FREE for SCV-CAMFT members!

(Non-member just $10)

Join us for our summer garden party

sponsored by Muir Wood and Pacific Quest!

Enjoy drinks, food and connection!

An opportunity to network, meet colleagues,

learn more about our sponsors and enjoy some fun together.

This event is sponsored by: 

Double your Summer fun with back to back Coffee Talks! 

Friday will be in Menlo Park at CoffeeBar.

Saturday will be in San Carlos at the Groovy Goose.

Both are social though Friday be sponsored by Charlie Health and Bay Area Art Therapy.
Saturday's will be hosted exclusively by SCV-CAMFT.

Double your Summer fun with back to back Coffee Talks!

Friday will be in Menlo Park at CoffeeBar.

Saturday will be in San Carlos at the Groovy Goose.

Both are social though Friday be sponsored by Charlie Health and Bay Area Art Therapy.

Saturday's will be hosted exclusively by SCV-CAMFT.

Presented by Alexander Mackenzie, LMFT

Includes 2 CE credits for LMFTs, LPCCs, LEPs and LCSWs. This event will be in person and live online. A recording will be made available to all registrants for 3 months. For those who can't attend live, CE credit is available by watching the recording and passing a test. 

Please join us in-person at beautiful Michael's at Shoreline for a delicious lunch buffet, community and networking! We will eat at 11:45 AM, with the presentation beginning at 12:30 PM.

Presentation Description

This interactive workshop helps clinicians to understand this misinterpreted and under-served population, prepares us to understand the psycho-social and behavioral factors associated with healthy aging, and encourages reverence for the significance and potential of the third act. For practitioners of any modality, the information and experience provided will help us speak with confidence with our own therapeutic voice as clients navigate these transitions as they embark on the inspiring journey of finding purpose, meaning, and joy.

While many of the same therapeutic tools apply to working with this population, this workshop will give clinicians a foundation to understand the challenges, tools to assess client readiness, an opportunity to break through stereotypes and understand mid-lifers and their diverse, nuanced intersectional experiences, and a useful roadmap for discovery.

Program Goals

The purpose of the presentation is to provide clinicians with a framework for working with midlife to elder client populations, as they navigate life transitions, and to support healthy aging.

Learning Objectives

1. Explain at least two impacts of implicit bias on healthy aging including bias intersectionalities
2. List the three stages of transition
3. Identify at least three domains of healthy aging

About the Presenter

Alex Mackenzie, LMFT is a Mid-life third-acter. He has worked extensively in the Employee Assistance field helping employees at all levels manage transitions, and has conducted workshops on change and transition in a variety of settings. He currently works in private practice helping clients to embrace life with authenticity, compassion, and curiosity, and helping couples communicate for deeper connection.

This is an intermediate level course.
TARGET AUDIENCE: LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, LEPs

If you miss any of the presentation, you will not be eligible for the CEUs. This course meets the qualifications for 2 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. SCV-CAMFT is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs (CEPA 052466). SCV-CAMFT maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content.

The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker and not, necessarily, of SCV-CAMFT. SCV-CAMFT can not be held liable for any damages arising from recommendations or advice given by our speakers or any actions or decisions arising out of the content of this presentation. Presentations at SCV-CAMFT events do not constitute an endorsement of the vendor or speaker's views, products or services.

Presented by Teresa Scott, LMFT

Includes 2 CE credits for LMFTs, LPCCs, LEPs and LCSWs. This event will be in person and live online. A recording will be made available to all registrants for 3 months. 
It will not be recorded. 

Please join us in-person at beautiful Michael's at Shoreline for a delicious lunch buffet, community and networking! We will eat at 11:15 AM, with the presentation beginning at 12:00 PM.

Description

This workshop introduces mental health professionals to Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP). This program helps participants learn the core basics that can translate into most models of therapy. Through video examples and didactic trainings, participants will learn to understand unconscious anxiety, identify defense mechanisms, and apply these insights in clinical practice to enhance therapeutic skills and enhance professional growth.

By the end of this program, participants will be able to provide information about the basic principles of ISTDP including:

• Anxiety assessment and regulation
• Defense identification and restructuring
• Identification of unconscious emotions
• Eliciting and elaborating feeling experience
• Maintain therapeutic focus and building the alliance
• Assessing and building will and motivation for change
• Increased confidence in use of clinical skills
• Identify a patients will to engage in treatment
• Identify defenses
• Distinguish emotion from anxiety responses

About the Presenter

Teresa (Teri) Scott is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in California (#97228), specializing in Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) in her private practice in Palo Alto, CA. Before starting her private practice, Teri worked as an Art Educator, Program Manager and Director of Community Based Organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. Currently she works as a clinical therapist, clinical supervisor, provides consultation and supervision, and provides training in ISTDP.

This is an introductory level course.
TARGET AUDIENCE: LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, LEPs

If you miss any of the presentation, you will not be eligible for the CEUs. This course meets the qualifications for 2 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. SCV-CAMFT is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs (CEPA 052466). SCV-CAMFT maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content.

The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker and not, necessarily, of SCV-CAMFT. SCV-CAMFT can not be held liable for any damages arising from recommendations or advice given by our speakers or any actions or decisions arising out of the content of this presentation. Presentations at SCV-CAMFT events do not constitute an endorsement of the vendor or speaker's views, products or services.

Event Policy Information

Summer fun is Back with Coffee Talks!

Join us for the popular Coffee Talk, where we buy your coffee or tea, and YOU get a chance to meet other members and learn more about the amazing Santa Clara Valley Chapter! 

Register Today

And we'll see you at Blvd Coffee in Los Gatos!

Presented by Rachel Kapp, Educational Therapist, M.Ed.

No CE credit 

FREE for SCV-CAMFT Members!

This workshop gives mental health professionals practical, research-based tools for identifying and addressing executive functioning (EF) challenges in clients. Participants will learn how to ethically support children, teens, and families through non-shaming, developmentally appropriate strategies—and how to collaborate effectively with educational therapists for improved outcomes.

This workshop equips mental health professionals with practical tools for understanding and addressing executive functioning (EF) challenges in clinical practice. Executive functioning refers to cognitive skills like planning, time management, and self-regulation that are critical for emotional and academic success. These challenges often appear in clients with ADHD, anxiety, learning differences, and mood disorders.

Participants will be introduced to the PRO Framework, a three-phase model used in educational therapy that focuses on building systems, developing skills, and fostering independence. Attendees will learn how to identify EF difficulties, support families with effective strategies, and collaborate with educational therapists to enhance treatment outcomes. The presentation emphasizes non-shaming, developmentally appropriate interventions and supports ethical, interdisciplinary care for children, adolescents, and families.

About the Presenter

Rachel is a Los Angeles native who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Sociology and minored in Jewish Studies. Rachel’s background as a mentor preschool teacher helped her gain a firm foundation in explicit instruction and was the perfect segue to her career as a Board Certified Educational Therapist. She completed her Educational Therapy coursework at the California State University, Northridge in December 2015 and became Board Certified in May 2018. She owns Kapp Educational Therapy Group, an all virtual group practice that specializes in Executive Functioning skills challenges and supports learners nationally. She is also a co-founder and co-host of the Learn Smarter: the Educational Therapy Podcast, a resource offering over 350 episodes of educational content for educators and families. In her free time, Rachel loves spending time with her husband and sons, watching baseball (go Dodgers!), and cooking and baking for friends and family.

The views expressed in presentations made at SCV-CAMFT meetings or events are those of the speaker and not, necessarily, of SCV-CAMFT. Presentations at SCV-CAMFT events do not constitute an endorsement of the vendor or speaker's views, products or services.

Event Policy Information

Presented by Alain Montgomery, JD, CAMFT Staff Attorney

Includes 3 CE credits for LMFTs, LPCCs, LEPs and LCSWs. A recording will be made available to all registrants for 3 months. For those who can't attend live, CE credit is available by watching the recording and passing a test. 

Please note that SCV-CAMFT will not be offering an in-person or online law and ethics class of our own this year. We recommend that you register for CAMFT's online classes to fulfill your BBS law & ethics requirements this year.

Discount for Chapter Members
Members of a local chapter will receive a $5 discount. Be sure to be logged in when you register. 

Chapter members:  $60
CAMFT members:  $65
Non-members:  $85

Register Now

Webinar Description

Working with minors requires an understanding of the laws and ethical standards that pertain to minor consent and the authority that minors, and/or others, have over the minor’s clinical information. Additionally, working with minors may involve the need to interact and share information with third parties. During this three (3) hour presentation, CAMFT Staff Attorney Alain Montgomery will review California minor consent laws and common issues related to the confidentiality of the minor’s healthcare information.

Educational Goals

Participants will gain a better understanding of the applicable laws and the CAMFT ethical standards that relate to minor consent, the release of a minor’s health care information, and conflict of interest issues related to the treatment of minors. As a result of the workshop, participants will be better equipped to make informed and legally and ethically sound decisions when working with minors.

Learning Objectives

• Identify the ethical standards relevant to a therapist’s duty to determine who has the legal authority to provide consent and treatment for a minor.
• Explain the rights of minors to control the right of access to their information.
• Distinguish when parents and other non-parental adults have the legal authority to consent treatment for a minor and exercise control over a minor’s healthcare information.
• Understand how to manage the varied roles that third parties may play during the course of the minor’s treatment.

TARGET AUDIENCE: LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, LEPs

Presented by Holly LaBarbara, LMFT

Includes 2 CE credits for LMFTs, LPCCs, LEPs and LCSWs. This event will be in person and live online. A recording will be made available to all registrants for 3 months. For those who can't attend live, CE credit is available by watching the recording and passing a test. 

Please join us in-person at beautiful Michael's at Shoreline for a delicious lunch buffet, community and networking! We will eat at 11:15 AM, with the presentation beginning at 12:00 PM.

Presentation Description

How many clients walk through your door who remind you of Hannibal Lecter? How about Heath Ledger’s Joker? Probably not many. Yet these stereotypes of mental illness are embedded in our cultural psyche, perpetuating stigma and shame.

In this interactive presentation, Holly LaBarbera, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, adjunct professor at Santa Clara University, and author, will discuss a genre of storytelling that de-stigmatizes and offers authentic and complex perspectives on mental health struggles. In much the same way as historical fiction engages readers in learning about the past, Holly coins the phrase psychological fiction in referring to novels that entertain while educating about psychological challenges.

Holly will talk about the treatment of mental health issues in her novel, All I Know, and in other works by authors such as Wally Lamb and Celeste Ng. She will explore the ways in which meaningful, honest representations of characters experiencing depression, grief, addiction, trauma, anxiety and other disorders, can help cultivate empathy and understanding and help individuals with these challenges to feel less alone. She will share a reading list of some of her favorite novels that accomplish this.

Additionally, you will learn how to bring stories into the therapy room to build rapport and support growth and healing for your clients. Holly will teach you how to use stories to externalize and explore how clients see themselves, make sense of relationships, and move through the world. She will share case studies of sharing books, movies, and TV shows with clients and describe how it has helped move the therapy forward.

Finally, Holly will lead you in an experiential activity of therapeutic letter-writing, turning the focus from stories others create to writing about your own experience. Kai Martin, the protagonist in All I Know, writes letters as a therapeutic exercise and Holly has used this technique with clients as another variation of using the written word to process their issues.

Program Goals

1. identify two ways in which stories can help de-stigmatize mental health challenges, cultivate empathy and help clients feel validated.

2. identify specific books, movies and shows that are useful in a therapeutic setting.
3. implement two interventions for using stories with clients to build rapport, support growth and healing, and explore how clients see themselves, make sense of relationships and move through the world.
4. State the therapeutic benefits of writing letters.
5. List three steps used to teach clients how to write therapeutic letters.

About the Presenter

Holly LaBarbera received her MA in counseling psychology from Santa Clara University in 2011. She opened her private practice in Fremont in 2014, working with teens, adult individuals, and couples. She has taught as an adjunct lecturer at SCU since 2021. Holly started writing a number of years ago and published her debut novel, All I Know, in June 2024.

This is an introductory level course.
TARGET AUDIENCE: LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, LEPs

If you miss any of the presentation, you will not be eligible for the CEUs. This course meets the qualifications for 2 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. SCV-CAMFT is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs (CEPA 052466). SCV-CAMFT maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content.

The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker and not, necessarily, of SCV-CAMFT. SCV-CAMFT can not be held liable for any damages arising from recommendations or advice given by our speakers or any actions or decisions arising out of the content of this presentation. Presentations at SCV-CAMFT events do not constitute an endorsement of the vendor or speaker's views, products or services.

Event Policy Information

Come to network, meet the collective members, see our beautiful space and learn about what we do. Bring your business cards to be entered in a raffle!

Presented by MaryBeth Lorence, LMFT

Includes 3 CE credits for LMFTs, LPCCs, LEPs and LCSWs. Continental breakfast will be served at 8:30 AM for in person attendees. The presentation will begin at 9:00 AM. This event will be in person and live online. A recording will be made available to all registrants for 3 months. For those who can't attend live, CE credit is available by watching the recording and passing a test. 

Please join us in-person at beautiful Michael's at Shoreline for a delicious continental breakfast, community and networking! We will eat at 8:30 AM, with the presentation beginning at 9:00 AM.

This 3-hour presentation offers therapists an in-depth understanding of how to apply attachment-based therapy to support adult clients experiencing complicated grief. Participants will explore the relationship between attachment patterns and grief, learning how disrupted attachments can impact the grieving process and contribute to prolonged distress. Therapists will gain practical tools and techniques for integrating attachment-based approaches into their clinical practice. Attendees will learn how to recognize attachment-related issues in grief, foster secure connections, and facilitate healing for clients struggling with loss. This workshop is ideal for mental health professionals seeking to deepen their expertise in grief counseling and enhance their therapeutic skills using an attachment-focused framework.

About the Presenter

MaryBeth Lorence holds a Master of Science Degree in Clinical Psychology from Notre Dame de Namur University, and is a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist. Post-graduation, she completed the 1 year Fellowship Program as well as the 2-year training at the Palo Alto Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program. While in grad school, she began developing an interest in grief work volunteering as a co-facilitator for a children’s grief group for Sutter Home Care. As an associate, she worked with caretakers and bereaved adults for Mission Hospice. For several years, MaryBeth trained volunteers at the San Mateo Crisis Hotline on the topic of Grief & Loss. MaryBeth works in private practice in San Mateo.

This is an intermediate level course.
TARGET AUDIENCE: LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, LEPs

If you miss any of the presentation, you will not be eligible for the CEUs. This course meets the qualifications for 3 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. SCV-CAMFT is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs (CEPA 052466). SCV-CAMFT maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content.

The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speaker and not, necessarily, of SCV-CAMFT. SCV-CAMFT can not be held liable for any damages arising from recommendations or advice given by our speakers or any actions or decisions arising out of the content of this presentation. Presentations at SCV-CAMFT events do not constitute an endorsement of the vendor or speaker's views, products or services.

Event Policy Information

Presented by Sara Jasper, JD, CAMFT Staff Attorney

Includes 3 CE credits for LMFTs, LPCCs, LEPs and LCSWs. A recording will be made available to all registrants for 3 months. For those who can't attend live, CE credit is available by watching the recording and passing a test. 

Please note that SCV-CAMFT will not be offering an in-person or online law and ethics class of our own this year. We recommend that you register for CAMFT's online classes to fulfill your BBS law & ethics requirements this year.

Discount for Chapter Members
Members of a local chapter will receive a $5 discount. Be sure to be logged in when you register. 

Chapter members:  $60
CAMFT members:  $65
Non-members:  $85

Register Now

Webinar Description

California’s Medi-Cal system is complex and ever-changing. During this three-hour presentation, CAMFT Staff Attorney, Sara Jasper, will provide an overview of the Medi-Cal Behavioral Health system, including information about CalAIM and BH-Connect. Ms. Jasper will review Medi-Cal’s requirements for telehealth services, provider addresses and how providers who offer “remote-only” services can apply for an exemption from Medi-Cal’s place of business requirements. Ms. Jasper will offer practice tips and resources Medi-Cal providers may use to strengthen their recordkeeping practices in anticipation of audits. Finally, Ms. Jasper will offer general resources to support providers as they navigate the Medi-Cal system, including resources for those providing care to dual eligible patients and caregivers.

Educational Goals

Participants will review the pathways to behavioral health care services within the Medi-Cal system. Participants will learn about the laws and policies that pertain to their work within the Medi-Cal system. As a result of the workshop, participants will be able to identify the requirements for rendering telehealth services and recordkeeping. The tips and resources provided will prepare and assist Medi-Cal providers with responding to audit requests. Providers will also be empowered by receiving resources they can use when addressing more complex issues such as billing for services rendered to dual eligibles or caregivers.

Learning Objectives

• Identify the pathways to behavioral health care services within the Medi-Cal system.
• Identify possible opportunities for behavioral health care providers as a result of BH-Connect.
• Describe Medi-Cal’s requirements for the delivery of telehealth services.
• Review Medi-Cal Provider address rules and the telehealth or “remote-only” place of business exemption.
• Discuss Medi-Cal’s documentation requirements to audits.
• Identify critical resources for providers working within Medi-Cal’s behavioral health system.

TARGET AUDIENCE: LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, LEPs

Please join us for our 2025 Annual Membership Celebration!

Join us for a day of fun-filled connecting, delicious food, prizes and a chance to recognize the many achievements our chapter made this past year!

Please check back for details as they progress!

FREE for all chapter members!