SPECIALTY IN SEXUAL ABUSE
Dr. Smith has a deep systemic and wholistic perspective of sexual abuse given her extensive background working with trauma from many roles. Beginning as a Child Protective Services worker in rural Eastern Kentucky in 1979, she also worked a CPS caseload in urban Lexington through 1985. In her role as a Quality Assurance Specialist working inside the Social Services Commissioner's Office, she investigated how CPS cases were handled in communities around Central Kentucky and conducted Fair Hearings on client complaints. In 1990 she went to work in Children's Residential Services (now the Department for Juvenile Justice) as a Family Treatment Specialist where she was trained to evaluate and treat male and female adolescents who had sexually perpetrated younger children. She not only worked with these families but also trained residential staff to work with incarcerated adolescents from a systemic perspective. She continued her work with adolescent perpetrators and their families at the Lubbock County Youth Detention Center while working on her doctorate in Texas beginning in 1993.
In 1996 Dr. Smith returned to Kentucky and opened her private practice at Glencairn. She immediately began evaluating and treating adolescent sex offenders for DJJ because of the great need for community providers. Not only did she work with the adolescent offenders, she also treated their victims who many times were little brothers and sisters. During this time she earned certification to work with adult sexual offenders and began evaluating adults for family and criminal court. She now runs a community group for male and female adults convicted of a sex crime who are low risk to commit another sex offence and allowed to remain in the community on probation as well as voluntary clients. Dr. Smith has worked with sexual abuse over a span of three decades and continues to treat child, adolescent and adult victims of sexual abuse as she has since her first years as an MFT intern beginning in 1985.
Due to her involvement with the Impact Plus program, Dr. Smith began seeing sexually reactive children at Glencairn Center around 2001. She now runs an evaluation and treatment program for sexually abused and exploited boys and girls who have acted out sexually with other children. Her work with sexually abused children acting out their sexual confusion on others has closed the circle and allowed Dr. Smith to see the complete cycle of victim to abuser to victim. With this wholistic view she has developed a compassionate understanding of how compulsive sexual behavior harms not only the direct victims but each of us who must deal with its social toll.
Dr. Smith is certified by both the Kentucky Department of Corrections and the Department of Juvenile Justice to evaluate and treat adult and adolescent sex offenders. As an independent provider and former clinical member of the Association for the Treatment of Sex Abusers, she has been trained by the most respected and knowledgeable experts in the field. She can provide a comprehensive, individualized assessment and if appropriate, a program of treatment for children, adolescents and adults who can safely receive treatment in his or her community. Community safety is our number one priority!
Since family participation is essential to treatment success, family members are always involved in the program. Effective multi-agency collaboration is also basic in developing a strong program. Dr. Smith works daily with social services, law enforcement, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, child and victim advocates, and corrections officers so that each person enters, progresses, and successfully completes treatment.
RESEARCH
The Glencairn Marriage & Family Therapy Center is actively involved in promoting outpatient mental health research that feeds back into assessment protocols and treatment programs. The goal is to inform treatment based on better practices that are supported by scientific inquiry.
Dr. Smith has collected a large amount of data; one such project involves adolescent boys with sexual aggression problems. Since 1998 Dr. Smith and the staff at Glencairn have treated many boys with sexual behavior problems in a community-based treatment setting. By assessing well over 300 boys referred for sexual aggression problems, Dr. Smith developed an assessment protocol to identify adolescents who were able to be safely treated in the community.
Along with colleagues from Texas Tech University, some of the data have been analyzed. In February 2005 an article titled "Differences in Self-Report Measures by Adolescent Sex Offender Risk Group" authored by Dr. Smith, Dr. Richard Wampler, Dr. Alan Reifman, and Janelle Jones was published in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology.
Susan Smith, Richard Wampler, Janelle Jones, and Alan Reifman
Differences in Self-Report Measures by Adolescent Sex Offender Risk Group
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 2005 49: 82-106.
Abstract:
Differences in self-reports among three groups of juvenile sex offenders (N = 162) were examined. Risk was defined as the sum of the following static variables based on interviews with juveniles and others and from written records: type of offense (violent or predatory =1, not = 0), prior sex offense (any =1, none = 0), history of sexual abuse (self or family= 1, none = 0), history of substance abuse (self or family =1, none = 0), history of behavior problems (yes =1, no = 0), and unstable home life (yes =1, stable = 0). Low-risk (0 to 2 risk factors), medium-risk (3 factors), and high-risk (4 to 6 factors) groups of offenders were formed. Univariate ANCOVAs indicated that the high-risk group reported less family cohesion, more aggression, lower self-esteem, more social discomfort, and more frequent and extreme sexual fantasies. The implications of these findings for differential identification of and interventions with adolescent sex offenders are discussed.
In addition to her direct work assessing and treating children, adolescents and adults who have problems with sexually offensive behaviors, Dr. Smith also offers many types of court work, consultation and training.
FORENSICS : Dr. Smith provides evaluation and expert testimony in family and criminal court. She has worked extensively with family court cases where sexual abuse has been alleged. She works with both prosecutors and defense attorneys to ascertain the validity of allegations made within child custody cases and the risk posed by alleged perpetrators. Dr. Smith takes an objective approach and actively pursues the truth whether she is hired from the alleged victim or the alleged perpetrator side of the case. She has worked in criminal court assessing adjudicated adult sex offenders for sentencing purposes for both prosecutors and defense attorneys. Dr. Smith has also worked on federal court cases requiring expect testimony in child pornography cases.
CONSULTATION : Dr. Smith is available to review your inpatient/outpatient treatment program needs, provide program feedback to management, and to provide staff training on ways to improve services. She consults with defense attorneys on client's risk and treatment needs, provides assessments, and objective reports to the court. Second opinion assessment is a common part of her routine work.
TRAINING : Dr. Smith's Juvenile Sex Offender Risk Assessment Training is based on her research with adolescents who have sexually offended. She has developed a scientifically sound method of distinguishing boys who can safely be treated in the community. Her assessment process can also be used in developing a unique treatment plan for a specific adolescent.
Training is currently offered in the form of live workshops. Dr. Smith is in the process of developing other forms of training including multimedia CD training courses and DVD's. When these become available they will be advertised on this site.
Dr. Smith is available to develop, implement and evaluate a program to fit the needs of your facility or organization. For information about Forensics, Consultation and Workshops please call 859.263.4687 or e-mail us at dr.smith@glencairnmft.com
TRAINING SITE
Glencairn Marriage & Family Therapy Center has been a CO-AAMFT Supervision Site and a Family Therapy Intern Training Site for the University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky University. Although not currently associated with a University, Dr. Smith is an active AAMFT approved supervisor and provides a training and supervision site for private interns.
The following is a list of students and the years they began their intership at Glencairn Center:
Tiffany Mushegan 1999
Ian Feinhauer 2000
Kay Bradshaw 2000
Nicole Moore 2001
Leontyne Gulley 2001
Jamie Stumbo 2002
Stacie Self 2002
Anna Ford 2003
Garnetta Nichol 2004
Jessica Grace 2006
Erika Lynne Eyre 2004
Ellie Collier 2007
Diana Tracy 2008
Garnetta Nichol 2009
Copyright ©2007 Glencairn Marriage & Family Therapy Center, Inc., All Rights Reserved.