As I step into the role of President of the Sacramento Valley Psychological Association, I want to take a moment to introduce myself and share my goals for the year.

Growing up, I was very shy, and in navigating social situations I discovered that it was much easier for me to be a good listener. I found that this led to people frequently opening up to me about their lives and their concerns. I liked being able to benefit others, and I decided to become a psychologist to make a career out of it. In deciding on psychology vs. other mental health disciplines, I saw in psychology the opportunity to have more ability to pursue different and varied positions. Indeed, my journey has taken me from starting in residential treatment settings with children and adults, to serving as a training director at a university counseling center, to working as an addiction treatment provider in numerous settings, to serving as a behavioral science faculty in a family medicine residency program, to my current private practice specializing in addiction, health psychology, and

mindfulness-based psychotherapy. The SVPA presidency coincides with starting another new role this semester as an adjunct faculty at California Northstate University.

My involvement in SVPA dates to 2008, when I moved to Elk Grove with my family. I found a warm and welcoming group of psychologists to help me reduce the professional isolation of (at that point) a full-time private practice. This past year, I joined the SVPA Board as Behavioral Medicine and

Neuroscience chair. I am now privileged to be serving on the board with three former presidents, so I know I have excellent support for this coming year!

In thinking about what I would like to bring to this position, I am reminded of the phrase “Think globally, act locally. pressing problems facing our world and society, I am struck most by the increasing breakdown of community, attendant social isolation, and the vexed use of social media to create a sense of connection. The COViD-19 pandemic hastened this trend, and we have seen a dramatic increase in mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety in the past few years.

As community has moved more online and less in-person, we have also seen a dramatic increase in political polarization and tribalism, which has served to make people feel even less of a sense of community in their cities.

I believe that we psychologists have an important role in helping to strengthen communities and decrease social isolation and political polarization. We have the systems training to identify the intersectional etiologies of personal, interpersonal, and societal problems such as race-, gender-,  and class-based inequities. Our voices are essential on a micro-level in helping clients to understand and have more compassion for different perspectives than their own, and on a macro-level through social justice advocacy and through strengthening coalitions and community partnerships to promote our mutual goals.

I am very excited that our SVPA Spring conference theme this year is Building Community, Bridging Divides. The theme addresses how psychologists can help reverse retreats into isolation and tribalism. We are thrilled to have Tania Israel, Ph.D. as our conference keynote speaker. Dr. Israel is a professor in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has presented extensively about creating dialogue across political lines. She has written two books on this subject, her most recent being Facing the Fracture: How to Navigate the Challenges of Living in a Divided World. Her keynote couldn’t be more relevant to this moment. We hope that you will find inspiration to help your clients and others learn to heal and bridge personal and community divides. Mark your calendars for May 16 and follow SVPA through this newsletter, our website sacvalleypsychologist.com, and on social media to receive updates on the conference.

Alongside our clients’ struggles with isolation, we as helpers face our own unique social isolation due to numerous factors. Our workdays are spent in a one-sided helping relationship, with only brief passing conversations with colleagues. Furthermore, since the pandemic many of us are working remotely, either part-time or full-time. If we do work in an organization, we are often the only psychologist or one of just a few. Having previously worked for 14 years as the only psychologist at a hospital, I can attest to the feeling of being alone among others.

What initially led me to seek out SVPA membership was exactly this sense of professional isolation and the realization that I had to carve out the time to connect with like-minded others. It is fortuitous that we have a robust regional chapter in SVPA. The excellent work of previous presidents and board

members has led to the creation of important opportunities such as mentorship of graduate students, social mixers, consultation groups, movie nights, and of course trainings and conferences. I am inspired when I meet with my colleagues and learn of their important work and great ideas for helping the Sacramento region. I hope you too will be similarly inspired as you join us this year at one or more of our events.

I look forward to meeting you and hearing your ideas on how we can continue to build our psychologist community over the coming year. Feel free to reach out to me at arsmith@startmail.com.

Andrew Smith, Ph.D.

SVPA President