VAMFT Newsletter (v. 3, no. 3)

September 1998

• A Letter from the President
• Treasure's Report
• Thoughts on Parity
• From the Student/Associate Representative

As the summer comes to a close we are very excited about the upcoming projects in VAMFT. For the first time in several years we able to divide our energies and resources between working toward parity (see Wally's column) and COLLABORATIVE EVENTS with other mental health colleagues. We have always been collaborative at both the individual and organization level, and we hope this is just the beginning of a continued effort from previous years. Firstly, VAMFT is proud to announce that we will be sponsoring a meeting of all interested directors of programs who train Marriage and Family Therapists in Virginia. We hope to have wide spread involvement so that these directors can meet each other and learn from each others methods and ideas. We also hope that a more complete knowledge of available and still needed resources will be developed. We are aiming for this to happen in the Spring of 1999. Even more exciting is that the planning of the Spring 2000 VAMFT Conference has begun!! This years meeting of the Presidents of the Virginia Association for Clinical Counselors (Roger LaPlace, Past President), the Virginia Association of Drug and Alcohol Counselors (Kevin Doyl, President) and I yielded enthusiasm for providing topics of interest to as many mental health professionals as possible.

Topics of the 2000 Conference will hopefully include: (1) systemically working with violent couples; and (2) systemically working with families when a member is in or has been through substance abuse treatment. We're also looking for presenters on such common issues such as 'systemically working with couples dealing with depression' and 'systemically working with families dealing with divorce'. If you would like to be a part of the Conference Committee please contact me!!

VAMFT has been tightened its belt, and cutting back the basic operating budget. However, in order to continue to grow as an organization, provide meaningful professional experiences, and make earning the Virginia LMFT respectable, we requested a dues increase. This increase was approved by a large majority vote of the clinical membership and will go into effect in January 1999.

By several written messages we understand that you want VAMFT to continue to work toward parity. Please see Wally's column for our plans for doing so. We are dedicated to promoting strong LMFT regulations that will allow systemically trained professionals to earn the license. We are also dedicated to achieving third party reimbursement for LMFTs with systemic training. A small group of people were opposed to the dues increase, for various reasons. We value their input as well. We know that many of us are not just members of VAMFT but are also members of other professional organizations. For all members, please know that we are trying to put time and resources toward collaborative, professional experiences that we hope you will find helpful and rewarding. For those members who are retiring or have come upon difficult financial times, AAMFT has special membership options to help. Please contact AAMFT for more information. Your continued membership and presence in AAMFT and VAMFT is very important to all of us.

The General Assembly is not is session, so there is little to report on this front. Our chief concern at this time are the regulations setting the standards for licensure of Marriage and Family Therapists. Let me take this opportunity to reflect on some thoughts related to professional parity. First, what is parity and what are the differences between mental health parity and professional parity?

As mental health care professionals, we have fought alongside other providers to attain "mental health parity." The Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 was passed by Congress two years ago. This law established regulations prohibiting health plans from setting annual and lifetime caps for mental health services which are lower than those for physical health care services.

At the 1998 Division Leadership Conference, John Ambrose (AAMFT's Director of Legal and Government Affairs and General Counsel) spoke about professional parity. It is not simply the passage of a bill establishing a license for Marriage and Family Therapy. According to John, professional parity involves: 1) the legal authority for MFT's to diagnose and provide psychotherapy to treat mental and emotional disorders (licensure); 2) the legislative authority to have our activities reimbursed by private insurance (vendorship); 3) the funding for research for and by MFT's to support the legislative effort and show the efficacy of our practice (research); 4) the creation of job titles that allow MFT's to find positions in the mental health field (practice); 5) the creation and maintenance of education and training programs to ensure that professionals entering the field meet our standards of practice (education and training); and 6) the authority to participate in the setting of social policy which utilizes our knowledge and skills (policy). We need help in all of these areas.

To help make these efforts possible, we recently received approval to have our dues increased in order to support VAMFT activities, with 66% of our membership supporting our efforts toward professional parity. I am a little confused that 33% of our membership is not supportive of our efforts toward professional parity. Without trying to alienate myself or members of this 33%, I can only assume that many in this 33% are already licensed in another field, enjoy professional parity by this other affiliation, and are not driven by this goal. They want to socialize with us (not likewise licensed) but don't want us to work alongside them.

What am I talking about when I speak of parity? Maybe a simpler definition will do. The definition of parity is: a quality or state of being equal or equivalent. One-third of our membership is not interested in supporting our efforts toward equality? As I slept on this, I had a few passing thoughts of recent experiences that may speak to this issue. As I have grown to trust my intuition more, I jotted them down and will share them with you.

I teach as an adjunct professor in the Counselor Education and the Social Work departments at Radford University. I have tended to teach the MFT courses, but recently prepared two classes in the Counselor Education department that I have not yet taught. One is an Introduction to Counseling Theories and Techniques and the other is an Internship class. These courses reflect the two ends of the counselor education curriculum. Rather than re-inventing the wheel on my first time with these classes, I took the advice of a professor who previously taught the courses and adopted the suggested textbooks. As I dreamt, I was immediately interested in these courses because the textbooks contained references to collaborative relationships, externalizing problems, utilization, solutions, exploration, curiosity, and opening space for multiple perspectives. This was language familiar to me as an MFT. The fields must be cross-pollinating, as the language of MFT's is creeping into the counseling and social work fields.

As I dreamt on I thought about a person I knew from a previous group association. I remember a lot of conflict in the group with this person. He would capture the attention and dominate the group, leaving little if any time for the rest of the members. I came to realize that this person was very insecure and was not putting down the others in the group so that he could be "one-up" but was bringing down the others in the group out of his own insecurity so that the group members were not one-up. So when others claimed their competency he heard it as others further putting him down. He could not celebrate with them. When the group members let him know that they did not perceive themselves as being superior, but in fact saw him as an equal, he felt less insecure. When he addressed his own insecurity he then allowed others "their place in the sun."

As I dreamt on, I thought about my foster son. I am a recent foster/adoptive parent. These experiences have and are teaching me a great deal, including more humility toward those who open their homes to others' children. My son has a history of struggle to get basic needs met. I have been actively working with him on sharing. I cannot expect too much. When one has the experience and belief that her/his needs are intermittently met, never consistently and never fully, it is difficult to let anything go. It is a long way to that feeling of being blessed with what one has which allows one to give in order to receive. The need to horde is diminished.

Then I reflected on something my father instilled in me--if you work hard and are good at what you do, you will always have plenty to do. This is also fits with Joseph Campbell's notion about following one's bliss, and Victor Frankl's belief that happiness is a by-product of dedication to and pursuit of something bigger than oneself. If I am involved in pursuits that I love, I will work hard at it, become increasingly competent, and find happiness. Those who are competent, dedicated, hardworking, and effective will be sought out, and those who are not, may not be following their bliss. I am not sure what these thoughts have to do with parity, but believe they are related in some way.

I want to thank those of you who contaced your local represenatives and the Assitant Attorney General regarding our regulations. Several Student/Associate members informed me that they too received replies from the Legislators and that the experience was empowering. Your time and efforts are greatly appreciated.

As always, please contact me at sedwards@vt.edu if you have any concerns or questions. I will be attending the AAMFT national conference in Dallas and attending Leadership as well as general workshops. I will bring back any information that will be helpful to student and associate members.

Discussion has begun in preparing for our own conference in Virginia during the year 2000. If there are topics, issues, needs, etc., that you would like addressed please let me know so we can plan them into our conference.

I am also excited about the VAMFT webpage and hope that everyone will get a chance to view it and utilize the vast amount of information and links made available.