Kathie Tagmyer wins "Therapist in Action" award from Wesley Spectrum! Posted by:Lloyd Woodward--Friday, March 25, 2011



Justin Innocent, Kathie, Carol Nelson (her Supervisor).

 At a huge luncheon banquet today Wesley Spectrum recognized Kathie Tagmyer with the first ever prestigious "Therapist in Action" award. I was asked to speak about how very special Kathie T is to Probation, PSST and to all the people that she has helped. Actually, there are so many wonderful important things to say about Kathie I have been worried that I had not really done justice to Kathie although the whole affair appeared to go really well.

It was also a celebration of Black History Month and the keynote speaker was Judge Kim Berkeley Clark. I wish I could post Judge Clark's speech. The Judge is an excellent and thrilling speaker. The Judge spoke about diversity- women and people of color. Her message was that women and people of color have come a long way but there is much yet to do and a longer road to travel before equality is reached.

Kathie T was very gracious as she accepted her award and spoke very briefly about how she is only one person and how Juvenile Probation and the team of therapists that she has assembled deserve recognition as much as she does. I think PSST parents who have worked with Kathie or one of Kathie's team of therapists know how very much Kathie deserved this award. Any parents who have met Kathie at one of meetings also understands why she has won this awesome recognition.



It was between four and five years ago that Kathie began to work with Val and I in PSST. The parent of the first case that Kathie and I ever worked together came to PSST and raved about how helpful Kathie was to her. Since then, PSST parents have been requesting Kathie like crazy. Of course, since Kathie could not work with everyone she has assembled a dream team of therapists that like working Kathie-style.

I told one story about an actual PSST meeting where it was very helpful to have a Kathie the therpist at our meeting. I kind of told it wrong, so I want to retell it here and get it right. It's much easier to write than speak; there's no rewriting when you speak.

We were finding out from one of our PSST parents how her son acts when he is angry. She was acting his part in a role-play. Suddenly she stood straight up, grabbed the chair she was sitting on and threw it down on the ground. I think it was me that asked her, "what happened next?" She said, "Well I threw something too because I couldn't let him be more powerful than me.!"

There was a big pause, because no one in group really knew what to say to that! We didn't want to critisize her after she shared all that but then Kathie jumped in with this comment, "How's that working for you?" It was the perfect way to get us all back on track without chastizing her. Later, I took the lady aside and thanked her for her participation but cautioned that next time she can just tell us the part where her son is destructive, no need to actally break up the place!

I also mentioned that Kathie has always had a knack of doing assessments and people feel like they finally have help to reach the goals that they had before they met Kathie. In fact, that's what Kathie did with me in the first place. I had a plan to empower parents so that they could provide better supervision to thier own troubled youth. Kathie came up with ways to help reach those goals and I must say, with Kathie's help this job has become a whirlwind adventure.

In the end I claimed Kathie not only as an extemely talented professional but also as a great friend of mine.

Thanks Kathie for all that you do for all of us and we know you'll keep on saving lives with your analytical skills, your encyclopedic knowlege, your unmatched connections, your leadership, your ethics including your unbelivable work ethic, and your creativity. PSST is so lucky to claim you as ours!

Thanks also to Kulsum Davidsom, Program Director who invited Valerie and I to this luncheon. Also, Kulsum Davidsom is retiring and she was given a very prestigious award herself. I know that she will be sorely missed at Wesley Spectrum. Among other award winners, James Reiland, former Director of both Adult and Juvenile Probation won a Black History Award.

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