Brian J. Smith, PsyD
770-953-4744 ext. 44

Therapy and Assessment Services

Dr. Smith is a licensed clinical psychologist who provides individual, family, and couples therapy services to children, adolescents, and adults and assessment/testing services to children and adolescents. He enjoys working with children and teens around the issues of depression, stress and anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), self-esteem issues, assertiveness, anger management, adjustment to parental divorce, social skills, and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Dr. Smith also provides family therapy to address and improve parent relationship skills, communication and conflict reduction skills, and co-parenting after divorce. He also takes pleasure in working with college-age clients and adults to help with depression, stress/anxiety, OCD, relationship issues, family of origin issues, adjustment issues, assertiveness, self-esteem issues, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). He also offers psychological evaluations, psycho-educational evaluations, and developmental evaluations to children and adolescents to assess a variety of presenting problems including Asperger’s Disorder, ADHD, learning disabilities, processing problems, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder, social deficits, depression, anxiety, PTSD and OCD.

Specialties

Dr. Smith has a passion for helping and supporting clients in the early stages of becoming a strong and supportive couple (i.e., dating, pre-marital/engaged, and married) and later making the transition to becoming successful parents of emotionally healthy and highly adaptable children. As such, he specializes in several areas in addition to psychological assessment: Working with couples young in their relationship to develop an understanding of their strengths and areas of growth and ways to strengthen their relationship through improved communication, problem solving, and conflict reduction skills (often through utilization of the Prepare-Enrich model);working with parents of children ages 4-12 to develop parenting skills to reduce oppositional/ disruptive behavior and other behavior difficulties; and helping children and adolescents cope with PTSD and address traumas such as physical and sexual child abuse, rape or assault, exposure to domestic or community violence, serious accidents, natural or human disasters, violent crime, or deaths of loved ones through Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT).

Approach to therapy

Dr. Smith views psychotherapy not only as intervention, but also as prevention of future problems, as clients are better equipped to cope with the problems that come up in daily life. He believes that the interpersonal nature of therapy creates a great opportunity for clients to gain insight into themselves as individuals who are shaped in the context of relationships and to develop the ability to live life to the fullest outside of therapy. He finds great fulfillment in connecting with clients, walking alongside them, and aiding them in reaching their goals in therapy. Dr. Smith feels that it is a tremendous privilege to be allowed into the inner sanctum of clients’ lives and in turn, honors that trust with humility, respect, and a readiness to meet clients where they are as they begin therapy. He earnestly believes that psychotherapy can benefit everyone during different seasons of their lives, whether clients feel they are in the midst of great difficulty or merely want to improve upon certain areas of their lives. Clients often report that they find it easy to feel comfortable around Dr. Smith and enjoy his warm, thoughtful and caring nature, as well as his sense of humor.
Dr. Smith received his doctoral training from Fuller Theological Seminary, Graduate School of Psychology (APA-approved) in Pasadena, California. He considers himself to be influenced by family systems, cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, interpersonal, and attachment theorists. He sees clients at the Marietta and Canton offices, and currently has evening and Saturday availability. Dr. Smith is in an in-network provider with several insurance companies and also often works with clients as an out-of-network provider if they have out-of-network benefits. He also sees self-pay clients and offers a reduced fee scale for clients who are financially unable to pay his standard fee rate.