by Rhett Smith | Aug 23, 2016 | Parenting, Podcast
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...
by Rhett Smith | Apr 21, 2014 | Anxiety
When I was 11 years old and began to experience traumatic grief from the death of my mom from breast cancer after a five-year battle — my anxiety manifested itself in the form of stuttering. And stuttering, or my fear of making a fool of myself in front of my...
by Rhett Smith | Apr 17, 2014 | Anxiety
Did you know that anxiety is the most common mental illness in the United States for people age 18 and over? Or that affects 40 million adults (18% of the US population)? Did you know that only 1/3 of people who struggle with anxiety actually get help? And that women...
by Rhett Smith | Mar 21, 2014 | Men
Are you a ‘life-giving’ man? That is a question that I am often asked. It’s a term that I began to talk about in my last book, What it Means to be a Man. But I’ve begun to explore it more fully in the last 6 months and it is the focus of my...
by Rhett Smith | Jul 18, 2013 | Parenting
Last week I began a blog series exploring my experimentation with the parenting philosophy found in the book, The Whole Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind. And by experimentation, I mean using the ideas in the book...
by Rhett Smith | Jul 12, 2013 | Parenting
“As children develop, their brains “mirror” their parent’s brains. In other words, the parent’s own growth and development, or lack of those, impact the child’s brain. As parents become more aware and emotionally healthy, their...
by Rhett Smith | May 14, 2013 | Parenting
This week I’ve been working on an article for Fuller Youth Institute on the topic of failure. What do we do when our kid’s fail? Or more importantly, do we allow our kids to fail, or are we constantly rescuing them from it? It’s been a tough article...
by Rhett Smith | Apr 24, 2013 | Anxiety
I’m a huge believer in the good that can come out of our anxiety. I believe that we too often dismiss anxiety as something bad. We are too quick to try and get over it, or bury it, or pretend it doesn’t exist…all things that can lead to high levels...
by Rhett Smith | Apr 23, 2013 | Men
The above is a quote from Chapter 8 in my new book (coming out May 1) What it Means to be a Man: God’s Design for Us in a World Full of Extremes. Vulnerability is one of the major themes that has emerged over the last 18 years in my work with men. Many men want...
by Rhett Smith | Apr 22, 2013 | Anxiety
“When we can stand face-to-face with another human being in all of our anxiety, and we don’t have to try to run or hide from it, that is the beginning of a true relational connection.” One of the areas of life that we often tend to experience the...
by Rhett Smith | Apr 12, 2013 | Men
Here’s an interesting video excerpt from Terry Real on working with men in therapy. Specifically around the issue of grandiosity. Terrence Real writes: To understand the importance of leverage, you have to understand grandiosity, especially male grandiosity....
by Rhett Smith | Apr 11, 2013 | Anxiety
“We live in a culture that says you can do anything and everything you want to do, and it provides you with choices and possibilities that are endless. That creates a lot of anxiety for a lot of people. But as we embrace our possibilities we must also live...
by Rhett Smith | Apr 10, 2013 | Marriage
In this clip, marriage researcher and therapist John Gottman talks about the “four horsemen of the apocalypse” — which are predictors of divorce. In this video he deals specifically with the issue of contempt. Gottman states that not only is contempt...
by Rhett Smith | Apr 9, 2013 | Anxiety
Intentional = done on purpose; deliberate. On the first morning of The Hideaway Experience four-day marriage intensive we start off with a devotional from John 5:1-9. The passage of scripture reads like this: Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the...
by Rhett Smith | Apr 8, 2013 | Intentional Living
Most of us in fact, never “get it together!” We never get ourselves together. Instead we go through life frustrated and dissipated, letting our restless energies push us in one direction, then in another, never quite able to settle down, to figure out what we want to...
by Rhett Smith | Apr 5, 2013 | Intentional Living
Parker Palmer has written one of my all-time favorite books — one that I re-read every year — Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation. Powerful…powerful book, and one that I have written on quite a bit over the years.
by Rhett Smith | Apr 4, 2013 | Men
“When a father tells a child that he can do something, he can do it. I don’t know why that is, except to say that there is some mysterious energy that passes from the male to his children. It is some sort of creative energy that can make things be when...
by Rhett Smith | Apr 3, 2013 | Anxiety
“In many circumstances, as we experience anxiety, we may be tempted not to face it. We may be tempted to turn the other way and not acknowledge that it is there. But if God uses anxiety in our lives as a way to help us grow, then we must not turn away from it....
by Rhett Smith | Apr 2, 2013 | Faith
I love this video clip of Henri Nouwen preaching (this is a short clip — 8 minutes and 55 seconds — well worth your time). His many books have been influential in my personal life and in my work as a pastor and therapist. Here we get a good sense of what...
by Rhett Smith | Apr 1, 2013 | Men
“Little boys and little girls start off with similar psychological profiles. They are equally emotional, expressive, and dependent, equally desirous of physical affection. At the youngest ages, both boys and girls are more like a stereotypical girl. If any differences...
