Cale Smart, MA
cale.smart@avantinw.com
(360) 559-1229
Cale sees clients in person and online
Education and Training:
Anticipated graduation May 2025 - Doctor of Psychology from Northwest University
Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Northwest University
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Seattle University
Cale first became interested in Psychology during his undergraduate studies where he found an opportunity to combine his desire to help others and an academic interest in human behavior, development, and cognition. His training and professional experience has been varied, but predominantly focused on child and adolescent mental health and assessment. His training and work while completing an internship at the Boys Town Family Home Program has solidified his desire to work with children and teens, while exemplifying the beliefs of Father Flannigan, founder of Boys Town, “no such thing as a bad boy, only bad environment, bad modeling, and bad teaching.”
Background and Experience:
Cale is a compassionate and warm clinician who seeks to challenge and support his clients in equal parts. In addition to schooling and training while completing his doctorate, which included positions at the University of Washington’s Autism Center and the Boys Town Family Home Program, Cale has also served as a missionary for his church in Frankfurt, Germany, where he aimed to help others find more purpose in life and recover from addiction. This experience was directly correlated with Cale’s decision to pursue study in Psychology and continues to shape and inform his worldview. Professionally, Cale has held case manager and support staff positions within two community mental health organizations (Sound in Auburn, WA, and Comprehensive Healthcare in Yakima, WA). Outside of academics and the professional sphere, Cale is a devoted husband and a grateful father of a wonderful toddler - who challenges his understanding of child psychology daily. Some of his favorite things are walks and bike rides with his family, enjoying a good book or tv show, and experimenting in the kitchen on new dishes.
Special Interests and Services:
Cale is passionate about helping clients to achieve their goals and to reach beyond their present situations. To this end, he has extensive experience in counseling teens and children, both individually and within the family setting, especially those who are struggling with trauma, behavioral challenges at school, anxiety, OCD, ADHD, and behavioral challenges related to Autism. Cale’s approach is unique to every case, but typically seeks to reach beyond the therapy room to involve parents, teachers, and mentors to support his clients along their way to becoming the best version of themselves. To this end, Cale employs an eclectic, toolbox approach where he utilizes components and interventions from a diverse range of modalities in order to optimally tailor treatment to each case. The primary therapy modalities he uses include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Processing therapy, Exposure and Response Prevention, Habit Reversal Training, and elements of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy. Cale believes passionately that parents are key members of the treatment team for any child and seeks to equip them to succeed as the agents of change their child needs in order to achieve their therapy goals.