Samaritan Staff Featured Prominantly at Georgia Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Annual Conference

The Staff of Samaritan Counseling Center of NEGA were honored at the recent Annual Conference of the Georgia Association for Marriage and Family Therapy April 29-May 1.  

First, Lacy Camp was given recognition for her leadership and contributions as the President of the GAMFT 2008-2009.  The current President, Browning Fergus presented her with a placque of appreciation for her service to the organization. She was grateful for the honor and the experience of working with such an exceptional organization.

In addition, Jennifer Gonyea worked with a group of students, most of whom were interns or volunteers at Samaritan, to  present a poster at the conference on Intrasexual Competition in Reality Dating.  Their research took a hard look at reality TV like The Bachelor and how it effects viewers. Not only did they comduct some wonderful research, they then had to be selected from other applicants for the opportunity to present at the conference.  Congratulations to Jenn and the Samaritan students!

Lacy & Tom Return from Cambodia

Tom teaches a workshop on Integrating Spirituality in TherapyLacy and Tom recently visited Cambodia at the invitation of former intern Desiree Seponski who is a Fulbright Scholar at the Royal University of Cambodia in Phnom Penh.  The Psychology Department extended an invitation to Lacy and Tom  to present a workshop to the students there.  Lacy talked about the use of Mandalas with clients and for therapist enrichment and Tom presented a workshop on Integrating Spirituality in therapy.  The students all speak some English, but the but presentations were interpreted by a former student for ease of understanding.  Faculty, graduate and undergraduate students attended.  

An interpreter restates Lacy's ideas in Khmer for the class.There were 50 plus in attendance at each workshop.  Participants seemed to be truly eager for information, but there were both cultural and language challenges on both sides of the presentation.  That experience was fun to negotiate, even if frustrating at times.  Both Tom and Lacy came away with a real appreciation for the students and for the country. Be sure to ask them about their experiences.  More in the coming days about their travels in the rest of the country.

Staff Member Publishes Book

Samaritan Counseling Center is excited to announce the publication of the book Families Under Fire, edited by one of our staff members, R. Blaine Everson, Ph.D.  The book is co-edited by Charles Figley and is a series of articles written for professionals working with military families.  Another Staf member, Tom Camp, M.Div.,M.S., co-author the first article with Blaine on "Seeing Systems: In Introduction to Systemic Approaches with Military Families".  The publisher is Routledge and if you are interested in reading more about Families Under Fire click the following link.   

http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415998475/