Open the door of Brett Smith’s office in the School of Kinesiology’s Student Affairs suite, and you’ll find all the trappings of a good therapist: two comfortable chairs, several lamps with soft light, a sound machine that protects the confidentiality of anyone talking inside. 

But there are also glimpses of Smith’s identity as a person, beyond his role as SoK’s new embedded clinical psychologist. (“If I’m not expecting myself to be authentic, I can’t expect the person across from me to be,” Smith says.) 

Colorful soccer scarves are draped over a cabinet, hinting at his love for the sport and his past life as a collegiate soccer player. Blue fidget toys sit on a side table, ready to help him release the restlessness that his ADHD can bring on. Banksy knock-offs hang above his desk — the classic one of a girl letting go of a balloon and another of a man in a suit ducking under an umbrella while a girl delights in the rain. 

For Smith, they’re a reminder of childhood and the elements of ourselves we often lose when we grow up. It’s his goal to help students become more themselves as they mature, including learning methods to manage stress that work for them individually.

“It’s figuring out how we can help you enjoy what you’re doing more,” he says. “What do you need to change to adapt to new environments? What can you step back from to allow more space for what you need?”

“Because if it’s raining,” he adds, “we can embrace it or hide from it. But what we do doesn’t change the state of the weather.”

Tailored approaches

Three days out of the week, Smith conducts sessions in this second-floor office at SoK. This is partially to make therapy more accessible to students; if they have a short window between classes, they can stop in for an appointment without disrupting their days. (Smith also offers virtual visits.)

But there’s more strategy behind the decision to base Smith in SoK instead of on the fourth floor of the Michigan Union, where U-M Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) is headquartered. He’s part of the half of CAPS staff who are intentionally embedded in specific schools across campus to “address the specific needs of each culture…and develop materials specifically tailored to each school and college,” according to the CAPS website.

“What I want to do here is understand the culture of the school itself, so I can more effectively treat students,” Smith says. “Is there a certain time of year that gets stressful? Maybe we need to hold stress management sessions then. Are there certain issues that a lot of people are having? Maybe we need a group to address those. Once I understand the more specific needs of the population, I can tailor approaches to the students themselves.” 

Smith is trained and certified in several different modalities, and he says he doesn’t believe in just one approach. Sometimes the right strategy to help a student may actually involve setting them up with a provider outside of U-M, he says, especially if they need long-term support.

“There are students with so many diverse cultures and experiences here at U-M,” Smith says. “It’s my job to continue to expand my toolbox to help them.”

Personal experience

Smith’s experiences do inform the way he views mental health, though. Having played soccer in college and then indoors professionally for a short stint, Smith often looks at stress through a performance lens. Students who are or have been athletes are used to pushing themselves to optimize their performance on the field or the court, and they could take that same mentality to set themselves up for success mentally and emotionally, he says.

For Smith personally, that meant taking some pathways to getting his doctorate that weren’t typical. He has ADHD, and that manifested in difficulty keeping track of time and tasks. 

“I would often try to match my study and learning approaches to mimic how others learned and realized it only created more stress for me,” Smith says. “I had to accept that I approach things very differently than most and although it wasn't what I perceived as ‘normal,’ it allowed me to explore what works for me without guilt or comparison.” 

He now co-facilitates the weekly “Untapped Brilliance with ADHD” student group on campus to help students like himself learn more about their needs and come up with solutions to fulfill them within the higher education environment.

“What I realized in school was that stress itself is not a bad thing,” he says. “It’s asking how we can balance our responsibilities with our mental health. Maybe that means more physical exercise, maybe it’s therapy. It’s about changing the responsibility from a burden to opportunities you’ve earned.”

If you’re a Kinesiology student and would like to set up a consult with Brett, schedule an appointment at umichcaps.titaniumhwc.com/EMBkines. If you’re interested in participating in the ADHD student group, email Brett at [email protected].