Let's Go on a Hike

The popular Bridging the Bay series of hikes in partnership with East Bay CAMFT and San Francisco CAMFT is back! Marin CAMFT members are invited to join our East Bay CAMFT colleagues on Saturday, April 11th for a hike at Briones Park. See the full details and sign up here.

Congratulations Rachel Barr! Marin CAMFT 2026 Outstanding Chapter Leader Award Recipient

Rachel Barr, LMFT, Marin CAMFT Director of Marketing (left), with Joy Alafia, CAMFT Executive Director

The Outstanding Chapter Leader Award is presented to one member of each chapter for exemplary service, commitment, and contribution to the chapter. This individual is nominated by their entire chapter board. The annual awards ceremony was held January 31, 2026, during the Chapter Leadership Conference in San Diego. The Marin CAMFT Board of Directors nominated our Director of Marketing, Rachel Barr, for the Outstanding Leader Award in 2016.

Inclusivity Committee Update

The Marin CAMFT Inclusivity Committee has met twice so far this year, and has a few quick updates to share:

• We are working towards continuing with a 4-part training series that includes feedback from Marin CAMFT members on what inclusivity is, why it matters, and what cultural humility is, while developing shared resources.
  
  
• In March, the Marin CAMFT Board secured a partnership/co-sponsorship with the County of Marin to provide DEI focused trainings through our chapter.  The first one offered was Cultural Humility in Clinical Practice: Buffering against Behaving from Bias presented by Dr. Kelly Koo in March. 
  
  
• The Inclusivity Committee is also working close with community partners to find opportunities to provide resources and services to practitioners who work with DEI communities.

If any Marin CAMFT member is interested in joining the Inclusivity Committee or would like further information, please reach out to our Director of Inclusivity Hamaseh Kianfar, LMFT, at  inclusivity@marincamft.org.

Client-Centered Advocacy: What It Is and Why You're Probably Already Doing It

By Bradford Leaser, Pre-Licensed Director, Marin CAMFT

If you're a trainee or associate working toward your LMFT or LPCC in California, you've definitely seen "client-centered advocacy" on your BBS weekly log. And if you've ever paused and thought, "Wait, what exactly goes here?"... you are not alone.

The good news is it's a lot less complicated than it sounds.

California's Business and Professions Code Section 4980.03(h) defines client-centered advocacy, or CCA, as activities like researching, identifying, and accessing resources to help your clients get the services and support they need (California BPC § 4980.03). The definition is intentionally broad, but the idea behind it is simple: it's the work you do outside the therapy room to connect clients with what they need.

In practice, CCA can look like a lot of different things. Maybe you're researching sliding-scale clinics for a client who's losing their insurance. Maybe you're coordinating with a school counselor to make sure your adolescent client has the right supports in the classroom. It could be helping a parent navigate the IEP process, connecting a client with housing resources, or following up with a case manager about a referral. All of that counts.

The important part is that it needs to be tied to a specific client or group of clients you're working with, and it needs to be related to their care. General community outreach or administrative tasks for your site don't fall under CCA. But when you're actively working to help a client access something they need, that's exactly what this category is for.

So where does CCA fit into your hours? It falls under the nonclinical practice category. Out of the 3,000 total supervised experience hours required for licensure, at least 1,750 need to be direct clinical counseling. The remaining hours (up to 1,250) can be nonclinical, and that's where CCA lives alongside things like progress notes, clinical reports, supervision contact, and professional trainings (California BPC § 4980.43).

For MFT trainees still in their graduate program, there's a helpful detail worth knowing. Your practicum requires a minimum of 225 hours of face-to-face counseling, and up to 75 of those can come from CCA (California BPC § 4980.36). The BBS built advocacy into your training from the start, which says a lot about how much this work matters.

And it really does matter. So much of what our clients face happens outside the therapy room. They're navigating complicated systems: healthcare, housing, immigration, education. CCA recognizes that helping clients access those resources is a real and valuable part of clinical work, not just an afterthought.

Of course, this article is not legal advice and shouldn't be relied on as such. If you're ever unsure whether a particular activity qualifies as CCA, reach out to the BBS directly, consult a legal advisor (like those available through CAMFT), or talk it through with your supervisor to make sure your hours are being recorded properly.

Now go log those hours.

References
California Business and Professions Code § 4980.03(h). Definition of client-centered advocacy. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=BPC&sectionNum=4980.03

California Business and Professions Code § 4980.36. Degree requirements and practicum. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=BPC&sectionNum=4980.36

California Business and Professions Code § 4980.43. Supervised experience requirements. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=BPC&sectionNum=4980.43

GO SHOPPING FOR A GOOD CAUSE

Marin CAMFT invites our community to mingle with our colleagues with light hors d'oeuvres while you browse the North + Golden Boutique in San Rafael for our Sip 'N Shop social event on April 8th! The boutique will donate 15% of all purchases to our Kristina M. Carey Scholarship Fund. Please join us!

• Wednesday, April 8th
• 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
• IN PERSON: North + Golden Boutique, 323 B 3rd St., San Rafael (Google Maps)

Can't make it to the shopping event?

Please consider donating to the scholarship fund here. 

We appreciate your support for this important chapter initiative!

Continuing Education Programming
at Marin CAMFT

Upcoming Live Programs on Zoom

• Friday, April 10th from 12pm to 2pm on Zoom: Understanding Diabetes and Mental Health through The Eight Dimensions of Wellness
• Friday, May 8th - to be announced soon!
• Saturday, May 30th from 8:45am to 12:15pm - IN PERSON at Corte Madera Town Center Conference Room: Saturday Workshop: Treating Anxiety at the Root: A Recovery Model for OCD and Related Disorders
• Friday, June 12th from 12pm to 2pm on Zoom: Understanding Second Adolescence: Supporting LGBTQ+ Adults Who Grew up in Anti-Queerness

As a reminder, Marin CAMFT programming runs from September through June, so we will take a pause on these CE events over the summer. We will have a preview of what's to come with our Fall programs in our next newsletter.

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Consider joining the Continuing Education Committee to help us put on our programs

We invite Marin CAMFT members to participate in the CE Committee's monthly meetings, to help us continue our tradition of planning high-quality trainings for our community of therapists.  The CE Committee meets quarterly to review programs and presentation ideas. 

Please reach out to our Director of Programs to learn more:  programs@marincamft.org

Check out our ever-expanding catalog of on-demand programs!

 Marin CAMFT On-Demand Training now offers an ever-expanding library of content. We have been excited to see how many of you have already taken advantage of this new offering. Watch these courses and earn CEs at your convenience!

A selection of titles recently added include:

• The Grammar of Therapy at the Borderlands with marcela polanco, PhD
• Adaptive Information Processing in Clinical Conceptualization Psychiatry with Kenya Rocha, LMHC
  
• Integrating DBT Skills into Family Systems with Dr. Kavita Ajmere and Dr. Haleh Kouchmeshki

All are offered for free or at low cost for Marin CAMFT members, and reasonable rates for non-members. Members need to log on to your membership account at marincamft.org to get the code.,Marin CAMFT on-demand course catalog.

Need Law & Ethics CEs?

Marin CAMFT members can register for state CAMFT Law & Ethics webinars throughout the year at a special discounted rate! CAMFT has a series of trainings offered throughout 2026. Marin CAMFT receives a small referral fee for each of our members who registers for a CAMFT training through us, so it's a win-win!

Coming up in June: 

Law & Ethics: Treating Jack: Navigating Legal & Ethical Considerations in the Treatment of Minors

• 3 CEs
• Presenter: Kristin Roscoe, JD, CAMFT Staff Attorney
• Date:  June 5, 2026
• Time: 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
• Marin CAMFT member price: $55 (regular price $85)

The webinars are recorded, so if you are unable to attend live, you can still register until the day of the webinar, and if you do so by that date you still receive the $5 discount! You'll have two months to view the recording, and the on-demand program is eligible for 3 CEs.  

Trauma Resource Team The Trauma Resource Team (TRT) committee is continuing to host peer-led Trauma Talks in 2026, alongside our new offering of the Book Group, to enhance our members' knowledge and understanding of working with trauma.  In February, we hosted an insightful and informative talk with Christine Donohue MFT titled “Trauma Education: Somatic Experiencing Tools”, and we look forward to welcoming Shai Lavie on April 17th at noon.  Please email Kathy Ries (kathyriesmft@gmail.com) for the Zoom link. In March, we launched our first TRT Book Night.  Colleagues came together to discuss The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog by Dr Bruce Perry.  The discussion was insightful and lively, creating a space for clinicians to discuss the book and the ways the themes impact our work. The next Book Night will be on Monday, 4th May at 6.30pm on Zoom: Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta.  Further details have been sent out by email as an invite, please RSVP here, we’d love you to join us. In addition, we’ve organized trauma focused consultation groups and peer led vicarious trauma support groups.  You can sign up for those on the Marin CAMFT Trauma Resources Team page on the website. If you would like to know more about the TRT, please look at our part of the MCamft website or contact co-chairs Kathy Ries (kathyriesmft@gmail.com) or Katharine Spencer (katharinespencertherpay@gmail.com) for more information.   We look forward to seeing you at one of our offerings the third Friday of the month at noon.

 

Marin CAMFT continues to promote our members within the Marin community! We are running an ad in Marin Magazine that features the Therapist Directory, inviting people to use a QR code to go to our website and look for a therapist.  Below is the ad in the April edition - or click through to go to the online version of Marin Magazine to see it.

Have you updated your profile in the Therapist Directory recently? Make sure it is current and complete! Instructions for updating are on the Marin CAMFT How-Tos threads.

Invitation to the Marin CAMFT listserv

The listserv is our chapter's email community. It's a great resource for getting and giving referrals, making connections, learning about office space for rent, and more!

If you are a Marin CAMFT member and want to join the listserv, please send a message to MCAMFT+subscribe@groups.io and our listserv moderator will confirm Marin CAMFT membership and subscribe you.