Barbara Young
Candidate Statement

Thank you for nominating and considering me for the position of Secretary on the CAMFT Board of Directors. I like to be part of the solution wherever I go. I have served on the Board for the last 18 months and have significantly increased my knowledge of all things CAMFT—our membership, the staff, our initiatives, our communication, continuing education, our advocacy, and more. CAMFT does a tremendous amount of work and I have showed up in my role as a board member to the best of my capacity, listening deeply, learning humbly, speaking truthfully, and thinking strategically.  

I love being a part of this active CAMFT board—leading decision-making related to the state of the profession and the will of our membership.  I have skills in strategic planning and execution, as well as connecting our profession to advocacy. I think that I effectively put those skills to use for this organization, which has great value, and significant ability to make change.  I would like to continue to support my fellow MFTs as I have felt supported so many times in my own journey as a practitioner.

In my daily life, I work in private practice since I was licensed in 2009.  I treat couples, individuals, and families ages 13 and up.  I work and live in Healdsburg, and am deeply invested in the community here as a business owner, mother, resident, and healer. My work focuses on helping people identify and reduce trauma symptoms, and address the ways in which people have adjusted their personalities because of these difficult experiences.  My passion is to reduce shame and create a healing space where people can stop painful cycles, as well as patterns of withdrawal, fear, and disassociation. 

As for CAMFT, I think that our work to hone and revise our new strategic initiatives will provide us a clear roadmap to seek the changes we are making, and I would like to continue on the board to see that through. Within five years, I hope that we can  significantly increase the flow of students into our profession, and have identified and are undertaking cost-effective ways to increase the recognition of our title, and that we have made significant progress toward a national exam.  I see us growing our capacities to identify and problem solve around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion within the organization and membership, as well as for our profession and clients.  Furthermore I would like our work with the BBS to be strategic, agile and effective. Lastly, I support us identifying new revenue streams, particularly related to tech, in order to keep our work robust in the future.

Thank you again for taking the time to consider my candidacy.  For more information, you can visit my website www.barbarayoungmft.com.

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