope, LMFT. Since the passage of Assembly Bill 1436, it is important for us to remain educated on this subject matter.

View an interview with our presenters:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYbFnhX3uN8. 

This will give a brief snippet of our upcoming six hour training. We look forward to seeing you at this event. We are limiting our event to 100 participants, so recommend that you sign up as soon as possible.  

Visit our event page to learn more about this important presentation.

IE-CAMFT is not only here to offer education, but also to allow us to network among our peers. We invite you to come early to our events and get to know those joining you at each training.  

We are also looking for volunteers and potential community and future board members. If you are interested, please contact us as ie-camft@gmail.com.  As a member of this board for a number of years, I have found it to be an invaluable experience, and we hope that you too would consider this as a positive season in your life.

Thank you for continuing to support IE-CAMFT! You can help us by sharing our trainings with your peers. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Best to you all,

Carol Rose Adkisson M.A. LMFT MFC #83484
IE-CAMFT Board President
CEO/Founder
The Trauma and Healing Foundation