President's Message

Hello Dear Members,

Wishing you all a wonderful spring season! This is the time of the year when you can’t help but feel cheerful, hopeful, and energized. Nature is at its best with colorful blooms, young sprouts, buzzing bees, and fluttering butterflies.  

We at SVC-CAMFT are in a great mood too. My sincere thanks to all of you for showing trust in the new board and renewing your membership. At the CAMFT Annual Leadership Conference SVC-CAMFT received an award for the “Best Board Management”. Our past president, Linita Burnely received an award for the Outstanding Chapter Leader. Hearty congratulations to Linita!!

Due to the relentless efforts of all our board members, SVC-CAMFT is off to a great start this year. We successfully hosted two workshops so far which were well received by our professional community. The SVC-CAMFT board had their in-person retreat on March 6th. In the retreat, we discussed strategies to make the chapter meaningful for its members by providing more opportunities to connect and meet in person, providing services to the greater Sacramento community by volunteering, and advocating for mental health for all by participating in the NAMI Walks. It was wonderful to see the board coming together with a common purpose, energy, and motivation.

Our Membership Chair, Suzanne Quijano ran a successful membership drive. We were able to award a scholarship to two of our members for the SART training due to the generosity of Dr. Talal Alsaleem. SVC-CAMFT’s Treasurer Cassandra Flagg launched the peer consultation group on February 25th. This group is free for members. Chad Fraga, our 3000 Club chair hosted the first of the monthly meetups for the pre-licensed members.

In short, we are up and running full speed ahead!

On April 11, the Law and Ethics workshop will answer all your questions about record keeping and letter writing.

I am very excited to announce that SVC-CAMFT in collaboration with the Santa Clara and the East Bay chapter of CAMFT will be hosting a workshop on Race Talk by Dr. Shawan Worsley on May 6th. SVC-CAMFT’s Diversity Committee Chair Angel Ortiz has worked relentlessly to make this possible.

Lastly, SVC-CAMFT will be participating in the NAMI Walks in-person event on May 7th. The event is free. Do come out and join your fellow chapter members. Wear your brightest orange and bring signs. Let’s stand up in solidarity for improving mental health access for everyone. Register here.

Please visit the events page for a list of new and exciting events we are offering including Community Huddle on Zoom (Free).  https://svc-camft.org/events

We are still looking for program co-chairs (2 positions) and a president-elect. The bylaws committee is looking for members. You can email me at president@svccamft.org if you are curious and interested. All of the board members are here to support and guide you. A complete list of opportunities can be found here.

If you can’t make that commitment, no problem. We always welcome our members who would like to contribute even for an hour or two. We would love to see our members at the bi-monthly board meetings, do join in.

Our slogan for 2022  is ‘Growth and Connection'. The most important lesson the pandemic has taught us is that collective efforts always yield faster and better results. We can cross many hurdles by helping each other out.

As we navigate the daily challenges of our personal and professional world, we also hold space for people suffering in other parts of the world. As therapists, we have special powers to extend our empathy and compassion. Please also remember to take care of yourself. Reach out if you need help. This is your chapter.

Sincerely,
Amita Khare, LMFT
President, SVC-CAMFT