For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to help people. As I look back over my life there has always been a variety of individuals that have been there for me during some very difficult times in my own life, and because I have always enjoyed walking alongside of others during the ups and downs of their own personal journey.

I find much joy in and am very passionate about coming alongside others and helping them face their struggles, work through them, and grow as a person in the process.

Each person is shaped by their early experiences in life and the families they grow up in. I am no exception. I grew up in an amazing home where my father was a seminary graduate, church planter, and pastor to a church for over 25 years. That experience had a shaping effect on my life. So did growing up in a home where my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 6 years old, eventually dying of the disease after a 5 year battle with it. Early experiences like this shaped my life in a profound way, and your own early experiences have shaped you and continue to shape you in powerful ways as well.

Those early experiences in my life, along with some other powerful events that I often share with my clients, made a lasting impact on me. But I believe it has been my experiences with feelings of pain, loss, grief, worry, and anxiety that pulled me in the direction of first becoming a pastor, and eventually a therapist. And now as I work with clients in the counseling setting I am continually filled with joy and amazement as clients face their own struggles and allow me to become a change agent with them as they harness the courage to take responsibility for the choices in their lives.

Prior to becoming a marriage and family therapist I spent ten years working on university campuses with college students and their families, helping them navigate the college years and face the many challenges and difficulties along the way. Much of that time, I was a college pastor in Los Angeles, working at Bel Air Presbyterian Church and primarily serving the students on the campuses of UCLA, USC and LMU. During that period, I also spent time with a large number of young adults working in the entertainment industry.

I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist at Auxano Counseling in Plano, TX, and I am on staff as a therapist at The Hideaway Experience (marriage intensive).

I write regularly at my blog rhettsmith.com, as well as contributing as a writer for the Fuller Youth Institute.

I live in Frisco, TX with my wife, daughter, and son.

Book Publications
I am the author of the book The Anxious Christian: Can God Use Your Anxiety for Good? (Moody Publishers, March 2012) and co-author of The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging, and Podcasting for Christ, and Outspoken: Conversations on Church Communication.

Professional Affiliations
I’m licensed in the state of Texas as a Marriage and Family Therapist (#201264). I’m a Clinical Member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapists, and member of the Texas Association for Marriage and Family Therapists, and the Vice-President elect (2012-2014) for the Dallas Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

Education
I’m a graduate of Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona where I received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, and I hold the graduate degrees of Master of Divinity, and Master of Science in Marital and Family Therapy from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.

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