Dear Healing Arts Professional,
Welcome to The Colorado Association of Psychotherapists |
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CAP Legislative Update
Here is a brief summary of where we (CAP) are on our efforts with amending the statute or creating a rule to clarify paragraph 12 -43-222 (1) (i) to show that it is not to be interpreted as a categorical prohibition against all dual relationships.
CAP representatives attempted to convey our concerns over the dual relationship clause by attending meetings with the DoRA Grievance Board last September and December. Our efforts were met without cooperation or a willingness to work with CAP.
A violation of the Sunshine Act on public meetings was made by the GB holding a discussion of our proposal in "private" last September. We were totally unaware of this and had been mislead by DoRA staff (who has since resigned), so at the December Grievance Board meet, their response to our suggestions to clarify the aforementioned paragraph was a "no".
Because of the delay of the Grievance Board's response, we could not meet the deadline for regular introduction of bills via the normal legislative process and were put in a position of trying to gain "late bill status". A late bill status requires the House Majority Office to review all applications and requires that sponsors can assure that there will be no opposition and that the first committee votes for the bill are all in order.
We worked hard to get all the players on the mental health coalition to concur that they would support language clarifying that there should be no categorical prohibition. There was a sort of "conversion" process and there were some good minds that got opened to the issue, including the LPCs and the LMFTs. All the members of the Mental Health Coalition, but one, the psychologists (CPA) agreed that there is a problem (the Psycologists Licensing Board has a separate staff attorney and their board may be more open than the others). The CPA stated that they would oppose legislation as they saw no need.
Given that, Greg met with DoRA staff in early March with our lobbyist, Ellen Brilliant and DoRA's lobbyist, Richard Morales, the new program director for the mental health section, and Shelley Hitts, who supervises the actions of that section and the five boards.
We wanted to first see if DoRA would support any legislation. They apologized for how we were treated inappropriately last fall. Shelley said they could not commit to legislation but on the other hand they understood our issue and suggested that we could work with them to propose a rule change before each of the boards.
Since that meeting we have received a commitment from an attorney who has long history of representing psychotherapists to jointly draft a position paper on this issue and a proposed rule change that can be used in presentation to the different boards. He has also offered (pro bono) to make those presentations with us.
Meanwhile, Shelley asked that we submit to her commentary from CAP members of anecdotal stories of situations where a therapist might have entered into a professional relationship where a dual relationship would exist which might have been beneficial and where there would be no risk or impaired judgment, but where the therapist avoided offering their services due to a concern that the Mental Health Board would interpret the statute to be a categorical prohibition of such relationships. Greg is still receiving these letters from CAP members and will continue to submit them to Shelley.
One benefit from this is that CAP is "in process" of improving relationships with DoRA. They have definitely opened the door to us, have encouraged us to consider working with them and all the boards to introduce clarifying rules.
Please contact us with any questions or concerns about this process to clarify the Dual Relationship clause of the Mental Health Code.
Suzy Walz, CAP, Vice President
oohsusana@gmail.com
Greg McHugh, Legislative Chair
gregmchughcht@earthlink.net
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March 2008 President's Message
Dear Members and Friends:
As I write my letter of resignation to end my term as your President, I want to tell you how thankful I am for having had this opportunity. The experience of serving you as the President of the Colorado Association of Psychotherapists, has allowed me to grow in ways that strengthened my character and stretched my capacities. It allowed me to contribute to an organization that has been incredibly successful in its mission to create and protect the practice of non-licensed psychotherapy.
When CAP began in the early 1990s there were a large number of non-licensed therapists in practice and no restrictions except that you could not use the names of licensed practitioners (social worker, professional counselor, psychologist, etc.). There was some action from a few licensed practitioners to take this right to practice away. The state legislature decided to make it explicit that the non-licensed psychotherapists could practice and would work under the same law as licensed practitioners. Through CAP, non-licensed practitioners got organized and pooled resources to hire a lobbyist to assist in making sure that all revision to the mental health law included provisions that supported non-licensed psychotherapy.
CAP has grown steadily in strength over the years and has worked with the other professional groups (social workers, psychologists, etc.) to create a unified stand on maintaining the existing system of both licensed and non-licensed psychotherapy. Over time CAP's presence and influence in the state has grown and non-licensed psychotherapy is now firmly established in law. This work continues today and your dues pay CAP's lobbyist and maintain your right to practice. Through the work of Greg McHugh CCHT, (CAP's legislative aide) and Ellen Brilliant (CAP's lobbyist), CAP is "in process" of working with the new staff of DoRA and all the boards to introduce a clarifying rule to end the Dual Relationship problem. It will all turn out for the best!
It really has been a pleasure working for all of you. It really has been about you and wanting to contribute to making the world a better place. I consider you all esteemed colleagues and I am honored to have served you. The CAP Board, under the leadership of the new President Edward Robb CCHt. has excellent skills to ensure execution of your ideas. Please get involved. The more that you invest the greater the reward. I wish you all the very best going forward.
Many blessings,
President of the Colorado Association of Psychotherapists
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Greeting from the Incoming CAP President
Dear Friends and Colleagues,At the end of April, Zolita Grant will be retiring from the Presidency of CAP to pursue her new direction as a Hypnotic Coach. We have a great deal to thank her for. Under her guidance our membership grew dramatically, the balance sheet became solid, well-known speakers presented at our Fall workshops, and we made a significant impact in the Colorado Legislature with regard to our right to practice. Thank you, Zoilita, many times over!As therapists, we provide an incredibly important service to the public. When I say therapists, I mean all non-licensed therapists. CAP is here for all non-licensed therapists, whether you are an art therapist, hypnotherapist, Reiki practitioner, EFT practitioner, holistic counselor, Shaman, coach, or other non-licensed modality, we love and honor all of you, and want you in our family.As I take over as President, the work Zoilita began continues. Our right to practice is of the utmost importance to CAP and we will continue to be a voice in the Legislature for all non-licensed therapists. A good example is the current effort to resolve the conflicting language in the Colorado Mental Health Practice Act surrounding dual relationships. This has expanded into creating a better relationship with DORA, which benefits us all.It takes the efforts of many people to be a presence in the Legislature, to organize the various workshops and CAPstone meetings, and to provide the review class for the ethics test. We've begun planning for the Fall workshop, with more details to follow in the next few months. We are in need of someone to teach the ethics review class. We'd love to have your help with these, and more!I'm sure there are many ideas you have had over the years of things you'd like to see CAP do. The CAP Board would be excited to hear from you! And we always welcome each and every one of you to our Board meetings. I invite you to participate in whatever way you can to help make CAP the best professional therapist organization in Colorado. Together, we can bring Coloradans health, healing, and happiness in a safe, professional environment, and protect our right to do so.Take care. Ed Robb, CCHt.Incoming President
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The Importance and Value of Your Own Healing as a Therapist
Anyone who does this work of psychotherapy MUST also "take the waters." Only by doing your own work with a good therapist can you really come to experience the wonderful shifts in your life that take place when truly clearing issues which have been haunting your life. It is as if each clearing could be a spiritual initiation, an infusion of more Light and an elimination of old patterns of emotions and reflected engagement in relationships and with the world.
Let us say that it should be an academic requirement that all therapists must be committed to their own ongoing healing work while offering themselves to the world in their specialty area. If you are a past life therapist or an NLP or EMDR therapist and do several Regression Therapy or NLP sessions of your own, you begin to understand, through experience, the subtle nuances and wondrous shifts in perception that are so common to the experience of these modalities, which your clients will be experiencing. You begin to realize the trance(s) you have been in around various thematic areas , such as judgment of others, fear, guilt, panic, sense of worth, identity with your projections; emersion into the movies of the projections that were based on unhealed memories.
The more you address your own issues through the effective tools which you use in your practice, the more you find yourself being clearer and much wiser, wiser with the kind of understanding that when a client is complaining about an experience pattern in her life or pointing to her partner as the problem in her life, you recognize that she is unconscious of the cause. She is unconscious of how she is acting out a theme driven from the subconscious. You understand her process and already sense at least one direction for the healing work.
Things are not as they seem. Become wholly responsible for your life's patterns and experience and take charge of each issue with all the spiritual tools and metaphysical tools and self therapy tools at your disposal. This will lead you to greater natural sight and functioning from the Self and greater effectiveness with your clients. Your clients will seem blessed by their work with you. Soon you will realize this work is something much more than healing, much more than "therapy."
Eventually, given the addition of certain other tools to your repertoire, you will find that there are some tools you can do your own healing work with. Each time you do, you will be reminded of the gift and truth of your healing protocols AND be thankful.
Greg McHugh, CAP Board Member
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