Professional Organizations, Couples Therapy, and the DSM-5

Wow, what a three days I have had!  This weekend and today, I have immersed myself in a different professional activity each day, and each has been completely invigorating in its own way.  I've learned so much, and am so enthusiastic for the future of my career and my profession, and I want to share these experiences with you.

I started my weekend with the Massachusetts Mental Health Counselors Association's annual planning meeting.  I've been wanting to get involved in MAMHCA for quite some time, so when I was invited to attend this meeting, I leaped at the opportunity!  What I learned is that the people who are involved in MAMHCA are an eclectic mix of enthusiastic, young clinicians and more experienced, seasoned, older professionals.  I was very impressed by the strengths each of these groups brought to the table, and how everyone worked together so well.

The meeting focused on a lot of different subjects, including membership, networking, scholarships and awards, and advocacy, as well as administrative matters like solidifying an annual budget for the organization.  I was nervous when I got there, wondering if I had anything to offer these experienced people who are so actively involved, but I quickly felt embraced and comfortable enough to bring up some thoughts I have about the importance of networking among counselors and mental health professionals on a whole.  I was asked to be the secretary on their Board of Directors, and may also be taking charge of an additional project with other members.

Sunday evening, I attended a networking event through the Massachusetts Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (MAMFT).  I felt like a bit of an interloper, since I'm not a Marriage and Family Therapist - I'm a Mental Health Counselor (though my educational background is as an MFT since that's the license that is most regularly granted in California where I went to grad school)... but I was readily accepted by them and met a number of wonderful people.  The group was very emphatic that they are the Massachusetts Association of Marriage and Family Therapy, not Marriage and Family Therapists, and that having an interest in a systemic perspective and in working with couples is sufficient to partake in the event and the organization.  I met a number of people with shared professional and personal interests, and had the privilege to sit in on a member's introductory overview of Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples - a topic that is so rich and fascinating that I will be posting a separate blog entry about it in the next few days.

And today I went to a workshop about the DSM-5.  For those of you who are not familiar with the DSM, it stands for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, it's a publication of the American Psychiatric Association, and it is the Big Book of Diagnosis for mental health professionals of all disciplines.  Currently, we are using the DSM-IV-TR, but the next edition is coming out in May 2013 and everyone is anxious to know how the way we do diagnosis will change. 

I have some very mixed feelings about the upcoming changes.  I'll post more fully about this later, because I think it's an important subject that therapy clients as well as therapists would benefit from learning about.  (After all, if someone is diagnosing you with something, don't you want to know what it means?)  But as a teaser, I'm pleased with some of the changes made in areas of addiction, mood disorders, and transgender issues.  I'm very upset at the elimination of Asperger's Disorder.  And I can't quite wrap my head around the new diagnosis guidelines for Personality Disorders.  Ok, now I'm disintegrating into genuine psychobabble, and I think I need to save the rest of this issue for its own post at some later date. 

But the point is that I don't think I've had such a great professional development weekend since my last 3-day annual conference a few years ago... and I hope for many more to follow.