Washing Away Dated Policies

Personal disclosure: As I attempt to draft my column, we have canceled the Leadership Symposium, canceled an in-person Board meeting and transitioned to a virtual Board meeting, transitioned all operations to remote locations…actions I couldn’t have concieved of a few weeks ago yet nothing more or less than everyone else is doing right now. My conundrum is what type of column should I write? A seemingly tone deaf column that simply stays focused on business as usual? Or, a column with more COVID-19 information that everyone is already inundated with and will be outdated by publication? Or, a piece that is more about all the examples of general systems theory playing out before us? Honestly, I don’t know. Therefore, I apologize now for any offense this column may invoke. TT

Any perturbation to routines tests our comfort, knowledge, skills, and experience. For me, a flat tire tests my ability to find my insurance card, locate the roadside assistance number, call that number and wait for a tow truck to find me and change the tire. For others, a flat tire might test their ability to jack the car up, remove a tire, and secure a new tire well enough to be confident when driving away.

Minor disruptions might make us change our ways, or at least ponder doing so. I have thought, “I really should change the tire myself” but that thought doesn’t last too long—too minor of an annoyance only occupying seconds worth of brainpower. Now, let’s travel to the other end of the perturbation continuum—COVID-19— and its altering impact on our world—occupying much more than a few seconds of brain space. As I have hopefully “settled” into a new, temporary, normal, I find myself reflecting on my new way of being and the takeaways that can be garnered from it.

While we were reminded that washing our hands—literally—was good for ourselves and our communities, I have also been reflecting on how washing our hands—metaphorically—may also be just as good for us. Our new reality has washed away, at least temporarily, many of the practices and beliefs of our daily lives that we likely couldn’t have imagined changing just a few short weeks ago:

• The necessity of in-person physical meetings
• The belief that it is impossible to engage in relationship building via virtual formats
• Reliance on brick and mortar schools for learning to occur
• Online therapy “isn’t for me” mentality

Although it took a crisis for many of these firmly held beliefs to be washed away, the transition from scrubbing them to embracing and executing new ideas and strategies was swift. Rapid change needed to happen to stem adverse conditions from expanding.

While nowhere near the critical nature currently challenging society, AAMFT is needing to wash away some dated practices and policies. While it may seem tone deaf to segue into something as specific as our bylaws changes, as a CEO I recognize now, more than ever, that AAMFT needs to adapt and exist in the future to advocate for our profession. We are all connected, regardless of geographic location.

While social distancing is good for containment of viruses, it is not an optimal strategy for therapists who have dedicated their professional lives to helping others from a systemic perspective. It was not that long ago that an English cyberneticist (Gregory Bateson), American psychologist (Milton H. Erickson), Italian psychiatrist (Mara Selvini Palazzoli), social worker (Emily Mudd), psychiatrist (Don Jackson), chemical engineer (John Weakland) and an Austrian American (Paul Watzlawick) were shaping the theory and techniques of systemic family therapy. These founders and major contributors to our profession would not be allowed to be members today. AAMFT must endeavor to close the membership gap between US therapists and systemic therapists from the rest of the world. Diversity adds richness in skills, knowledge and experience.

While social distancing is good for containment of viruses, it is not an optimal strategy for therapists who have dedicated their professional lives to helping others from a systemic perspective.

This summer, the AAMFT Board of Directors is asking members to support very important bylaws changes. These changes can be placed into three categories:

• Simplifying the AAMFT membership categories to Student and Professional member and moving the Clinical Fellow status into a designation. While those licensed in the U.S. would continue to automatically qualify for Clinical Fellow status, the change would allow for AAMFT to embrace more inclusivity to welcome members passionate about systemic therapy, regardless of when in their careers they discovered that love or whether they are licensed or not. The change will also allow us to de-couple the Clinical Fellow thereby shielding AAMFT from influences by state licensing boards that we might have little influence. De-coupling does not mean that AAMFT is giving up on fighting for licensure parity. On the contrary, the AAMFT Board recently approved a model license portability model that AAMFT will work diligently toward. Another example, AAMFT was recently able to assist the Indiana AAMFT affiliate through funding from the Practice Protection Fund, to tally up some very important legislative success. Read more here.
• Continuing to support the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education operating as a semi-autonomous component of AAMFT by changing the bylaws to providing the Commission the ability to determine the best composition needed to conduct its work, rather than mandating that makeup as a part of the AAMFT bylaws. This change allows the Commission to act nimbly to meet the changing business needs of supporting the training programs.
• Similarly, the final change is a recommendation to separate the decision making authority to leave member-impactful decisions with the members and to shift business and corporate related decision making to the elected members on the Board supporting a more nimble structure that allows AAMFT to operate at maximum efficiency.

Richness in membership and the ability to respond quickly are imperative for AAMFT operations. This crisis has shown how quickly AAMFT often needs to respond. Members as well as non-member systemic therapists, relying on AAMFT to advance the practice and profession, should have confidence that AAMFT can act responsibly and nimbly when necessary—and not need another elections cycle to be implemented.

This summer, the AAMFT Board of Directors, as elected members of the Association, will be seeking your support to better position AAMFT to be more inclusive, nimble, and welcoming of others to THE professional home of systemic family therapists. I hope you will show your support and commitment by voting yes.

Personal Note

Many of you have likely seen my messages sharing resources around COVID-19  (aamft.org/coronavirus). Witnessing the efforts of our members fills me with pride. AAMFT members have made incredible efforts to adapt and continue to serve individuals, couples and families. Our interest networks have stepped up to offer guidance and consultation on state regulations, best practices, and more as well as shift their programing to vital online CEs and offer ways for members to continue to engage with one another; members have quickly pitched in to develop critical resources for the current circumstances; AAMFT affinity partners have stepped up to assist members during this crisis; AAMFT staff are working with a variety of coalitions at the federal and state level, as well as with insurance companies, to seek temporary removals of barriers for our members eager to use telehealth; and the AAMFT Board of Directors has been diligently working on initiatives such as updating the Strategic Plan as well as having hard conversations about programming and fiscal responsibilities.

Please stay healthy and during this time of challenged connections and do what you can to foster healthy relations because, as we all know, relationships matter.

With sincere appreciation and pride,
Tracy Todd