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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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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 […]
Rhett Smith 74: What Are You and Your Kid’s Expectations of this School Year? Capitalizing on Connection, Time, and Risk Taking….
So if your day was anything like my wife and I’s yesterday, it involved walking our kids into their first day of school this year. My daughter starts 4th grade, and my son starts Kindergarten. And like many of you, we are in a new transition as we begin a new school year. One filled […]
Rhett Smith 73: You Can’t Have Both a Great Marriage and an Activity Centered Life that Puts Your Kids First
I have the great privilege of working with couples in my office on a daily basis. Some come to me before they are married, some within a few years of marriage, but the great majority of them come to see me after a crisis that was indicative of the marital drift in their life. In […]
Rhett Smith 72: Navigating Relationships in the Daily Transitions
One of the things that I’ve noticed a lot about relationships and conflict, is that a lot of it tends to happen in periods of daily transition. For example, conflict tends to arise when people are leaving the house in the morning, or coming home later in the day. Whether it’s a spouse, roommate, or […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 71: Connect in Your Relationships with this Communication Technique
I’m not quite exactly sure of the origin of learning about this communication technique, but I know it must have morphed together from all of my training and experience as a therapist…so I’m sure it has it’s roots in varying theorists, I just can’t place it right now. But in my time as a therapist […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 70: The Priority of Relationship and Embracing the ‘Other’
This has been an incredibly difficult political season, in that it highlights the deep divisions among one another along racial, sexual, economical, and political lines….just to name a few. And one thing I have been struggling with the most is to try and remind myself of how I talk about people that believe different than […]
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 Podcas 69: Parenting in the Easy Access, Technological World of Pornography and Sex — with Author Anne Marie Miller
I first heard of Anne Marie Miller when she was actually Anne Jackson, and she was blogging under the name Flowerdust. This was probably around 2006/2007 or so (maybe earlier), and she had a very popular blog that talked a lot about ministry, leadership, and other faith related topics. What was different about her was […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 68: Seeking to Understand, Rather Than Pulling the “I Am the Parent” Card
*Note: In this podcast I mention a social psychologist whom I couldn’t remember. I realized that I was actually thinking of the work of Carol Dweck, but it wasn’t actually her research I was referring to. Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about a certain topic in parenting. And the topic revolves around how often […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 67: 3 Life Affirming Messages to Help You Breath Life Into Those Around You
Sunday was Father’s Day. And like Mother’s Day…it can bring up all kinds of emotions for people. Positive emotions. Negative Emotions. Feelings of joy and happiness, or anger and fear, as well as loss. And that’s just to name a few. I am very thankful that I have a very amazing father. I posted on […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 66: The Importance of Curiosity in Growing Your Relationships
In my time on staff at the Hideaway Experience doing marriage intensives, my co-therapists and I had a few rules that we would often write out for the 4 couples on the their first day of intensive work. We found that having some guiding principles (rules) made the process more safe for everyone involved. And […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 65: The Link Between Depression and Anger (or one’s inability to properly express emotion)
In episode 64 (the previous episode) I shared about my more recent, and personal struggle with anger. In that episode I also talk a bit about it’s roots being in depression. I have talked before about the link between depression and anger in some of my writings like What it Means to be a Man. […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 64: Working Through My Recent Struggle with Anger and Frustration
I’ve noticed over the last few months a growing anger and frustration within me. This has been very disheartening. Because I think if you were to ask my close friends and family, the word anger and frustration wouldn’t typically be associated with me. But maybe that’s my own lack of insight. But in this time […]
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 […]