WSPA Summer Newsletter | August 2022 |
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Fall 2022 Northwest Psychological Convention Save the Dates: November 4 & 5, 2022
The convention will be held November 4th & 5th and will be virtual again, with the goal of having a hybrid convention in 2023 and moving forward. Online registration will be available in the next few weeks. Up to date convention information will be on this webpage: https://wspapsych.org/2022fc.php
This year's convention theme is “Perspective Taking: Sustaining and Progressing Practice into 2023.”
Our Keynote is Dr. Leticia Nieto who will be presenting “Clarity in Complexity: Liberatory Practice.” Leticia Nieto, Psy.D., LMFT has been an active poet, dramatist, and performer since 1978. She has been a psychotherapist and trainer in anti-oppression and expressive techniques including psychodrama, playback theatre, and theatre of the oppressed since 1980. For her work in the Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology Program at Saint Martin’s University, Dr. Nieto was named Outstanding Faculty of the Year in 2005. She is also a member of the faculty of the European School of Classical Psychodrama in Mexico, and loves to sing.
We will also be including a presentation on retirement ins and outs with Dr. Stephen Feldman & Dr. Andy Benjamin as well as presentations on CBT/I, FASD, and treatment-resistant depression. This is not an all-inclusive list of the convention presentations. A full schedule including presentations details will be available on this webpage: https://wspapsych.org/2022fcschedule.php
For the first time in five years the fall convention is being planned by a board subcommittee. The previous conventions were planned by Dr. Sonia Venkatraman and office staff while the board concentrated on other issues. We want to thank Dr. Venkatraman for all of her work on the pre-COVID-19 in-person convention and the transition to the virtual convention. |
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Online Learning Platform Launch |
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WSPA is excited to announce that we have launched a new online learning platform for homestudy webinars. Getting started learning at home and earning CE is easy! You’ll just need your name, email, and a secure password when creating an account here: https://wspa-online-learning.thinkific.com/.
The web platform allows members and non-members to view pre-recorded events and even earn CE units. In this changing world, the ability to learn at your own pace and on your schedule is more important than ever. Most of the workshops will be asynchronously available for 2 years after the application approval, while others will have a much shorter availability due to the requirement of the presenters. Our flexible online learning courses use pre-recorded video lessons taught by entertaining and engaging industry professionals, covering topics from “PSYPACT: A Road Trip” to “Ethical and Clinical Guidance in the Era of Volk”.
The way the platform displays courses on the home page is a bit misleading, by implying that a course is free. Free with no CE is an option; however if you want CE, when you click on the course the fees for CE credits will appear. WSPA is also posting homestudy webinars presented by Alaska Psychological Association and their members are able to choose the member rate. You can view a complete list of all topics below or on our site: https://wspa-online-learning.thinkific.com/collections
Current Online Courses
- Are You Still Relying on Tarasoff to Make Decisions? Ethical and Clinical Guidance in the Era of Volk presented by Samantha Slaughter, Psy.D. & Tyson D. Bailey, Psy.D.
- Service Delivery to Minors and Families: Law and Ethics presented by Frances Schopick, JD, MSW & Karen Pavlidis, Ph.D.
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PSYPACT: A Road Trip presented by Janet Orwig, MBA, CAE
- Introduction to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Diagnosis and Assessment presented by Sarah Mattson-Weller, Ph.D., Erika Stannard, Psy.D., Erin Johnson, Ph.D. & Jacqueline Beck, Ph.D.
- Secure Your Own Oxygen Mask First: Mindful approaches to preventing therapist burnout presented by Chris McCurry, Ph.D.
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Neurobehavioral Profiles Observed in Individuals with FASD Across the Lifespan presented by Susan J. Astley Hemingway, Ph.D. & Allison Brooks, Ph.D.
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Call for CE Committee Review Members
There are still opportunities for members to support the CE workshops we present by becoming an application reviewer. See the past article at this link or email Dr. Jennifer DelVentura dr.delventura@gmail.com
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New member benefit! Professional Will Administrators
Psychologists in Washington State are both ethically and legally required to maintain professional wills for their practices. A professional will outlines who will manage the closing of your practice should you die or are incapacitated and cannot manage the closing yourself. Don’t have a professional will? WSPA members may use the template created just for you, posted here.
To help WSPA members meet the ethical and legal obligations of a professional will, we would like to announce that you may list WSPA as the administrator of your professional will. WSPA will maintain a list of psychologists willing to serve as administrators, allowing you to rest easy knowing that when the time comes, a trusted colleague will do what is needed.
As this is a new member benefit, we are looking for psychologists to volunteer to be on our Professional Will Administrators list. Administrators would be contacted when services are requested. The personal will of the decedent should include a provision for payment by the estate to the administrator of the professional will for such service. WSPA suggests the usual hourly rate for treatment as the guideline to set the payment term. Duties may include, but are not limited to, contacting current clients, offering limited sessions focused on the death/incapacitation of the psychologist, closing out client files, referring clients who need further treatment to appropriate providers, and managing the administrative needs of closing the practice.
Please email WSPA at WSPA@wspapsych.org to add your name to the list of Professional Will Administrators.
Samantha Slaughter, PsyD - Director of Professional Affairs
(she/her/hers)
c: 206-678-5658 |
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A presidential treat! Recently former WSPA presidents Andy Benjamin, JD, Ph.D. (1997), Chris McCurry, Ph.D. (2015), Sonia Venkatraman, Ph.D. (2017, 2018), and Jim McKeever, Ph.D. (2004), met on Bainbridge Island to share stories and talk about getting more past presidents to meet on a regular basis. |
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Stay in Your Lane
Ethics Committee
One of the fundamental and great things about psychologists is that we like to be helpful to our clients. However, there might be instances in which our desire to help leads us into sticky situations. For example, one of the common ethical boundary violations psychologists face is an unintentional transition from a clinical role to an evaluator role. This often happens out of offering a forensic or evaluative opinion about a client’s condition from a psychologist's genuine interest and intent to help a patient. This could include writing a letter of endorsement for an emotional support animal, offering an opinion of a client’s parenting ability, or endorsing psychological readiness for surgery when these were not the contracted psychologist roles, just to name a few. This, by definition, can be a way of slipping past the treating clinician “lane” and merging into a forensic and/or evaluator “lane.” These lane changes open clinicians to liability, ethics and board complaints, and may ultimately disadvantage the client/patient. So, consider that perhaps the way to be most helpful in the long run is to be mindful of your role as a therapist, evaluator, or consultant and stay in your lane. And remember that referrals to colleagues in the other lanes can be helpful to your client too!
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Listserv Tips
WSPA currently has 14 different listservs. Members are not automatically added to the general listserv when they join. Your office manager adds members as they join. You can add yourself to any of the lists by logging into your member profile. You can view the other listservs at this link. Listserv Daily Digest
Subscribing to a listserv daily digest is a great way to get a snapshot of daily posts and allow you to reply. This may be helpful if you are on several listservs to keep your inbox from being overwhelmed. You can always login to a listserv to see what the current posts are before the daily digest arrives. To subscribe, login to your membership profile. Go to communication/message boards (message board is what our website calls a listserv). Enter the message board, and check the Daily Digest box.
Listserv Etiquette - Be cordial and professional. WSPA has over 700 members and growing. Not all are on the listserv, but those who are using it are your friends and colleagues.
- Email Signatures for Private Backchannel Replies. Include an email signature that has your email and phone number so members can contact you directly.
- Hijacking a Post. Avoid changing the original post by adding a new topic within the discussion. If you do see this happening, kindly ask the member to start a new post.
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Do not ask for rates. Comparing rates violates anti-trust laws.
- Do not post any political endorsements. Our members are from all political camps and we must respect each others political views.
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View my classified ad! Avoid posting job openings or available office space on the listserv. Instead, use WSPA’s Classified Ads to promote jobs and available office space. Classified ads are FREE for members and it gives you more options such as photos. Once you create a classified ad, you may inform the listserv of the ad and provide a link using a tile such as “View my classified ad for office space”. More views on our classified ad page increase page count visits that non-members who pay to post a classified ad rely on.
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