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Draft:SaraKay Smullens

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
SaraKay Smullens
Born
SaraKay Sherman

(1940-04-10) April 10, 1940 (age 86)
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
EducationGoucher College (BA)
University of Pennsylvania (MSW)
Occupations
  • Clinical social worker
  • family therapist
  • author
  • columnist
Known forWriting on emotional abuse and on burnout in social work; founder of the Sabbath of Domestic Peace
Websitesarakaysmullens.com

SaraKay Smullens (née Sherman; born April 10, 1940) is an American clinical social worker, family therapist, educator and author based in Philadelphia. She is known for her clinical writing on emotional abuse and the treatment concept she terms an "emotional sense of direction", for her research on burnout and self-care among social workers and those in related professions, and for founding the Sabbath of Domestic Peace, an interfaith coalition that trained clergy to respond to domestic violence.[1][2][3]

Early life and education

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Smullens was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of Charles and Charlotte (Orfuss) Sherman, and attended Forest Park High School.[1][4] She enrolled at Skidmore College in 1958 and transferred two years later to Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1962.[1] In July 1960 she served as a floor aide to the Maryland delegation at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.[4] While at Goucher she helped lead a student campaign to persuade businesses in Towson to serve Black customers; after direct appeals failed, the students threatened a boycott, after which, by her account, every establishment in the town desegregated.[5] In 1962 she received a grant from the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.[6]

She began graduate study at the National Catholic School of Social Service at The Catholic University of America in 1963 and transferred the following year to the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work, receiving a Master of Social Work in 1965.[1]

Career

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Clinical practice

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After graduating, Smullens worked for the Philadelphia Society to Protect Children from Cruelty, at the Philadelphia Psychiatric Center, and at the Jewish Family Service of Philadelphia (now Jewish Family and Children's Service of Greater Philadelphia), where she directed its department of family life education.[1] In 1973 she opened a private practice in individual, couple, family and group psychotherapy in Philadelphia, which she continues to operate; she also taught for many years at Hahnemann Medical University.[1] Beginning in the early 1990s, Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham referred selected first-time domestic-violence offenders to Smullens for psychotherapy as an alternative to incarceration.[7]

Emotional abuse and domestic violence

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Much of Smullens's clinical writing concerns what she has described as "invisible" patterns of emotional abuse that accompany physical and sexual abuse but, in her view, merit separate classification. She published a series of articles on the theme in the Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association in the early 2000s, followed by the 2002 book Setting YourSelf Free and a 2010 article in the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy that set out five categories of emotional abuse experienced in childhood and their treatment in structured group therapy.[1][8] Her 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) cited this work together with her community activism.[2][9]

In the mid-1990s she founded the Sabbath of Domestic Peace, an interfaith coalition in Philadelphia that educated clergy about domestic violence, organized an annual interfaith worship service during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and received a mayoral proclamation in 1999.[1][10] Smullens has described clergy as a "missing link" in responding to abuse, arguing that prayer alone would not keep victims safe and that couples in violent relationships should not be counseled together.[2] The American Jewish Congress gave her its Louise Waterman Wise Award for this work in 1996.[10]

Burnout and self-care

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In 2012 Smullens published "What I Wish I Had Known: Burnout and Self-Care in Our Social Work Profession" in The New Social Worker; the article received the NASW Media Award for best magazine article in 2013 and became the basis for Burnout and Self-Care in Social Work, published by NASW Press in 2015 with a foreword by the magazine's editor, Linda May Grobman.[11] A reviewer in The New Social Worker called the book an accessible treatment of a complicated subject.[12]

A second edition (2021) added what Smullens identified as "societal burnout" - the cumulative effect of political conflict, dysfunctional leadership and collective crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic-as a fifth arena alongside professional, personal, relational and physical burnout.[13] She developed the concept further in a 2023 opinion column for the Chicago Tribune.[14] The second edition also argues that love and safety in childhood are essential to later confidence and resilience, and links adult burnout to patterns of emotional abuse experienced in the formative years.[15] In 2021 the Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care selected her for its Kermit B. Nash Award and invited her to deliver the opening plenary lecture at its annual conference.[2]

Writing and media

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Smullens wrote a column on relationships and public policy for The Philadelphia Inquirer from 1976 to 1981 and for The Bulletin in 1981–82, and was a frequent guest on Philadelphia radio and television; her later appearances included The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1989.[1][10] Her first book, Whoever Said Life Is Fair?, was published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1980 under the name Sara Kay Cohen and reprinted in paperback by Berkley Books.[1]

She has since written commentary and film reviews for Broad Street Review, HuffPost and The New Social Worker.[9] She served as clinical consultant to Philadelphia's Theatre Exile for its 2009 production of David Harrower's Blackbird, a play about the aftermath of child sexual abuse,[16] and was an adviser to filmmaker Jennifer Fox on The Tale (2018), a drama about the recovered memory of childhood sexual abuse.[17] The Pennsylvania chapter of NASW named her Social Worker of the Year in 2018.[2]

Civic activities

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Smullens has served on the boards of Family Service of Philadelphia, the Woman's Board of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, the Center City Residents' Association and the Philadelphia chapter of the American Jewish Congress; as vice chair and then chair of the City of Philadelphia's Child Welfare Advisory Board in the mid-1990s; on the advisory board of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work; and as a trustee of Goucher College.[1]

Selected works

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Books

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  • Whoever Said Life Is Fair? A Guide to Growing Through Life's Injustices (as Sara Kay Cohen). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1980. ISBN 0-684-16449-3. Reissued as SaraKay Cohen Smullens, iUniverse, 2000, ISBN 978-0-595-13783-1.
  • Setting YourSelf Free: Breaking the Cycle of Emotional Abuse in Family, Friendships, Work and Love. Far Hills, N.J.: New Horizon Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0-88282-224-2.
  • Burnout and Self-Care in Social Work: A Guidebook for Students and Those in Mental Health and Related Professions. Washington, D.C.: NASW Press, 2015. ISBN 978-0-87101-462-7. 2nd ed., 2021, ISBN 978-0-87101-570-9.

Selected articles

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  • "The Five Cycles of Emotional Abuse: Investigating a Malignant Victimization", Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association 5(5), 2002, pp. 16–17.
  • "The Codification and Treatment of Emotional Abuse in Structured Group Therapy", International Journal of Group Psychotherapy 60(1), 2010, pp. 111–130. doi:10.1521/ijgp.2010.60.1.111.
  • "What I Wish I Had Known: Burnout and Self-Care in Our Social Work Profession", The New Social Worker, 2012.

Awards and honors

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  • Louise Waterman Wise Award, American Jewish Congress, Pennsylvania region (1996)[10]
  • Lifetime Achievement Award, NASW Pennsylvania chapter (2004)[9]
  • NASW Media Award, best magazine article (2013)[11]
  • Social Worker of the Year, NASW Pennsylvania chapter (2018)[2]
  • Inaugural Alumni Hall of Fame, University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice (2018)[18][19]
  • Kermit B. Nash Award, Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care (2021)[2]

Personal life

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Smullens married in 1964 and has two daughters from that marriage; her first book was published under her then-married name, Sara Kay Cohen.[1] In 1979 she married Stanton N. Smullens, a Philadelphia surgeon who later chaired the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority.[1][20]

Her papers are held by the University of Pennsylvania archives, which received the bulk of the collection in 2007, and by Goucher College and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.[1][2]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Kaiyi Chen (October 2009). "SaraKay C. Smullens Papers, 1904–2008 (bulk 1960–2000), UPT 50 S666". University Archives and Records Center. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved September 11, 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "SP2 Alumna Receives Society for Social Work Leadership's 2021 Kermit B. Nash Award". School of Social Policy & Practice. University of Pennsylvania. 2021. Archived from the original on April 18, 2026. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  3. ↑ Smullens, SaraKay (October 3, 2016). "The Development of an Emotional Sense of Direction: A Clinical Approach to Alleviating and Preventing Burnout". The New Social Worker. Retrieved September 14, 2026.
  4. 1 2 Moore, Paul (July 12, 1960). "Goucher Girl Assists Maryland Delegation". The Evening Sun. Baltimore.
  5. ↑ Landers, Chris (June 14, 2017). "SaraKay Smullens '62". Alumni Spotlight. Goucher Magazine. Goucher College. Retrieved September 15, 2026.
  6. ↑ "Sara Kay Sherman Joining Group To Tour Europe". The Baltimore Sun. June 1962.
  7. ↑ Rottenberg, Dan (May 7, 2013). "Doctors vs. lawyers". Editorials. Broad Street Review. Retrieved September 11, 2026.
  8. ↑ Smullens, SaraKay (January 2010). "The Codification and Treatment of Emotional Abuse in Structured Group Therapy". International Journal of Group Psychotherapy. 60 (1): 111–130. doi:10.1521/ijgp.2010.60.1.111. PMID 20059297.
  9. 1 2 3 "Smullens, SaraKay". Broad Street Review. Retrieved September 11, 2026.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Kaiyi Chen (October 2009). "A Guide to the SaraKay C. Smullens Papers, 1904–2008 (bulk 1960–2000), UPT 50 S666" (PDF). University of Pennsylvania University Archives and Records Center. Retrieved September 11, 2026.
  11. 1 2 Smullens, SaraKay (2012). "What I Wish I Had Known: Burnout and Self-Care in Our Social Work Profession". The New Social Worker. Retrieved September 11, 2026.
  12. ↑ "Book Review: Burnout and Self-Care in Social Work". The New Social Worker. April 18, 2016. Retrieved September 11, 2026.
  13. ↑ "Book Review: Burnout and Self-Care in Social Work, 2nd Edition". The New Social Worker. January 24, 2024. Retrieved September 11, 2026.
  14. ↑ Smullens, SaraKay (November 24, 2023). "What is societal burnout? We are living it". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 11, 2026.
  15. ↑ Smullens, SaraKay (2021). Burnout and Self-Care in Social Work: A Guidebook for Students and Those in Mental Health and Related Professions (2nd ed.). Washington, D.C.: NASW Press. pp. 55–58. ISBN 978-0-87101-570-9.
  16. ↑ Smullens, SaraKay (July 7, 2009). "Harrower's 'Blackbird' revisited". Broad Street Review. Retrieved September 14, 2026.
  17. ↑ Smullens, SaraKay (July 13, 2018). "Jennifer Fox's THE TALE: A Portrayal of Child Sexual Violation, the Complexity of Memory, and Family Vulnerability". The New Social Worker. Retrieved September 11, 2026.
  18. ↑ "SP2 Celebrates Inaugural Inductees at Alumni Hall of Fame Ceremony". School of Social Policy & Practice. University of Pennsylvania. November 2018. Archived from the original on April 18, 2026. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  19. ↑ "NASW member, author inducted into University of Pennsylvania inaugural Social Work Hall of Fame" (Press release). National Association of Social Workers. December 14, 2018. Retrieved September 11, 2026.
  20. ↑ Allen, Caitlyn; Smullens, SaraKay; Smullens, Stanton N. (June 17, 2020). "Dx: Crisis: An Informal Conversation With Stanton N. Smullens, MD, FACS, and SaraKay Smullens, MSW, LCSW, About Burnout, Depression, and COVID-19". Patient Safety. 2 (2). Retrieved September 11, 2026.
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