Latasha Smith, Ph.D., LCSW, CGP
Assistant Professor
Dr. Smith earned a PhD in Social Work from the Smith College School of Social Work, an MSW from Loyola University Chicago, and a BA from Roosevelt University. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a Certified Group Psychotherapist.
Her research integrates intersectionality and contemporary psychodynamic theories to examine the impact of internalized racism on Black women’s mental health and functioning, and how psychotherapy can effectively intervene. This work synthesizes psychodynamic theories with sociopolitical perspectives, focusing on application to communities that have been marginalized. From this research, she developed a framework for understanding assessment and intervention of internalized racial oppression in psychotherapy, which has also been adapted into a pedagogical model for classroom use.
Dr. Smith’s current research investigates how anti-racism commitments are translated into direct clinical practice and micro-level interventions with clients.
Her professional experience includes clinical work in child welfare, residential treatment, college counseling, and private practice. Across settings, she prioritizes a clinical, socio-cultural, and anti-racist perspective, with particular interests in group psychotherapy, trauma recovery, and liberation from oppression. As a Certified Group Psychotherapist, she has advanced training and extensive experience working with trauma survivors. She currently maintains an online private practice where she provides individual therapy, facilitates therapy groups, and offers consultation to organizations and institutions on antiracism. Most recently, she supported the development of a racial trauma treatment program for an agency in the Northeast. For Dr. Smith, clinical practice, research, and teaching are interdependent, each informing and strengthening the others.
In teaching, Dr. Smith emphasizes experiential methods and action-based learning to help students translate theory into practice. She has taught both foundational and advanced practice courses, including assessment, clinical practice, group work, and social justice, power, and oppression."
Research Interests
- Liberatory practice, internalized racial oppression and psychotherapy
- Antiracism practice and translation to clinical social work
- Clinical supervision and emerging clinician development
- Mental Health needs of Black college and graduate students
Courses Taught
Graduate Courses
- SOWK 670 Bridging Psychodynamic and CBT Theory and Practice
- SOWK 616 Psychotherapy with Adults