SBCAMFT- PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Hello Dear Santa Barbara CAMFT Community,
The Board of SBCAMFT would like to reach out to our membership with a message of commitment and support during this time of unrest. We stand together with Black Lives Matter, because as individuals we are inextricably connected to one another. Anything less, is to disavow our own humanity.
SBCAMFT strongly condemns the recent actions taken against George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, as well as all of the victims that came before them.
We can empathize with our neighbors of Color and will lead with them to demand justice and change, and work pointedly to shift the status quo from violence and inequity to include civil rights for all.
We believe our goal as psychotherapists includes working tirelessly to make the field of psychotherapy diverse, accessible, and culturally competent. We can acknowledge our own biases (impilcit, explicit and confirmation) and privileges, while committing to address the collective trauma that comes from a systematic unwillingness to embrace all humans with love, kindness and fundamental safety.
We understand that exposure to racial violence and social injustices directly traumatizes our fellow human beings, and knowing how to effectively talk about these subjects with our clients is part of our ethical obligation and duty.
Expanding our global and local awareness to include the recognition of how profoundly our clients, as well as our colleagues of color are affected is essential in order to allow for us to support one another and contribute to validating and treating experiences of grief, fear and trauma.
At SBCAMFT, we commit to:
- Greater introspection into our chapter’s organization, biases, by-laws and educational opportunities, to include more diverse and culturally sensitive programming and governance.
- Actively recruit more people of color to join and lead at SBCAMFT.
- Work with CAMFT to establish policies and avenues to allow for greater access to health care and services for black, indigenous and people of color.
- Listen with open minds and hearts to our community.
We will share our progress and continued steps toward our commitments to you as they evolve. As always, we welcome your involvement and input as we all work together to create lasting change.
With much immeasurable gratitude and admiration for all of you,
Kristi Miller, MA. LMFT
President SBCAMFT
“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace”– Jimi Hendrix
