It’s that time of year again, to glance into the rearview mirror at what lies behind and to look to what lies ahead. As you look in the rearview mirror of your past year, what do you see? We’ve all been enduring a worldwide pandemic—that is still ongoing—and it has shaped each of us, our systems, our lives, our worldview. What do you see there, looking back over the last few years? Now, face forward. When you look ahead, across the horizon for the year(s) before you, what do you envision? Will the world reset itself? Will humans reach deep into their best selves and shape the environments around them for good? Are you a part of that? Systems, like cells, are shaped by their environments. You and I and everyone around us wherever our geographical or social location finds us, have been and are being shaped by our environments. Are we paying attention to what this means for us as humans, as families, as an Association, as communities across the planet?
The view behind and before is the process that the AAMFT Board of Directors engages with throughout our work. Informed by our history, envisioning our vibrant future; considering the meta and micro, we chart a course for our future. In 2021, your board worked diligently in areas of Strategic Planning, DEI implementation and integration throughout governance units across the full Association, overseeing decisions for the future work environment(s) necessary for a changed workplace, and striving to ensure that AAMFT is the best it can possibly be.
Cells are shaped by their environments, as I noted earlier, yet the reverse may also highlight why we belong to this Association: we understand as systemic thinkers, that systems shape environment(s). One of my favorite quotes is from 2001 Nobel Peace Prize recipient and UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan: “If tolerance, respect, and equity permeate family life, they will translate into values that shape societies, nations, and the world.” I love this statement because for me, it sums up the power of systemic thinking and interventions. In a classroom, at a workshop, or even quietly in a room with an individual, a couple, a family, or a workgroup, we are inviting the consideration of Other—their experience, their stories, their rightful due dignity; families shaping the greater systems around them.
One of the ways various systems have been impacted over the past years—and perhaps you’ve heard it voiced yourself—is regarding capacity. Many people are speaking of the edges of their capacities, their humble limitations to being overwhelmed with nearly two years of continual change and loss. This is especially critical when one considers that we are in the early storm-surge of a mental health tsunami fast approaching. What do we need amid this limitation of capacity as we glance at that proverbial rearview mirror and look ahead to our future?
Ironically, this takes me to service. Giving to others, using different parts of ourselves to serve in a different manner, can be the very wellspring of lifegiving in difficult times. As part of a helping profession, it may be challenging to think of serving in any other manner than the high demand arena in which you are already working. And yet, we may encourage depressed or anxious clients to consider serving at a soup kitchen, assist at a food bank, or lend a hand to someone else. We do this because serving others puts into perspective what we have, who we are; we do this to help those with illness that demands their self-focus to survive, to simply focus on others instead.
What about us? What about systemic thinkers and clinicians who are already feeling overwhelmed and the edges of their capacities? Can service be lifegiving? What about service right within our own Association, alongside other dedicated members?
AAMFT has many arenas in which service is possible: Geographical Interest Networks, Topical Interest Networks, Leadership Mentoring, the Family Team, COAMFTE, the AAMFT Elections Council and the AAMFT Board of Directors. Dedicated stewards of the Association and faithful members are always welcome and needed across all these areas. Yet you may be thinking you are at your own personal capacity. I will openly share that serving as President during the first worldwide pandemic in over 100 years was never my envisioned future! Yet even amid all that has been transpiring—including social justice issues that defy Annan’s quote—serving amongst other members has been and is lifegiving.
The year 2022 lies before us with unknown challenges and possibilities. Our Association is strong and healthy. Medicare inclusion is the closest it’s ever been. MFTs are doing tremendous good throughout the world. We have hopes for seeing one another face-to-face in the future; we have access to one another through virtual means that is affordable and inclusive. Perhaps it is time for you, the reader, to consider if service in AAMFT might expand your capacities and give life to you even during all that is transpiring. Perhaps this is the year to step up.
I see that our Association—that protects and promotes the profession and the practice of marriage and family therapy—brings positive change to communities across the globe by ensuring the ability for us to have the professions and practices we engage in every day. Service in the Association may be what grants you more capacity; you, too, may find it lifegiving.
In closing, I leave you with another applicable Kofi Annon quote that for me speaks to the reason to serve and support: “To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.”
Happy 2022, my fellow AAMFT Members!
References
Kofi Annan quotes. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://quotefancy.com/kofi-annan-quotes