1 CEU available to RRC-CAMFT Members
Non-members can purchase 1 CEU for $10.00
Our August meeting will be a panel led by Darren Smith, Greg White, Ed Thacker & Scott La Fein in addressing Men's Issues.
Darren Smith:
I have been in practice for 12 years here in Redding, at Creekside since 2010. I have a deep love and passion for therapy and much of my personal education and training is focused on working with men and couples. I enjoy the challenge of working with high conflict couples and affair recovery as well. I have also thoroughly enjoyed the retreats and seminars and I am looking forward to more of those collaborative efforts in the future.
I graduated from National University in 2002, and my undergraduate degree was in Adolescent and Developmental Psychology from Western Washington University.
Much of my free time is spent with family in the mountains and lakes kayaking, camping and hiking. I have a 25 year old daughter in Washington, and a 16 yr old daughter here and a 13 year old son, all the joy of my life. Recently married, and settling into that new relationship as well as studying for my second exam in October.
Ed Thacker:
I started a private practice in 1985, predominantly treating Vietnam Veterans with PTSD, as a contract provider to the Vet Center Program. This soon expanded to Veterans of all Wars prior to Vietnam and then to those who served in subsequent Wars and military operations that occurred up through Desert Storm in 1991. In 1987, I was invited to help form Peer Support Teams in Fire and Police Departments that were to respond and lead Critical Incident Stress Debriefings for Fire Departments and Law Enforcement Officers.
In 1998, I stopped working in the Vet Center Program, reducing my military veteran caseload significantly, and focused primarily on the needs of Law Enforcement. In addition to this, I maintained a general private practice, throughout, working with couples and individuals covering a wide variety of issues.
Currently, I continue in private practice seeing predominantly first responders, their support teams (dispatchers, chaplains, etc.) and military veterans. In addition, I consult and am an Adjunct Professor at National University.
Greg White:
Greg White is both a clinical and social psychologist and directs the MA Counseling Psychology Program at National University’s Redding Center. His clinical practice combines Jungian, Cognitive, and Contemplative traditions. He has worked with men in individual and group psychotherapy since his internship at Palo Alto VA Medical Center and over the years has been in various men’s groups in California and New Zealand. He co-founded the Redding Men’s Center which was active in the 1990s. His current, mythopoetically-oriented, men’s group just celebrated its 25th anniversary.
Scott La Fein:
I have been working in the therapy field since 1986 in a variety of settings and with diverse populations. My interest in men’s issues began early in my adulthood, participating in men’s groups at the age of nineteen at UC Santa Cruz. This focus on men’s issues has weaved its way through the course of my career. I ran the Men of Strength Club at the local high school for seven years. This was a group of male students committed to a year at a time of exploring what it means to be “a man” in today’s society and actively participating in helping to create social change related to this issue. I also facilitated “Get Real” groups at juvenile hall for seven years. Although this was not exclusively male participants, it was mostly male and we spent a good deal of time addressing gender roles and issues, what it means to be authentic, and the impediments to a life of integrity.
I was a Satellite Parent for six teenage young men for five years, working with them on how to navigate the difficult and painful teachings and experiences of their pasts and integrate them into the paths they hoped and envisioned as they proceeded onward.
I have worked in therapy with court-ordered men who approach therapy with great resistance and pre-judgment, in large part due to their cultural conditioning. I enjoy seeing what happens when a man is able to allow himself to be seen beneath the veil of that conditioning, and the birth of a more whole and integrated self emerges.
We see far fewer men than women turning to therapy and other forms of healthy self help and improvement. I am happy and honored to participate in this panel of men to talk about and explore with our community of therapists these issues specifically related to the dilemma of being a man in our western culture.
Lunch is available ($5 donation is recommended)