Welcome!

CAMFT is the Colorado division of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), we are a leader in providing Colorado families with safe places to grow and develop because every family, couple and individual has the skills and tools needed to meet challenges and strengthen relationships.

Colorado Association for Marriage and Family

Current Events

The CAMFT Annual Conference will be held on Friday, September 25th from 8am until 4pm and will feature speaker and author Michele Weiner-Davis speaking about “One Foot Out The Door”.  This event will also include CEU’s, lunch and Vendors.   The location will be the Denver First Church of the Nazarene, 3800 E Hampden Avenue, Englewood CO 80111 (next door to First Plymouth Church).

 

One Foot Out the Door

Michele Weiner-Davis, MSW, LCSW

Couples seek therapy for assistance in making the most important decision of their lives - whether or not to divorce. Given the current research on the benefits of staying married and keeping families together, it behooves therapists and counselors to be skilled in techniques that can bring together two distant and warring spouses before choosing divorce as a viable option. This can be incredibly challenging, particularly when one spouse has lost interest in working on the marriage. However, there is much that can be done to stack the deck in the favor of the marriage, even in these “last ditch” marriages.

This workshop offers practical strategies for helping couples move beyond blame, infidelity, a lack of forgiveness, ambivalence, and self-righteousness.  It draws on Solution-Oriented Brief Therapy, a strength-based model, as well as cutting-edge research on marriage education, which is aimed at teaching couples concrete relationship skills.  Additionally, since even the most effective techniques in the world cannot break through walls of resistance when people’s hearts are closed, Michele Weiner-Davis will offer attendees effective tools for doing “open heart surgery.”  After years of specializing in work with “couples on the edge,”  Michele has learned how to reach inside the hearts of even the most distant spouse and motivate him or her to give the marriage another try.  Her model is designed to be effective even if only one spouse attends the session.

Please join us….Stay tuned for more details!

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Who are Marriage and Family Therapists?

Marriage and Family Therapists are mental health professional with a minimum of a Master’s degree and two years supervised clinical experience. Marriage and Family Therapy is on e of the core mental health disciplines and is based on the research and theory that mental illness and family problems are best treated in a family context.

How do MFTs work?
MFTs pioneered brief, solution-focused, family-centered treatment. They work to understand the problem as it exists now, and focus on solutions or actions which might help to resolve the problem. They may typically ask questions about family roles patterns, rules, goals, and stages of development. A family’s patterns may influence an individual’s health condition or problem, are usually affected by the disorder, and therefore need to be a part of the treatment plan. The unit of treatment is no longer the person - even if only a single person is interviewed - it is the set of relationships in which the person is embedded.

Marriage and family therapy is one of the fastest growing mental health disciplines.
Marriage and family therapy’s prominence in the mental health field has increased due to its brief, solution-focused treatment, its family-centered approach, and its demonstrated effectiveness. MFTs are licensed or certified in 46 states and are recognized by the federal government as members of a distinct mental health discipline.

Today, more than 50,000 MFTs treat individuals, couples and families nationwide. And Membership in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) has grown from 237 members in 1960 to 9,000 in 1982 to more than 23,000 in 2000. This growth is a result, in part, of renewed public awareness of the value of family life and concern about the increased stresses on families in a rapidly changing world.

img_5539_sm.jpgWashington 2008img_5545_md.jpgimg_5547_md.jpgAlso, here are new pictures of Lisa Thomas & Wendy Leu Lobbying on your behalf in Washington, DC taken on April 4th, 2008.  We met with the offices of Senator Wayne Allard, Senator Diana Degette and Senator Ken Salazar.  The topics of discussion were MFT’s and gaining access to Medicare and MFT’s in Schools through No Child Left Behind.  We appreciate being able to go and speak to our Colorado Representatives on your behalf.