Following the 1994 Northridge Earthquake I felt compelled to try and assist the thousands of people whose lives were devastated by the impact of the quake. I went to the local chapter of the American Red Cross (ARC) to volunteer, but since I did not have the proper disaster mental health training, I was quickly taught basic ARC protocol and assigned to provide service in the local shelter distributing blankets, water, and other basic necessities. I felt a deep personal satisfaction serving others in need.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, ARC asked for Disaster Mental Health volunteers. Many members from San Fernando Valley CAMFT chapter wanted to help, but we lacked the applicable training to provide the mental health support we desired to give and that was so desperately needed. Having been professionally unprepared for two disaster events, it became my mission to help educate, organize and prepare our chapter in Disaster Mental Health. I was privileged to participate in developing our CAMFT Crisis Response Network that sponsored courses such as ICISF Critical Incident Stress Management, ARC Foundations of Disaster Mental Health, ARC Psychological First Aid, CAMFT Eye of the Storm and Psychological Effects of Terrorism. I personally obtained additional training from the Grief Institute and the Trauma Resource Institute. I also gained a unique perspective working on the trauma team in a hospital Emergency Room/Level 2 Trauma Center.

The CAMFT Crisis Response Education and Resource Committee provides our members with training, information, and opportunities in disaster mental health and crisis response. I would like to see our Committee offer more about building resiliency skills and understanding cultural differences and how they impact communities as well as using other protocols that have been effective in crisis response and disaster mental health.

I first served in the emerging field of disaster mental health after the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989. My colleagues and I worked with the pre-quake homeless and the newly homeless and delivered an all day workshop for fellow therapists. The people of Santa Cruz were especially grateful for the services we delivered to their community. After returning home to Los Angeles, I became active in my local American Red Cross Chapter, both as a responder and as an instructor. In recent years I have been serving with The Salvation Army. One of my great and continuing pleasures is teaching disaster mental health topics for new and experienced therapists.

My real passion is working in the field – delivering direct services to survivors and responders. Often it is the little moments that are the most rewarding, e.g., seeing the look of joy on a young child’s face when arriving with ice cream- as they help their parents sift through the debris of what used to be their home. The many similar and countless little moments like this have kept me engaged in disaster mental health.

The opportunity to work on a team with colleagues has been particularly fulfilling whether we were working on the pile in lower Manhattan after the attacks of September 11th, delivering crisis response services to NASA flight personnel at the Dryden Space Center for the Columbia Space Shuttle tragedy, or providing emotional support to survivors and volunteers in Joplin, Missouri that was struck by a devastating tornado. The opportunities to serve both locally and nationally are great. Disaster mental health responders can find themselves assisting children, adults and elderly survivors, emergency responders, medical personnel, and fellow disaster workers. The CAMFT Crisis Response Education and Resource Committee heartily invites our colleagues to become trained and volunteer to serve.

I grew up in the country and self-reliance is a staple of country life. Being in California taught me to be prepared for the next big earthquake. Over the years I have always been interested in crisis response, whether in a business sense, or in a hands-on, car accident, kind of way. My car is always prepared with basic supplies and at home I have the earthquake prep kit ready. A sweet man I grew up knowing as "uncle Mark" was in the military and was a driving force in me becoming a therapist. He brought PTSD into my vernacular at a young age and started my curiosity about how people recover from major events. He also served in a disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) for some of this country's larger crises, including Hurricane Katrina at the Superdome.

After becoming a therapist I felt a duty to serve my community during any crisis, but I knew that I needed to be trained. That is where CAMFT and the Crisis Response and Education Committee came into the picture for me. I have learned so much and I am grateful for the opportunity to help increase access to this information. Please take the time to know the basics of crisis response, and if so inclined, join me on the journey to become a first responder for mental health.

My interest and focus on crisis and trauma work began at the beginning of my career as a therapist. I learned and utilized the original crisis intervention skills developed after the disastrous Coconut Grove nightclub fire at the clinic where I was employed. After the Northridge earthquake I was among the first clinicians hired by Los Angeles Unified Schools and trained in a model that was similar to CISM and Psychological First Aid. We did mass debriefings with faculty, staff and students that was very helpful in getting the schools functioning. I then had the good fortune to be retained on the "crisis team" at the school that was most damaged for an additional 11 years dealing with other crisis and traumatic issues such as student deaths, suicides, shootings, "911," "debriefing the Debriefers," and facilitated a girls incest survivors group. I also earned advanced certification from ICISF and as part of my private practice do private contract work where I am sent to companies where there have been events such as a robbery or employee death.

While my continued fascination is with the richness of depth psychotherapy (especially in cases of developmental trauma) and the change it can bring about, I feel equally privileged to do CISM and Psychological First Aid. Disasters and other traumatic events tend to evoke an irrational sense of shame which is dangerously isolating for the victim(s). But the skills we have can help victims realize their strengths, reduce their isolation, realize their survival skills, quickly return to functioning, and gain a new identity of "survivor." I also enjoy the sense of community when I work with other clinicians. Additionally, I have a specific interest in the additional focus for clinicians to engage in "debriefing the debrifers" sessions to mitigate compassion fatigue.

I have had the privilege of being a disaster response clinician for nearly 30 years. Since that terrible time of the San Ysidro massacre, where many of my colleagues were newly introduced into the Mitchell Model and trained in response, locally by Dr Mantell, I have been fascinated with what can be done to understand the human response to trauma and help script a potentially healing narrative from the chaos.

Like many of my colleagues in the Trauma and Disaster response field, I am drawn by the intense and often humanely personal contact with survivors as they make new meaning or reorder their new-normal, post-disaster. I have had unique opportunities to meet people all over the County, State, Country and globe at a crisis point; remembering the Chinese character for "crisis" is the combination of danger and opportunity.

I have gained from the experience and brilliance of many experts in the field as well as having grown into my own over the years. I have worked with combat veterans, first responders, sexual assault survivors, as well as the masses affected by hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, disease, famine and earthquakes.

I am committed to the ideal that the best revenge is a good and full life...as I work together with those touched by the man-made wages of war and oppression. I have had the opportunity to serve a year with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Central Asia, year recently and have returned with even greater aspiration to help where and when I can.

As a clinician, I seek to serve my fellow wo/man by positive action. I hope that being part of this committee, I can share my passions, experiences, and in doing so inspire others to take up the torch.

In 2000 I joined the Los Angeles Crisis Response Team and have been hooked on the field ever since. At the request of the Police and Fire Departments, volunteers provide on-scene crisis intervention, act as a liaison between the victim and emergency personnel, and give referrals to victims. I eventually became a LMFT and have incorporated my experience and training as a crisis responder into my practice.

I went into the field in crisis response due to two major life events. In 1997 my sister died due to complications from a lung transplant. I distinctly recall the support and caring of the hospital staff throughout the 3 days my family camped out in the hospital. Although my grieving process took place over many years, I credit the support and caring of the hospital staff with setting me on the right path towards health grieving. What I ultimately came to learn was the significant impact the right support immediately after a traumatic event can have in helping people start their journey of redefining a new normality.

My second, impetus for being in this field has to do with my life long respect for law enforcement. When I was growing up I wanted to be a police officer so after earning a Bachelor Degree in Criminal Justice, I graduated from the Police Academy. During that time there was a strong disconnect between law enforcement and the general public so I chose not to enter the profession. For me, Community Crisis Response bridges that gap between law enforcement and the Community. I get great satisfaction from helping my community and at the same time providing support to our first responders.

Being involved with CRERC and CDMHC allows me the opportunity to help my fellow MFTs become involved in a field that is so rewarding.

Although still young in my journey towards becoming a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, I bring to the table a strong background in crisis intervention and emergency response. Over the past six years, I have served as a clinician with the County of Santa Barbara's Mobile Crisis response team, conducting emergency psychiatric evaluations, both in the field, and in local hospital emergency departments. I have assessed many, many individuals from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, implementing CA WIC 5150 holds if necessary, and/or bringing the crisis to resolution through alternative means, such as assisting the individual and their family in developing an appropriate safety plan and providing linkage to resources.

This work has allowed me to develop solid, collaborative partnerships with law enforcement and emergency medical personnel as well as with a broad range of collaborating mental health professionals and community agencies. I have first-hand experience with the challenges of negotiating the complex legal and ethical dilemmas associated with this work and also with the frustrations of navigating a desperately broken and under-funded system while coordinating the best possible care, which balances the client's right to the least restrictive treatment with individual and public safety foremost.

As emergency mental health responders, I believe we are forged into this work and that it requires a unique passion, commitment, and grit; I am honored to join my colleagues in crisis response and disaster mental health as a participant on this committee and in service towards ensuring that that the knowledge and resources needed by our fellow therapists are current and at hand. This can be an intimidating area of practice and accessibility is the key. I serve both to learn and to contribute and see this as a tremendous opportunity for growth towards my professional development as an MFT, and beyond.

In October 1989 the San Francisco Bay Area endured the Loma Prieta earthquake - sometimes referred to as the "World Series Earthquake." As a native San Franciscan, I'm not sure if I can put into words what it was like to watch the collaps of the iconic Bay Bridge or my city burn to the ground; at least that's how it appeared on TV. I felt like I was on the "sidelines" and that I should be doing something!

In September 2010, my hometown of San Bruno, suffered the rupture of a natural gas transmission pipeline just around dinner time. We lost 8 people and 37 homes; the scars from that event are still apparent today with lots still standing vacant and reconstruction of the community infrastructure still not completed more than four years later. I am reminded of the mahem of that horrific night every time I drive through the area.

I have learned that whenever a crisis or disaster, natural or otherwise, strikes your own community, you are faced with learning of people you actually know being impacted in some manner. You cannot take comfort in being a "safe" distance from the epicenter of the event and just hoping "those people" will be alright in the end.

I help because I can. As a member of the Crisis Response Education & Resource Committee I have the opportunity to assist not only my own community, but also communities throughout the State of California where my fellow CAMFT members also reside with their families and serve their neighbors. Helping to formulate strategies and protocols to promote disaster preparedness gives me great gratification and satisfaction in making a difference for others.