GENERAL BIO (APPROPRIATE FOR A BROAD SCOPE)
Christopher L. Smith has a diverse background specializing in mental health, spirituality, religious practice and education. Currently, he serves as the President and Clinical Director of Seeking Shalom in New York City, incorporating spirituality into mental health care, as well as serving in clergy roles within the Greater New York area. His publications range from books to curriculum guides for the largest U.S. school district to articles address a broad spectrum of topics.
BIOS APPROPRIATE FOR PARTICULAR SPECIALTY AREAS
MENTAL HEALTH AND RELATIONSHIPS:
Christopher L. Smith, LCAC, LMHC, LMFT is the President and Clinical Director of Seeking Shalom Mental Health Counseling, P.C. and of Seeking Shalom Marriage and Family Therapy, P.C., both in New York, NY. He works with individuals, couples and families on a variety of mental health issues incorporating spirituality into the therapeutic process. He supervises other psychotherapists and provides consultation to religious leaders about how these two dimensions of people’s lives interact. Christopher was trained at Yale University and completed his residency at Lutheran Hospital of Indiana. His knowledge, experience and training is broad. Christopher also has authored books such as “Honest Talk About Serious Mental Illness” and has published on sites such as Yahoo and PBS This Emotional Life.
SPIRITUALITY:
Christopher L. Smith has explored a number of spiritual perspectives and practices on his own faith journey. While being a Presbyterian minister, he has specialized training in working with people from a diversity of spiritual perspectives. Within mainline religions, you will find him being equally comfortable donning a yarmulke taking Jewish cadets to a synagogue, exploring vocational questions with a Catholic counseling client, praying with a Pentecostal hospital patient, encouraging a Muslim client to seek guidance in the Quran or leading worship in a Presbyterian congregation. His theological training was at Yale University and he has completed specialized training for hospital and military chaplaincy. His breadth of experience and knowledge allows his to engage people about their own spirituality, whether the roots of the spirituality are in religion or elsewhere.
RELIGIOUS PRACTICE:
The Rev. Christopher L. Smith limited structure and extremely structured religious practice in his childhood through traditions including the Christina Church and churches in the Anglican Communion. These along with a breadth of studies has led him to appreciate a diversity of religious practice. He is ordained in the Presbyterian Church and draws upon his study at Yale (and other places) of a variety of dimensions of religious practice including sacred geometry, worship and liturgy, congregational studies, religious education and religious leadership. He has served both locally and nationally within the church as well as ecumenically.
EDUCATION:
Christopher L. Smith’s background in education is truly broad and diverse. At the postsecondary level he has served on faculties as diverse as mathematics, chemistry, education, philosophy, theology and church history, computer science, computer information systems, and psychoanalysis. He has also been in demand as an adult educator. At the elementary and secondary level, he has taught struggling students and some of the brightest research students, he has coached many math teachers and coaches, and served as an assistant director of instructional technology in the largest school system in the United States. During his educational career he has received numerous awards and fellowships in addition to a diverse collection of degrees. Amidst all of this, he remains committed to helping others achieve not only knowledge but understanding.
BIOS FOR USE WITH PROMOTION OF CURRENT BOOK
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SHORT BIO:
The Rev. Christopher L. Smith is the President and Clinical Director of Seeking Shalom in New York City, incorporating spirituality into mental health care, as well as serving in various clergy roles within the Greater New York area. He brings a diverse background (specializing in mental health, spirituality, religious practice and education) to helping people achieve greater wholeness and peace in their lives. He has spoken at national events, authored books such as “Honest Talk About Serious Mental Illness” and published on sites such as Yahoo and PBS This Emotional Life.
LONG BIO:
The Rev. Christopher L. Smith is the President and Clinical Director of Seeking Shalom in New York City. In that capacity he works with individuals, couples and families as a licensed mental health counselor and a licensed marriage and family therapist, incorporating spirituality into the therapeutic process. Similarly, he provides supervision to psychotherapists and consultation to religious leaders around how these two dimensions of people’s lives interact.
Christopher was theologically trained at Yale University and has experience in a variety of types of congregations. He has also had and continues to have training and experience in the broader faith community, especially as both a hospital and military chaplain.
One of the challenges that he has observed others experiencing is that what is done with the faith community is not carried out in the world and throughout the week. Addressing this challenge is not only important for individuals but also within the corporate body or bodies of faith. Within his practice as well as his church work, Christopher has seen that helping others incorporate spirituality into their own regular lives leads to many positive results as well as a greater sense of integrity in their lives. This enhances the potential to find wholeness and peace in the midst of all that they do.
His previous book Mental Illness Worship Resource (published by the Presbyterian Church) and his contribution to Healing Liturgies for Seasons of Life (by Abigail Evans published by John Knox Press) have helped people of faith to look at worship in their life. He is also the author of Honest Talk About Serious Mental Illness (published by Bridge Resources) aimed at youth within a general audience. His current writing is designed to help you make worship and praise something that goes beyond just Sunday.