The AAMFT Blog

AAMFT Signs Two Letters to Congress with MHLG

AAMFT has signed two letters to Congress sent by the Mental Health Liaison Group, a coalition of over 60 national behavioral health associations, including AAMFT, that advocate for access to behavioral healthcare services.

The first letter to Congress urges legislation to require insurers to cover teletherapy services. Read the full letter here.

The second letter asks Congress to subsidize COBRA coverage for those who have lost their jobs so that healthcare coverage might continue. Read the full letter here: Download MHLG COBRA COVID 19 Letter 4.23.2020 FINAL

The Importance of a Google My Business Listing + How to Get One

This content is provided by Brighter Vision, an affinity partner of AAMFT. This information is not necessarily the views of AAMFT and should not be interpreted as official policy. 

A business listing on Google My Business is essentially the online equivalent of a business listing in the yellow pages. Its main purpose is to compliment your existing website by giving it a public identity/presence on Google so that potential customers can easily find you.

Here are a few more reasons why it pays to have a Google My Business listing:

• When a user searches for your business by name, your listing will prominently stand out on the top right-hand side of the search engine results page.
• When users perform a search from a mobile device, they instantly see all your details including your hours of operation, link to your website, and phone number & email address; both of which they can easily click on to contact you right away.
• Users will be able to easily find you on Google Maps; which is by far the most popular map app these days for people searching for directions to go somewhere. They will be able to click to get directions to you easily.
• You can easily manage your online reputation by responding to reviews and ratings. Fun fact: Reviews were one of the most prominent local SEO ranking factors in 2017 – view the full article at Search Engine Journal

Bipartisan Rural Healthcare Group Recommends Adding MFTs as Medicare Providers

Earlier today, the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Rural Health Care Task Force, which is made up of former Members of Congress and other health policy experts, issued a report on its policy recommendations to transform rural health care. One of its recommendations is for the inclusion of marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors as Medicare providers. The report can be found here.

This report contains many solid recommendations for improving health care in rural America. This task force recommends that Congress add LMFTs and LMHCs as Medicare providers by enacting into law the Mental Health Access Improvement Act (HR 945 / S 286), legislation that AAMFT is currently supporting. The report correctly states that adding MFTs and MHCs as Medicare providers does have cost, but that cost projections do not include long-term savings to Medicare by treating Medicare beneficiaries who need the services of MFTs or MHCs.

Founded by former leaders of the US Senate, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) is a distinguished think tank that is led by former Members of Congress, former senior congressional staff members, and other experts who combine ideas from both political parties to promote health, security and opportunity for Americans. The Rural Health Care Task Force was created last year by the BPC in order to research health challenges in rural America and make recommendations for consideration by Congress and other policymakers.

AAMFT has been following the progress of this task force from the beginning, as AAMFT staff attended the kick-off event for the task force, along with Hollyn Smith, an AAMFT member and Family TEAM leader who was in Washington DC to participate in the Family TEAM Capitol Hill visits last June. Hollyn Smith brought attention to the MFTs in Medicare issue during the event, and she shared her experience in an AAMFT Advocacy blog posting. After this kick-off, AAMFT wrote to the BPC staff and requested an opportunity to meet with them and discuss how adding MFTs as Medicare providers would help address the shortage of providers available to Seniors in rural locales. In July, AAMFT staff and lobbyist met with BPC staff, along with other representatives from the Medicare Mental Health Workforce Coalition, to discuss how adding MFTs and MHCs as providers to Medicare would help Rural America.

In August, the Rural Health Task Force requested comments and suggestions from interested parties on ideas to improve healthcare in rural areas. AAMFT submitted comments (view letter here: Download AAMFT ltr to BPC 2019.9.7) in September in response to this request.

AAMFT congratulates the Bipartisan Policy Center leadership and staff on its comprehensive recommendations to transform rural health care. We urge Congress to consider these recommendations.

Online Therapy with Children

Written by: Sarah Harris, LMFT-S, RPT, BC-TMH

There was a time when the thought of therapy was only associated with a client laying down on a sofa and a therapist sitting behind them with a clipboard in hand. Over time, that view of therapy has evolved. Especially in the last few years with the development of  TeleTherapy/Virtual Counseling/Online Therapy, which involves a video and audio online platform.

There are many articles which provide information about Online Therapy logistics such as which platform to use, lighting, etc. Today, I want to address specifically Child Therapy. There is much to say on this topic, and I have tried to narrow it down to some of the most common questions that I have been asked by other therapists and supervisees.

 

Beginning Teletherapy

Ask any Registered Play Therapist and they will probably tell you that when working with minors, it’s necessary to work with the parents at some point. This stays the same for online therapy. Keep parents involved in some way. Some ways that this can be done include:

• in session with the child as in Theraplay;
• at the beginning of the session;
• in a separate Parent session, maybe 1x or 2x a month.

I rarely meet with a caregiver at the end of the session, unless there is a concern that arose in the session. Then, after getting the child’s consent, I may bring the parent in for either the child or myself to share the info. The reason for this is that I don’t want the child to feel like I am reporting back to the parent what we just experienced in therapy. This lessens the trust and safety that the child feels in the therapeutic relationship.

11 Tips for Couples in Quarantine from Marriage and Family Therapists

Living through a global pandemic presents unprecedented situations that affect every aspect of daily life. For couples, spending nearly 24 hours a day together while trying to work from home, homeschool children, and keep up with basic needs is a challenge to maintaining our mental and emotional well-being, much less a healthy, thriving relationship.

At the core of marriage and family therapists’ philosophy is the principle that relationships matter. An MFT sees the intricate connectedness of the stresses from your environment to your relationships and can offer valuable insight on maintaining healthy relationships while under pressure.

Here are eleven tips for couples in quarantine from members of AAMFT’s Couples and Intimate Relationships Network. Many marriage and family therapists are offering telehealth and we encourage you to Find a Therapist if your relationship or family needs help. 

 

In this time of sheltering in place with loved ones, it is important to give one another the benefit of the doubt that each of you is doing the best in the current situation. Other crucial actions are doing acts of kindness towards one another as well as communicating about your appreciations and needs. Planning your schedules each day to help one another balance self-care, work, couples time, family time, teaching, and parenting will help you plan tag-teaming and manage stress.  Kathleen Shack, M.S., LMFT, Alpharetta, GA

 

I have enjoyed watching clients differentiate time together by asking each other “in” (instead of out). They create intentional time to do an activity that helps them join and bond.  Sometimes this includes something lighthearted such as a game, or a movie.  Other times it includes something a little more emotionally invested like a relationship check in.  Taking the time to make the time together different than time in the same space seems to have helped! Leslee Bry, LCMFT, Frederick, MD

 

Whether it's your family or your marriage, while quarantined, think of yourselves in a bunker with a common enemy swirling around outside. You're not at home doing nothing. You are home protecting yourself and your loved ones and adapting as best you can to a crisis. This is the most important thing you can do right now. Dr. Marni Feuerman, LCSW, LMFT, Boca Raton, FL

AAMFT Signs Letter of Support for Emergency Funding for Behavioral Health Organizations

AAMFT has signed onto a letter of support with over 40 other organizations urging Congress to provide billions in emergency funding to behavioral health organizations so that they can remain open and continue operating during this crisis.

Download the full letter here: Download COVI_4_BH_Approps_Request_4.7.20

Two State Successes During COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to many MFTs transitioning to telehealth-based practice in order to abide by the recommended social distancing preventative measure, or to abide by mandatory stay-at-home orders. Moving from in-person therapy to tele-therapy may have been easy for some MFTs, especially those that have already incorporated telehealth into their pre-pandemic routines. For some MFTs, the transition was much more difficult, particularly those in states that had barriers to practicing using telehealth. AAMFT is happy to announce two recent state successes, after recent intervention from AAMFT, dedicated state MFT leaders and other MFTs.

Kentucky

Under normal circumstances, the telehealth policies that were recently promulgated by the Kentucky Board of Marriage and Family Therapists would be hardly an issue. Effective January 2020, LMFTs would need to obtain 15 hours of telehealth training from a Board-approved source in order to use telehealth legally. This rule had also previously left out MFT associates, which meant that an MFT associate could not practice telehealth at all. To further complicate things, in order to practice tele-supervision, the supervisor had to complete the 15 hours of training. Again, under normal circumstances, an LMFT would have time to take the 15 hours of training, to schedule around it, and continue to see clients in-person to earn an income and continue care. Given the public health crisis, and the recommendation to socially distance, this rule presented as a cumbersome barrier that could have resulted in client abandonment and no way to earn an income while the economy is crashing.

AAMFT worked with other MFTs, and the AAMFT Kentucky Network, to have this rule changed. AAMFT wrote two letters and attended two separate licensing board meetings to advocate for this rule to be lifted during this state of emergency. During the first licensing board meeting, the board unanimously voted to allow MFT associates to practice using telehealth, but the Board Members reinforced the 15 hour training, and applied it to associates. While that change was helpful, AAMFT sought to have the 15 hour restriction completely lifted so that LMFTs and associates would not have to budget for an expensive training course during a public health crisis. It was during the second emergency-scheduled licensing board meeting that the 15 hour training requirement was finally lifted. All of the changes in Kentucky regarding telehealth during COVID-19 can be found in this Memo from the Board.

Alabama

Alabama MFTs faced very similar barriers: in order for a licensee to practice using telehealth, they must complete 15 hours of training on the topic. This rule also applied to associates; however, supervision presented as a major challenge in Alabama. Supervisors needed to take an additional 9 hours of training on the topic of tele-supervision if they wished to supervise virtually. Unfortunately, only two (2) supervisors in the entire state had taken the 9 hours of training to be able to tele-supervise, which would have left associates with very few options to practice virtually and properly socially-distanced.

The same reasoning behind lifting the 15 hour training in Kentucky applies to Alabama. AAMFT worked with other MFTs, and the Alabama Association for Marriage and Family Therapy to submit letters to the licensing board to urge them to lift the 15 hour requirement, as well as the restriction on tele-supervision. The Alabama Board of Examiners in Marriage and Family Therapy scheduled an emergency board meeting to address our concerns, and quickly voted to waive these requirements. Success! All of the details regarding telehealth during COVID-19 in Alabama can be found in this Memo. 

Support for the Therapist: Who Prepared Us for a Pandemic

Mental health professionals have a unique role in tending to the well-being of others. The client is central to our work: we are part of people’s most intimate stories, and it is our job to show up and be present for every client we treat. It sounds impressive, and…it is never entirely possible. Therapists themselves have personal lives and challenging issues to manage. How then, do we do this work in a way that keeps our clients’ interests and concerns front and center?

As marriage and family therapists (MFTs), we receive rigorous training on how to join, build an alliance, and engage in best practices when it comes to working with clients. We receive intense supervision in both group and individual settings. We graduate with at least 500 face-to-face clinic hours, 250 of them working with couples and families. We feel prepared…until we realize the limits imposed on us by something like a pandemic.

As COVID-19 unfolded around the globe, many of us wondered if it would hit us too. The initial understanding of how far this would reach was fuzzy. Once it descended upon us quickly, most of us had to pivot from in-person therapy to telehealth. For those with little to no telehealth experience, this transition feels daunting. It means that our work has to move to a different platform when connecting with clients. All the while, we have our personal lives to manage in a new way.

We are experiencing an unprecedented shift, and it is history in the making. Much change is anxious and scary. We are grieving at least the temporary disappearance of normalcy and managing different degrees of loss, but also working to preserve a sense of stability and continuity. Like our clients, our hands are chapped from sanitizers and soap. As therapists, we must show up prepared for our clients while managing our uncertainty. None of us took a course on how to handle a pandemic, but we did learn techniques that we can apply to ourselves during this time.

Here are some tips from a MFT perspective for all mental health professionals as they navigate their emotional well-being during this pandemic:

Engage in Strength-based Self-care: Remind yourself of the strengths you already possess. While we can be acute observers and advocates for our clients, we may find it hard to apply this to ourselves. Your self-care matters, now more than ever. Remind yourself of the strengths that have helped you face adversity in the past and apply them to the present.

Make Room for Uncomfortable Feelings: Give yourself permission to feel your feelings during this transitional time. No one gave anyone a guide to the 2020 Pandemic. We are learning as we go, all of us. We are human first and that means feelings happen to all of us. It is unlikely you would tell your client to dismiss his or her feelings about what is happening in the world at large. We are no different – we, too, must sit with uncomfortable feelings.

Tap into Acquired Resources: Fellow MFTs, our greatest resource during this time, is our ability to think systemically. We know that nothing happens in isolation. Anxiety is an appropriate response to uncertainty. Everyone is feeling it, and you are not the exception to the rule. Remember that you are not alone, and don’t be afraid to tap into the support systems available to you, including your professional association.

Seek Therapy: We need to make space for our feelings during this time. All mental health professionals know that when life is hard, we need to be in our own therapy. Seeking therapy for the therapist is a best-practices item that will help you cope better, while also ensuring that the client’s treatment remains protected from the potential pitfalls that can arise out of transference and counter-transference.

Engage in Professional Consultation: If you are not already part of a professional consultation group, you might find that now is a perfect time to start or join one. Seeking consultation from other mental health professionals helps us process our concerns more clearly. Seeking consult is another way of making sure you are taking care of yourself as well as your clients.

Lead from Self-Compassion: In times of uncertainty, we need to cast a wide net of compassion, particularly for ourselves. It is not easy to do this with a limited personal and professional bandwidth. You don’t need to be perfect. We are all balancing our negative thoughts with gratitude for what we do have. By being compassionate with yourself, you give yourself permission to be where you are and that is okay.