VAMFT Newsletter (v. 5, no. 3)

• A Letter from the President
• Why It's Great To Be On The VAMFT Board !
• AAMFT Web Site Now Includes Free "Job Connection" Service
• Politics and Families
• Enclosed Survey of Clinical Members
• Notice of Elections

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A Letter from the President
by Alison Galway, Ph.D., LMFT, LPC

Here we are again! We are planning at least 3 newsletters each year to keep you informed of on-going events, and we have some news this time. In our previous newsletter, we mentioned that the General Assembly's Commission on Mandated Benefits had unanimously approved adding LMFT licensure to the list of mandated mental health service providers for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Well, progress continues as we approach the opening of the 2001 Assembly session in January. Delegate Jim Shuler, a consistent friend and supporter of LMFTs in the Commonwealth, is prepared to introduce a bill in the House of Delegates specifically addressing the mandated benefits issue. We would like to hear from you concerning your availability to write, call, or even testify on behalf of mandated benefits status for LMFTs in Virginia. Please email me at agalway@vt.edu and we'll start a discussion/update group on the issue. It will be important that we all understand the basic issues that this legislation is and is not addressing. Remember, mandated benefits does mean that LMFTs, like LCSWs and LPCs, are specifically mentioned in the Virginia legal code as mental health providers to be reimbursed for mental health services. Mandated benefits does not add new services, allow anyone to practice outside their competence, or force insurance companies to offer new services.

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Why It's Great To Be On The VAMFT Board !
by Mary-Eve Zangari, Ph.D., CNS, LMFT

I joined the board in 1998 by saying "yes" when Scott Johnson asked me to run for Vice President of Southwest Virginia. He said it would involve a few trips to Richmond per year. I am glad I agreed to serve because I've learned so much and spent time with interesting and capable people. The rewards greatly outweigh the time and energy I have expended. I have enjoyed going to Richmond for meetings with our lobbyist whose office is in the old capitol building, a gorgeous and inspiring place. I've learned first hand what lobbyists do, how much they cost, and how crucial they are to our organization. I've learned that my MFT license will remain inert unless I actively do something to procure reimbursement for MFTs. Being a part of the legislative process has been highly educational. I have had to identify my local legislators, and educate them about our group. They are surprisingly easy to engage, and always return phone calls and letters. I am proud to be helping attain mandated benefits status for LMFTs in Virginia.

The most enjoyable part of serving on board has been getting to know the other members. This is easy to do on carpooling trips to Richmond. As we all know, doing therapy can be an isolating experience, so it has been important for me to have social outlets apart from my work. Board members are fun, resourceful, and energetic. Besides working on legislative issues, we have planned a clinical conference, which gave me the opportunity to contact interesting people who might do presentations. Overall, board membership has permitted me to learn about the legislative process, travel to historic places, and meet great people. I highly recommend the experience, and welcome anyone who would like to join us. We have recently learned how to hold board meetings online, but I still look forward to a trip a year to Richmond!

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AAMFT Web Site Now Includes Free "Job Connection" Service
by Peter Michaels, M.S.

AAMFT has proudly announced its newest member benefit: the AAMFT Job Connection! Members who are seeking employment can search for jobs posted in the AAMFT data base and post their resumes for prospective employers to review. Nonmembers who are seeking to employ an MFT can post a job description and search through resumes of MFTs currently seeking employment.

To access the Job Connection, please visit the AAMFT web site at http://www.aamft.org. The ability to search job listings and post resumes is reserved for AAMFT members and can be accessed through the "members only" section of the AAMFT web site. If you have a question about Job Connection, please e-mail AAMFT at jobconnection@aamft.org. Please include your name and address on your email. You may also call 202-452-0109. All listings are subject to editorial review of AAMFT.

Unfortunately, as of 12/15/00, there were no jobs listed from Virginia. As a fellow member of AAMFT residing in Virginia, I would like to ask you to please help change that situation. If you know of any organizations that may be interested in employing MFTs, please take a few minutes to have a quick conversation with someone in their personnel department. Notify them about the AAMFT Job Connection web site, and remind them of the rigorous AAMFT membership requirements. Then, invite them to post appropriate employment opportunities at http://www.aamft.org/jobconnection for free. If we each ask one organization to use the AAMFT Job Connection, it will become the employment resource we want for ourselves and for our future members!

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Politics and Families
by Scott Johnson, Ph.D.

In early December of 1999, the Associated Press reported that Mississippi Governor Kirk Fordice and his wife filed for divorce to end their 44 year marriage. Governor Fordice, the first Mississippi Republican chief executive in 118 years and a harsh critic of President Clinton's marital scandals, had this summer announced his intention to marry his childhood sweetheart as soon as he and his wife Pat were divorced.

When I ran across this story, I found myself contemplating recent efforts in the Virginia Legislature to enact a covenant marriage bill in a new light. Under the last legislative session's proposal by Delegate Robert McDonnell, covenant marriage would have been a new type of marriage in which a couple would specifically agree that their marriage was a lifelong compact, and divorce would be significantly more difficult than for ordinary marriages.

In those states that have adopted it, covenant marriage typically has as at least one of its aims enhancing the stability of marriages, and in this regard Delegate McDonnell's effort obviously targets a worthwhile goal. To help achieve this end, his bill employed a widely used resource for dealing with contemporary problems, mandated counseling, which would have been required both for those planning to enter or to end a covenant marriage. And while mandated counseling can be notoriously ineffective, it at least in theory has the potential to limit the number of people who feel they may have made or are making a mistake.

On the other hand, there are plenty of reasons to be concerned about an effort that would create what critics might see as a state-sanctioned, "holier-than-thou" category of marriage. And, in light of the Fordice story, the problem that struck me most was that covenant marriage bill might also be likely to increase the historical inequity between the access to divorce of the rich and powerful, and the typically far more limited freedoms of the rest of humanity.

The whole modern concept of divorce as we know it comes in part, of course, from the efforts of another head of state who wanted to have a new partner in an era when divorce was essentially prohibited. Though thousands of his 16th century subjects suffered through unhappy marriages in helplessness, Henry VIII simply declared himself ecclesiastical as well as temporal monarch, and in essence pronounced his divorce for himself.

In our own day, one imagines few circumspect politicians deliberating entering into a covenant marriage, knowing that they might one day have to explain their behavior to a curious electorate. Can one see Newt Gingrich, now twice divorced, who had divorce papers delivered to one about-to-be-dumped spouse as she recovered from cancer in a hospital bed, seriously pledging himself to the state's idea of marriage as a life-long commitment? Would marriage be ennobled because philanderers like Bill Clinton and his adulterous tormentor Henry Hyde had entered covenant marriages?

So who would be pledging in a state ceremony that marriage was a life-long union, and actually going to those counseling sessions when they wanted out? People, one suspects, of fewer connections and less means than their elected officials.

McDonnell's bill died last session and, while an aide reports he is still open to the idea, reintroducing it may not be at the top of his or any other legislator's priorities. But what then can governments that want to help stabilize marriage do that is more likely to be genuinely fair and effective than simply stratifying the types of marriages they recognize, almost, one might argue, in the way they classify felony charges? While it's worth another column, the quickest answers are not to put too great a faith in mandatory therapy - though it's my own profession - or into changing the words that couples pledge. One of the best things they can do is simply to work to lower unemployment - statistically a major factor in marital dissolution. Another would be to put significant funds into substance abuse treatment programs, which, as the Women's Christian Temperance Union crusaders of the 1800s knew, has always been a home-wrecker. More money in public education, which is tied to unemployment, would also be useful. Such actions may not have quite the cachet of other efforts - but they're likely to have better effect on people's relationships.

Scott Johnson, Ph.D., is Clinical Training Director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Ph.D. Program at Virginia Tech's Blacksburg campus, and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. He writes a regular column for the Capitol Connections newsletter.

Reprinted with permission from David Bailey &Associates from the Winter 2000 edition of Capitol Connections, a quarterly newsletter of Virginia Politics.

David Bailey &Associates
1001 East Broad Street, Suite 225
Richmond, Virginia 23219
804.643.5554 telephone

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Enclosed Survey of Clinical Members
from Anne Prouty, Past President

If you are a clinical member, a survey has been enclosed in your Newsletter. This is a survey about Virginia MFTs' practice patterns. You may remember that I did a similar survey in 1997. It is very important that we understand and track the changing practice patterns and the needs of the membership in the ever-changing mental health care landscape. We need to know how MFTs are practicing and what are their current needs. We need to know if Virginia's addition of the LMFT credential has made any changes to our practice and if so, how. We need to know if and how Virginia MFTs are working with third party payers. Lastly, we need to know how VAMFT and AAMFT can best help you and your practice needs.

This survey should only take about 10 minutes of your time. Make your best estimations whenever you are asked for specific information. All information will be kept confidential and be handled in accord with the AAMFT Code of Ethics. Your answers are anonymous. Please return the questionnaire in the enclosed self-addressed and stamped envelope. I thank each of you for your time. I know it is your most precious resource!!

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Notice of Elections

This serves as your 30 days notice of elections for the following new officers:

• President Elect
• Treasurer
• Eastern VP
• Southwestern VP
• the Elections Committee (Chair and three members)

All interested parties should contact a Board Member. A one paragraph biography should also be sent to the interim Elections Chair:

Dr. Wally Scott Interim Elections Chair Roanoke Family Services PO Box 6600 Roanoke, VA 24017

Election ballots will be sent out to the membership on January 29, 2001.
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