Summary of Professional Experience
Professionally, I have spent most of the last 20 years administering and interpreting tests in varied clinical, forensic and educational settings. I have been in full-time private practice for the past 15 years and the vast majority of that time has been spent performing assessments.
I have worked in a variety of settings (e.g., schools, private and state psychiatric hospitals, nursing homes, community mental health centers and with both adolescent and adult forensic populations) and have performed thousands of assessments that literally cover the diagnostic spectrum.
Working in different cities and regions of the country has developed my cultural perspective, as has extensive experience with international students from independent schools.
In my work, I emphasize core commonalities among people while being sensitive to ethnic and cultural factors.
My theoretical orientation is synthetic and I recognize multiple and interacting bases of outward behavior. These include:
1) biological and developmental factors,
2) psychological factors (e.g., defenses/dynamics and learning/reinforcement histories),
3) interactional patterns and
4) broader familial, social and cultural influences.
These experiences and the range of settings I have worked have given me a foundation of knowledge, technical skill and critical thought that are essential for making complex differential diagnoses.
How To Contact Me
Please use this online form to email my office or contact me directly by phone (860-435-9292) or email: dwaylandsmith@gmail.com
