Don't miss 4 CEs Law & Ethics! Coming March 6th! 

Law & Ethics: What Every Therapist Needs to Know About Divorce, 4 CEs

Presented by Stephen Sulmeyer, JD, PhD

• Friday, March 6th, 2026
• 8:45 am - 1:30 pm PT (Note start time)
• 4 Law & Ethics CEs
• On Zoom

Registration Fees

• Licensed RECAMFT Member Attendees - $49
• Licensed Non-Member Attendees - $69
• Pre-Licensed Attendees - $20

In California, where over half of all first marriages end in divorce, psychotherapists must understand the factors associated with both successful and poor outcomes for divorcing individuals and their children. In order to adequately support their clients as they go through divorce, psychotherapists must have a basic understanding of the law of divorce and the professional and ethical pitfalls the unwary clinician can fall into.

Divorce has long been seen as a battle fought by adversarial attorneys, often leaving both partners—and especially their children—as casualties. Ample research has explored the emotional and developmental toll of such high-conflict divorces, and clinicians must be conversant with this body of work. Since the rise of divorce mediation in the 1970s, the process of divorce has evolved significantly, creating alternative, less adversarial pathways for divorcing couples, and psychotherapists need to have a solid understanding of these alternative approaches.

This workshop will familiarize clinicians with the relevant laws around divorce and the ethical considerations impacting sharing such information with their clients. The workshop will also share research on both litigated and non-litigated divorce processes, their effects on parents and children, and the various alternatives to traditional litigation.

Participants will explore key risk, resilience, and stabilizing factors associated with different divorce trajectories, as well as ethical considerations around helping high-conflict couples co-parent effectively after separation. Clinicians will leave with tools to support their patients in ways that enhance psychological resilience for themselves and their children.

Stephen Sulmeyer, JD, PhD is a mediator with JAMS in San Francisco and a clinical psychologist working with patients throughout California. As a mediator he specializes in complex and high-conflict disputes in a wide range of subject areas, including family and divorce, probate and elder, family businesses, business/commercial, intellectual property, employment, discrimination, partnerships, and community matters.

Steve has trained divorce professionals privately and at conferences sponsored by groups such as the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, the Association of Professional Family Mediators and the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, as well as local chapters of these and other organizations. Steve received his undergraduate and law degrees from Stanford University, and his Ph.D. from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (now Sophia University), in Palo Alto, California, where he taught as a member of the adjunct faculty. He is the co-founder (with Judge Verna Adams) of the Marin Superior Court’s interdisciplinary settlement conference program, in which mental health professionals and lawyers team up to assist judges in settling custody and other cases. He is also the founder and past president of Integrative Mediation Bay Area, a group that teams up mental health professionals and attorneys in a conjoint mediation model in family law and other cases. For further information see Steve’s website, www.sulmeyermediation.com, and his JAMS profile, https://www.jamsadr.com/sulmeyer/.

Find out more and register here! 

Don't miss this exciting course on cutting-edge therapy -

AI in Mental Health: the Good, the Bad and the Dangerous

Presented by industry leader, Dr. Rachel Wood, PhD, LPC, 3 CEs

AI in Mental Health: the Good, the Bad,

and the Dangerous

About our speaker, Dr. Rachel Wood, PhD, LPC (Colorado)

Dr. Rachel Wood has a PhD in cyberpsychology and is a licensed counselor in the state of Colorado. As a researcher and therapist, Rachel raises awareness about mental health and the future of synthetic relationships. She invites mental health professionals to reflect deeply on the implications of AI usage in practice and in client’s lives. Dr. Wood enjoys her work as a speaker, workshop facilitator, and strategic advisor.

Register here. 

Our own Tara D'Orazio is running for Director at Large on the

state CAMFT Board - please VOTE for her! 

• See Tara's Candidate Statement here.
• Learn about all candidates running for the State Board of Directors here.  
• VOTE for TARA in the State CAMFT Election! Watch for your electronic ballot from CAMFT.
• Tell your friends, "Vote Tara!"

Congrats to our Chapter Members who attended the CAMFT Chapter Leadership Conference (CLC) in San Diego in January! 

FREE to Members - Visit our On-Demand CE Video Library! 

Multiple new ONLINE offerings! Find all the latest here (including 6 CEs Law & Ethics)

Check it out! RECAMFT's On-Demand CE Library link: https://recamft.thinkific.com/

On-Demand CE Video Library - FREE to members! 

Catch "How Sexuality Influences The Clinical Picture For Female Clients" (2 CEs, on-demand) with Dr. Jenn Kennedy, PhD, LMFT- FREE to members! 

Sexuality is layered and complex. It is also often all but ignored in the clinical sphere. In this highly interactive presentation, Jenn Kennedy, PhD, LMFT will discuss the most common issues that arise in the sexual realm and offer insight about how to discuss sex and intimacy with female clients. Using the Biopsychorelational model, Dr. Kennedy will describe how various factors influence client's confidence, performance and interpersonal strategies to get their sexual needs met. She will also address unique diversity issues that arise for LGBT women around their sexuality.

Jenn Kennedy, PhD, LMFT earned a PhD in Clinical Sexology and is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She is also a Certified Sex Therapist and Sex Addiction Therapist based in Santa Barbara, CA. In her private practice, Jenn sees couples and individuals in the areas of relationships, sex, addiction and LGBT. She currently teaches in the graduate school at Antioch University Santa Barbara. Jenn's practice is called Riviera Therapy and under this umbrella, she supervises up-and-coming clinicians. Contact: Jenn@RivieraTherapy.com or IG: @drjennkennedy

To see a preview of this dynamic program... click here. 

Members - you can access recordings of our zoom events from 2024, 2023, 2022, and 2021  in our new on-demand library which has been migrated over to Thinkific (https://recamft.thinkific.com/).

• NEW! RECAMFT On-Demand Programs: https://recamft.thinkific.com
• NEW! RECAMFT discount codes are posted for members only here: https://www.recamft.org/member-discount-codes (requires sign-in using your RECAMFT member email/password)

Topic List 

Addiction 

• Attachment Infused Addiction Treatment Theory 2 CEs with Dr. Mary Crocker Cook, PhD, LMFT

Anxiety & Depression

• Identifying and Treating Imposter Syndrome 2 CEs with Stevon Lewis, LMFT
• Mental Wellness in the Digital Age 1.5 CEs with Julie Frumin, LMFT

• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Evidence-Based Treatment Strategies That Work! 3 CEs with Dr. Robin Zasio, PsyD, LCSW

• Three Underlying Beliefs That Cause Anxiety and How to Change Them, A CBT Approach 2 CEs with Jennifer Shannon, LMFT 
• Understanding Hoarding Disorder 1.5 CEs with Dr. Robin Zasio, PsyD, LCSW

Couples

• Part 1: Intro to PACT – Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy 2 CEs with Dr. Hans Stahlschmidt, PhD  

Eating Disorders

• Treating Binge Eating Disorder with Self-Compassion: A Trauma-informed Approach  2 CEs with Erica Thomas, LMFT

• Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy: Update on a Transformative Treatment Option 2 CEs with Evolve Mind Wellness Staff 

• Telehealth: Law & Ethics, Technology, and Best Practices for Connecting with Your Clients 3 CEs, with Dr. Lisa Wenninger, PhD, LPCC 
• How to Write a 10-Minute Treatment Plan 3 CEs, with Barbara Griswold, LMFT.  
• What Should be in Your Notes, But Probably Isn't 3 CEs, with Barbara Griswold, LMFT. 

LGBTQ+ 

• Affirmative Family Therapy with Gender Diverse People and Their Loved Ones 2 CEs, with Dr. Shawn Giammattei, PhD  
• Working with Dissociative Disorders & Plural Communities 4 CEs, with Serenity Serseción, PhD, LMFT
• How Sexuality Influences the Clinical Picture for Female Clients, 2 CEs with Dr. Jenn Kennedy, PhD, LMFT 

Neuro-Biological 

• The Neurodiversity Paradigm: Autistic & ADHDer Adults 3 CEs with Katy Higgins Lee, LMFT  
• Transforming Trauma: The NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) 3 CEs with Brad Kammer, LMFT

Sleep

• Sleep and Postpartum Mental Health 2 CEs with Kristina Anzell, LCSW  NEW! 

Members can watch the video, pass the test, fill out the evaluation, and download your certificate. It's that easy! You can earn CEs for any recorded event if you didn't already earn CEs from the live event. And our RECAMFT Thinkific platform keeps track of all your CEs and Certificates!   Return to top

We love our Sponsors! 

Supporters & Sponsors - We appreciate you! 

Members Messages

Members please submit your messages by the 15th monthly to have them appear in the Newsletter

(500 word maximum)

Tara D'Orazio for State CAMFT Board: Vote for Our Local Leader

By Elle Saunders, LMFT

RECAMFT Director at Large

Tara D'Orazio for State CAMFT Board: Vote for Our Local Leader

Tara D'Orazio, our RECAMFT CFO, is running for CAMFT State Board of Directors (Director-at-Large). Voting is happening now through March 12, 2026—check your email for your ballot!

Who is Tara and what does she do for RECAMFT?

Tara serves as our CFO and brings over ten years of chapter board experience across California. She received CAMFT's Outstanding Chapter Leader Award in 2024 for her exceptional service to RECAMFT. She's worked as Chapter President, board member, committee lead, and volunteer—always focused on strengthening the systems clinicians rely on. At the chapter level, she's stabilized finances, modernized operations, expanded programming for therapists at every career stage, and founded our Racial and Social Justice Committee. She also created our memorial scholarship fund honoring RECAMFT's former administrative consultants, Joe and Pam Ward, which has awarded $10,000 to ten deserving prelicensed and newly licensed members over the last four years. As RECAMFT Past President Emily Larkin says, 

"Tara is everybody's favorite;

she is very consistent, warm, supportive and talented."

What is Tara's platform?

Tara is running because therapists deserve financial stability, accessible resources, and real support for meaningful work. She's committed to strengthening connections between CAMFT and clinicians statewide and expanding support for prelicensed and early-career therapists. She'll also champion thoughtful, ethical technology integration while keeping CAMFT responsive to diverse member voices.

What would this mean for RECAMFT?

Having Tara at the state level means Northern California's voice gets heard. Currently serving as CFO on both RECAMFT and North San Diego CAMFT boards, she's the perfect bridge between north and south—her special hallmark as advocate and bridge-maker. Representing our needs in the complex state of California means we have someone who knows who we are at our hearts: inclusive, caring, and willing to take a stand for our community of all backgrounds. As RECAMFT President-Elect Jessica Heaney notes, "She sees the larger picture and works collaboratively to bring everyone together." She brings deep knowledge of our region's unique needs and will provide the scaffolding therapists need when new problems emerge—whether it's navigating AI ethics, understanding evolving regulations, or getting practical business support.

Why does our vote matter?

Northern counties have smaller populations than Southern California, and seven candidates are running for three positions. Every vote from our region counts! As RECAMFT President Pat Hromalik says, "CAMFT will gain one of the hardest working board members ever!"

A message from Tara:

"Thank you to each of you who has offered an endorsement, cheered me forward, or shared your deeply meaningful reflections on what it means to be an LMFT, and what you need from your leaders at the state level. Over the years, this community has given me camaraderie, rich dialogue, and an incredible amount of creativity and joy. I am eager to carry forward what I've learned into the leadership of CAMFT and to represent the voices, values, and wisdom of the colleagues who have shaped me."

Vote by March 12—your ballot is in your email from CAMFT! 

Photo: Tara D'Orazio, LMFT and Bob Casanova, PsyD, LMFT at Sonoma County Pride, 2024, Santa Rosa, CA. 

Danielle "Elle" Saunders, LMFT, is a RECAMFT Director at Large. Her private practice. is located in Sebastopol, CA.  

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The Emotional & Relational Damage Caused by the

Invisibility of Lesbians in Society

By Reyna Seminara, LMFT, Retired

RECAMFT 2017 President, RECAMFT Emeritus Member

When a group is consistently unseen, the harm is not loud or dramatic. It is quiet, cumulative, and intimate. It seeps into how people understand themselves, how they form relationships, and how safe they feel existing in the world.

The invisibility of lesbians in society can cause serious emotional and relational damage. The richness of their lived experiences is frequently erased, ignored, or flattened into stereotypes. Emotionally, invisibility breeds isolation. Many lesbians grow up without seeing reflections of themselves in their families, books, films, classrooms, or public life. When representation does exist, it is often marginal, tragic, or sexualized for a male gaze. This absence sends a powerful message: your identity and love is not important.

Over time, that message can turn inward and transforms into self-doubt, shame, and a sense of emotional illegitimacy. Even when lesbians are “out,” they often still feel unseen. It is common for lesbians to either be mistaken for straight women, told that they are “going through a phase,” or subsumed into broader categories that erase their specific experiences. Being misrecognized is exhausting. It chips away at lesbian self-worth and self-esteem.

Invisibility distorts how lesbian relationships are understood and valued. When society centers heterosexual relationships as the default, lesbian partnerships are trivialized or infantilized. Two women in a committed relationship are often called “friends” or “roommates,” which denies the depth, commitment, and intensity of their bond. This lack of recognition strains relationships, forcing couples to repeatedly assert their legitimacy or go without the family acceptance, social validation, and simple acknowledgment that others take for granted.

Invisibility limits collective power and shared language. When lesbian voices and lesbian experiences are absent from feminist movements, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and mainstream discourse, issues like reproductive autonomy, aging, healthcare, and gendered violence are addressed and decided without accounting for lesbian lives. This exclusion reinforces the idea that lesbians are still sidelined in the spaces that were meant to help protect them.

Lesbians exist. They love, build families, grieve, desire, and dream. When society reduces lesbians to tropes and caricatures, it forces them to constantly prove their reality and validity. Lesbian visibility must include recognition of their whole, human selves.

This is why Lesbians march. This is why we include the LGBTQIA2S+ spectrum. This is why we call ourselves Dyke, Lesbian, Queer, Transgender, Non-Binary, Sapphic people, the full LGBTQIA2S+ spectrum. We will not be ignored, trivialized, or marginalized.

For the first time, a Dyke March is being organized as part of Sonoma County Pride. The march will be held on June 21 starting at Julliard Park at 11 AM and ending at Old Courthouse Square for a Lez-a-Palooza Street Fair on the Square.

The Dyke March is being kicked off with an inspiring and fun afternoon of three short documentaries that honor Lesbian & Queer culture, history, and visibility. These three films will be shown at the Rialto Theater in Sebastopol on March 22, 2026 at 1 PM.

Lesbian & Queer Visibility: Three Short Films

Lesbians in Boystown: An award-winning documentary highlighting the history, activism, and cultural contributions of lesbians and queer women in West Hollywood.

Chained!: A delightful and humorous award-winning short exploring the quirky lesbian & queer love affair with wallet chains.

Why Dykes March: The exhilaration of marching with a sense of purpose is celebrated in this short film. This visual poem combines archival and contemporary imagery, reflecting the collective power we create together.

For more information or to get involved contact SoCoDykeMarch@gmail.com or visit http://socodykemarch.org/.

Photo: Reyna Seminara at SoCo Pride, 2024. Photo by Tara D'Orazio. 

Reyna Seminara, LMFT, Retired, is a RECAMFT Past President, and our first Emeritus Member. 

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Heartiest congratulations to Emily Larkin, our 2025 President, for winning the

CAMFT Outstanding Chapter Leader Award! 

Emily Larkin receiving the CAMFT Chapter Leadership Award!