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I started my journey of blogging in 2003 — mostly to capture what I called “transitioning life’s journey”.
In 2023 I took a 3 year break from blogging, but have decided to return to it. I hope you enjoy.
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Restoration Therapy: Anxiety and the Bible
Reframing The Meaning of Anxiety in the Bible “I am here, in your office to see you because I didn’t feel like there was anyone else I could talk to about my anxiety.” I hear some form of this statement quite often in my office. And it most frequently comes from someone who is a […]
Restoration Therapy: Discerning the Difference Between Healthy and Unhealthy Anxiety
Anxiety Changed My Life Back in 2011 when I was doing some reading and research for my book The Anxious Christian, I came across a sentence in Rollo May’s book, The Meaning of Anxiety that really resonated with what I was thinking about in regards to anxiety. In that book he writes the following: “The […]
Restoration Therapy: Identifying and Healing the Underlying Roots of Anxiety
What Is Underneath the Anxiety One of the most difficult things about anxiety is trying to define its roots. In an earlier post I wrote about the challenge of trying to define it, but in this post I want to explore more in depth what the underlying roots are that trigger anxiety. You may remember […]
Restoration Therapy: Trying to Define Anxiety
Anxiety in the Headlines Anxiety is a hot topic these days. I am not saying that it has ever gone out of style, but it seems that anxiety has been increasing at record numbers in our culture and one can hardly look at the news without seeing article after article proclaiming the findings of some […]
Rhett Smith 104: The Importance of Discerning the Different Between Feelings and Coping Behaviors to Get to Deeper Work
This is a very short podcast episode, but it’s a really important one. One of the most important tasks I have in the counseling room is to help people to discern between what their feelings and coping behaviors are. In fact, I spend a lot of time helping people understand their feelings, and what coping […]
Rhett Smith 103: A Personal Story About a Good Kind of Anxiety
I talk a lot about anxiety on this podcast. And sometimes anxiety can seem vague or too theoretical, unless one really has experienced. And even then, just talking about it can seem like an intellectual exercise. But today I had a personal experience that really makes concrete what I mean when I talk about a […]
Rhett Smith 102: The Intertwining Voices of Vocation and Anxiety
I have recently been thinking a lot about the intertwining of vocation and anxiety. What I mean by that is that it seems that part of the journey towards finding vocation is that anxiety is often along for the journey. In my writing and speaking on anxiety, and in my work with clients, I talk […]
Rhett Smith 95: Pepperdine Bible Lectures — Reframing Anxiety as God at Work in Our Lives
This past May I had the opportunity to speak at Pepperdine University for the annual Bible Lecture’s series. It’s primarily a gathering of a combo of lay and professional ministry leaders, and as this event I was able to talk to them about one of my favorite topics…anxiety. Anxiety is a huge issue both in […]
Rhett Smith 84: Emotional Regulation, Boundaries and Anxiety in the Age of Online Political Discourse
So I am not one to talk much about politics…at least online. There are several reasons for this. 1) I feel a bit naive on the subject matter and not as fluent in political knowledge and conversation as I would like to be. 2) I’ve rarely seen political discussion online lead to anything positive. So […]
Rhett Smith 80: Why the Distinction Between Anxiety and Fear (and worry) is So Crucial, and How the Restoration Therapy Model Helps Anxiety/Part 2
Last weekend I had the humbling opportunity to speak at the first ever Restoration Therapy Conference which was held at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. When the founder of the model, Dr. Terry Hargrave asked med to present on anxiety and the Restoration Therapy model, I knew it was an invitation that I couldn’t refuse. […]
Rhett Smith 79: Why the Distinction Between Anxiety and Fear (and worry) is So Crucial, and How the Restoration Therapy Model Helps Anxiety/Part 1
Last weekend I had the humbling opportunity to speak at the first ever Restoration Therapy Conference which was held at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. When the founder of the model, Dr. Terry Hargrave asked med to present on anxiety and the Restoration Therapy model, I knew it was an invitation that I couldn’t refuse. […]
Rhett Smith 78: “What can I do if I, or someone I know struggles with anxiety?”
One of the most common questions I get outside of my office (via Facebook, Twitter, email, etc.) is, “What can I do if I struggle with anxiety?” Or often they are asking for someone they know and care about, “What can I do to help someone with anxiety?” I have to caution and say that […]
Rhett Smith 77: The 4 Crucial Questions We Are Always Asking Ourselves
When I was in my early 30’s I was fortunate enough to have a really great Marriage and Family Therapy supervisor in D. Michael Smith. He was actually one of many early great mentors I had and supervisors as I pursued my license as a therapist. But one day while I was in a supervision […]
Rhett Smith 76: What Exactly is Anxiety? Exploring the Different Understandings of Anxiety
“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” Soren Kierkegaard That quote by Soren Kierkegaard in his work The Concept of Anxiety, has always been one of my favorite quotes. I think it truly captures the hear of anxiety for many…In that being free, creative beings who are responsible for our lives and the choices and directions […]
Rhett Smith 75: Kid’s Athletics, Parental Pressure, and Grit
One of the populations I love working with in my practice is athletes. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with a large variety of athletes from professionals to amateur, from middle school kids all the way up to a middle aged runner like me. And in my time with athletes several themes around athletics have […]
Reframing Your Anxiety and Depression
A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to give a talk about my own journey with anxiety and depression at a local church, Chase Oaks Church. The video was shot for their ReNew Ministry which helps people deal with the “messiness of life.” I love the work that ReNew Ministry is doing to […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 63: The Practice of Sabbath
I’ve been talking about Sabbath in the last couple of podcast episodes (Episode 61: Sabbath Rest and Your Identity, Episode 62: Sabbath Rest and Anxiety), and so I close the series in this episode talking about various practices. As I’ve come to learn more about Sabbath and practice various ways of being on that day, […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 62: Sabbath Rest and Anxiety
As I mentioned in my podcast last week (Sabbath Rest and Identity), I have been thinking a lot about the topic of Sabbath over the course of the last year. It seems that it comes up in more and more of my conversations, and it’s absence in the lives of many people (especially evident in […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 61: Sabbath Rest and Your Identity
I have been thinking a lot about the topic of Sabbath over the course of the last year. It seems that it comes up in more and more of my conversations, and it’s absence in the lives of many people (especially evident in many of the clients I work with), lead to a lot struggles, […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 58: Learning to Live in the Tension of Our Anxious Impatience
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the struggle we have of living in the tension of things not coming to fruition as quickly as we would like. We live in a fast-paced culture that expects everything on demand…and quickly. But where the tension comes in is that the life of faith is not a […]