Guest Profile

Barbara Smith

Barbara Sarah Smith, LICSW, received her BA from Boston University in 1975 with a degree in religion and philosophy and her MSW in 1977 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.


Barbara has a vast array of experience in acute care hospitals, hospice, out-patient mental health and substance abuse settings. She currently is in private practice in Westport, MA and at Integrative Psychotherapy Collaborative in Portsmouth, RI. In 1997 she purchased Sanctuary Retreat Center in Beallsville, MD, which she operated for nine years, offering physical and spiritual respite in a peaceful rural setting.


Barbara specializes in the treatment of trauma, addiction, coping with chronic illness especially Lyme disease and "invisible illnesses," and grief and loss. She utilizes the practice of mindfulness and non-judgmental exploration in the healing process. She is also passionately involved in medical advocacy and Lyme disease education as a chronic Lyme survivor/thriver.


She is currently writing a book entitled Lyme Crazy, Crazy Cat Ladies and Other Tales of Microbially Mediated Mental Illness which is due out in the spring of 2014.