ABOUT WAMFT

The Washington Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (WAMFT) is an active Independent Affiliate of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT). Through successful engagement of its members, WAMFT offers cutting edge educational events and networking opportunities, protects and advances the profession of marriage and family therapy through strong advocacy efforts within Washington state, and prioritizes its students and emerging professionals with training, scholarship, and mentoring opportunities.

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LETTER FROM PRESIDENT

Jennifer Sampson PhD LMFT

January 2020

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Our board of directors kicked off the new decade with a two-day strategic planning retreat (January 4th and 5th). Over the past few years of transition and re-organization, the WAMFT board has not had an opportunity to engage with one another in a retreat format, so this meeting of the minds was long overdue. 

A board retreat offers intensive and focused time with one another, which allowed us to connect with one another as fellow board members and with our organization’s mission in a way that our monthly meetings often times do not permit. With our extended weekend together, the board was able to spend time team-building, on-boarding our new members, and setting a strategic plan and vision as we head into 2020 and beyond. 

We spent a considerable amount of our energy at the retreat crafting a vision statement, tagline, and values for WAMFT. We even updated our mission statement to be clearer and more supportive of our work’s focus. We believe that these changes will allow for clarity and direction for our current and future boards of directors as we steer our organization forward.​

Here are the statements established in our retreat that will help guide and dictate the work that we do over the upcoming years.

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Our board decided that our main strategic focus in 2020 is turning a substantial amount of our energy toward building, maintaining, and supporting our membership. We plan to do this in a variety of ways, including:

1. Adding more discounted educational training in a variety of formats (e.g. in-person, webinars) for members throughout the year

2. Hosting town halls in order to increase feedback about the needs of our membership (e.g. geographical location, membership category, employment setting, etc) 

3. Launching a new, more functional website that will serve as a reliable and useful working resource for members

4. Increasing social media engagement, allowing for community building and networking between members online

5. Extending our geographical reach to different areas of the state in the form of networking events and training, including but not limited to Eastern and Central Washington and the Kitsap Peninsula

6. Expanding scholarship opportunities for emerging leaders and professionals in our membership

7. Engaging members in active ways to support state advocacy work.

The board of directors left our retreat feeling motivated and enthusiastic about the work we have ahead of us this year. We hope that you are as excited as we are about promoting the field of marriage and therapy and creating an even more cohesive and supportive community of MFTs across Washington state.

On behalf of the board, I wish you a very happy new year. Please do not hesitate to reach out and connect with any of us throughout 2020. We are here to serve you.

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Onward,

Jennifer Sampson, PhD LMFT

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STAFF & BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Amira Whitehill

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Secretary

Michele Sullivan

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Treasurer

Anthony Pennant

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At-Large Board Member

Kathy Opie

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Pre-Clincial Board Member

Brianna "Breezy" Tottenhoff

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Student Board Member

Theresa Winther

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At-Large Board Member

Charity Laughlin

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At-Large Board Member

Billie Tyler

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At-Large Board Member

AAMFT & OUR RELATIONSHIP

The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) is the professional association for the field of marriage and family therapy. AAMFT represents the professional interests of more than 50,000 marriage and family therapists throughout the United States, Canada and abroad.

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Since its founding in 1942, AAMFT has been involved with the problems, needs and changing patterns of couples and family relationships. The association leads the way to increasing understanding, research and education in the field of marriage and family therapy, and ensuring that the public’s needs are met by trained practitioners. AAMFT provides individuals with the tools and resources they need to succeed as MFTs.

WAMFT is an engagement program of AAMFT, currently structured as a geographic independent affiliate. Our name is the Washington Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (WAMFT).  To learn more about what it means for WAMFT to be a geographic independent affiliate of AAMFT, please visit Membership FAQs.

WAMFT receives funding from AAMFT to support our advocacy work.  Based on the political landscape, emerging opportunities, and other related factors, AAMFT has approved foundational funding for WAMFT to be applied toward our lobbying efforts for 2019 and 2020, particularly related to the development of license portability laws. WAMFT is thrilled to have the backing of AAMFT as our national organization to continue the work we have been doing through our legislative committee.

OUR HISTORY