The economy is causing many of our clients great psychological stress. Although the immediate future may look grim, this is a particularly exciting time to be a psychotherapist. The proliferation of new research in such areas as attachment and the neurosciences means that we are in a much better position to help clients deal with the stresses and concerns now facing them.

Several years ago, I was spending some days and nights fasting alone in the wilderness as I often do to mark a transition, celebrate an important event or simply to reconnect. I spent many hours on a large rock in the middle of the Sespe River in Los Padres National Forest. I was situated in a quiet spot where the water flowed gently downstream. On the side of an adjacent rock I noticed the carcass of a creature I did not recognize. I had seen these carcasses before and often wondered to whom they belonged.

In the early days of my role as a Presbyterian minister I did a lot of Pastoral Counseling. The more I did this the more I wanted to know and understand about psychology. I read widely but quickly realized that there were two main points of view: first, the traditional, theologically based view that attempted to explain all experiences and treatments in terms of accepted and approved biblical and theological dogma; second, was the variety of psychological schools that tended to reduce religious perspectives to fantasy and wish-fulfillment. It was when I was introduced to C.G. Jung’s work that I finally found a point of view that respected the “religious” experience as a psychological reality that was rooted in each person’s experience.

For the past 15 years, The Glendon Association in Santa Barbara has been a strong advocate for suicide prevention, bringing this important public health concern to the attention of our community. In order to shed light on this often feared and neglected issue, Glendon began hosting free public education forums in 1994; the next forum in Santa Barbara forum will be held on October 8.

CALM (Child Abuse Listening and Mediation) has offered the therapeutic groups for AMAC (Adults Molested as Children) for 33 years. Having said that, I believe many Santa Barbara therapists are unaware of these extremely effective groups that can supplement and enhance their work with their own clients dealing with childhood sexual abuse issues.

When the Creating Community Pathways met on Sunday, April 26 at Anny Eastwood�s to finalize plans for our second Town Hall Gathering on Saturday June 6, little did we know that yet another fire would challenge us in a very personal as well as communal way.

I first heard about the Consumer Advocacy Coalition (CAC) after reading an article by Margaret Stadler in the The Independent (December 11, 2008, “New Mental Health Coalition Forges Bonds”). From the article I learned that CAC was a fledgling non-profit with a grassroots approach to raising public awareness about mental health and a mission to reduce stigmas about mental illness.

For the past two years, I have found fulfillment in reaching out to our houseless Santa Barbara friends. Though I felt I was giving to others as an MFT since 1976, there was something more I wanted to offer. Loving the homeless fills a missing piece in my life. It’s different than anything else, and I know this is what I am called to do.

It is estimated that as many as one in five children and adolescents has an identifiable mental health disorder that requires treatment. It is critical for parents, caregivers and adults to understand the warning signs of a mental health disorder so that they might intervene before teens end up in situations where they hurt themselves or others.

In the past one hundred years, psychotherapists have u n d e r s t o o d relationships in terms to transference. At the Metta Institute in Sausalito, Angeles Arrian presents a variation on transference that she refers to as �the mirror.�

There is so much to read about same-sex marriage in the mainstream press these days. I read most of it. It is of direct interest to me, as I was married on June 21, 2008, at last, to my female partner of 19 years.

Autobiographical introduction to the new members of CAMFT for 2010l.