SaraKay Smullens

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SaraKay Smullens
Born	(1940-04-10) April 10, 1940 Baltimore, Maryland
🏳️ Citizenship	American
🏫 Education	Skidmore College (1958-1960) Goucher College (1960-1962) (BA), Catholic University, (1963-1964) University of Pennsylvania (1964-1965) (MSW)
💼 Occupation	Clinical social worker, author, family life educator, advocate
🌐 Website	sarakaysmullens.com

SaraKay Smullens (née Sherman; born April 10, 1940) is an American board-certified diplomate in clinical social work, certified family life educator, certified group psychotherapist, author, and advocate. She introduced the concepts of “emotional sense of direction” and “societal burnout” in literature. Smullens has contributed through her research and publications addressing emotional abuse, burnout, and the interplay between personal and societal well-being. Specifically, she has emphasized the impact of unmet emotional needs during formative years on mature development and leadership in families, in work settings, in communities, and in elected and appointed office.

Early life and education

Smullens was born on April 10, 1940, in Baltimore, Maryland. She attended Forest Park High School, where her campaign for student president, an office she won, was opposed by a contingent of male graduates.

She began her undergraduate studies at Skidmore College where, motivated by the Jim Crow laws that permeated her youth, she was drawn to participation in civil rights activities.  Due to her father’s financial reversals and her mother’s illness, she transferred to Goucher College, where she commuted from her home, graduating in 1962. During this period, she led a successful two-year campus coalition to end segregation in Towson, Maryland, where Goucher is located, receiving a graduation award for her leadership and competency.  Her activities led to an introduction to the co-chair of the Maryland Democratic National Committee,  Mildred Otenasek, Ph.D., who invited her to join the Maryland delegation as a page at the 1960 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles and introduced her to John F. Kennedy.

Her first post-college job was at the Democratic National Committee, where she was promoted to a regional coordinator for young Democrats. Kennedy recommended social work as a profession, influencing her decision to pursue a master’s degree.

She initially attended Catholic University’s National Catholic School of Social Service in Washington, DC. After Kennedy’s assassination, she transferred to the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work (now the School of Social Policy and Practice), where her scholarship and stipend were continued. She completed her degree in 1965. While working at the Philadelphia Psychiatric Center, the director of residency training, Morris Brody, MD, invited her to attend residency courses. Subsequently, Smullens began training in psychoanalysis with psychiatrist Eli Marcovitz.

Career

Smullens began her career in 1965 as a protective service social worker with the Philadelphia Society to Protect Children (formerly The Philadelphia Society to Protect Children from Cruelty), where she had her student placement. From 1966 to 1968, she worked at the Philadelphia Psychiatric Center.  Pregnant with her first child, she was fired from the center after reporting a resident beating a patient in a locked room for not following instructions. Benjamin R. Sprafkin, known to all as Ben, the executive director of Philadelphia’s Jewish Family Service, now known as Jewish Family and Children’s Agency, immediately hired her as a family counselor, lauding her bravery.  This period marked Smullens’s deep investment in the birth of the Pennsylvania Society for Clinical Social Work in 1971. During her employment, she introduced the term “relationship counselor,” in this way offering service to unmarried couples.  In 1971, she became director of the agency's family life education programming.  During her tenure as the Agency’s union representative, she led a successful campaign to extend health insurance to support staff members.  When negotiations reached a standstill, a team walk-out led to resolve. This achievement was important to Smullens because her assistant, Roz Blanton, died of cancer without insurance.

Through their collaboration, Blanton and Smullens initiated an outreach that Smullens today describes as an example of the “Good Trouble” advocated by the late John Lewis. At that time, the Jewish Family Service operated as a sectarian agency, providing assistance to those of varying income levels, with a generous sliding scale for economically vulnerable families. When Smullens conducted intake interviews on the phone each Tuesday, she asked those seeking counseling if learning about the patriarch Abraham was important to their religion. This approach allowed her to extend services to both Christian and Muslim clients. In their small corner office setting, Blanton served tea to a diverse population. When executive director Sprafkin noticed the unusual names among Smullens’s cases, he decided to visit the area. Initially, he raised his voice in booming concern, but Blanton offered him tea, and Smullens reassured him that all clients were, in fact, descended from Abraham. By the end of his visit, Sprafkin left with a smile, telling Blanton and Smullens to “carry on.” The agency board was never informed about this outreach initiative.

Smullens opened her far-reaching private and pro bono clinical and advocacy practice in Philadelphia in 1973. Concurrently, she became part of a group of women brought together by their mentor, feminist Ernesta Drinker Ballard. The group was devoted to strengthening several struggling Philadelphia-based non-profits supporting women and girls in the Greater Philadelphia region. Under Ballard’s leadership in 1974, they convened as the Pennsylvania Women’s Bicentennial Committee. In 1977, the group was chartered as Women’s Way.

Through the years, Smullens’s concentrations extended to the differences between burnout and depression and intergenerational mental health issues, such as invisible cycles of emotional abuse, always part of physical and sexual violence, but meriting their own codification. Her research identified "five cycles of emotional abuse" – rage, enmeshment, rejection/abandonment, severe neglect, extreme overprotection and overindulgence. Smullen wishes she had researched another cycle, corrupting.  Further, Smullens introduced the concept of an "emotional sense of direction" to navigate life's challenges. In addition, she developed the concept of "societal burnout," a state resulting from prolonged, festering, unaddressed societal problems, often exacerbated by dysfunctional leaders motivated by greed and the desire for power and control over others.

Smullens’s work on burnout expanded professional burnout to include its origins in personal, relational, physical, and societal backgrounds, and the interaction of the arenas where burnout is found. These include the intellectual and psychological self, close relationships, physical well-being, and societal challenges, such as the dangers of unaddressed issues, the exhausting impact of continuous 24-7 media exposure, and the preponderance of repetitive false information. She emphasizes that in all healthy settings, anxiety flows upward. There is someone trustworthy to turn to address concerns. In dangerous, dysfunctional settings anxieties are purposefully imposed from the top, causing lack of trust and angry division. The goal is to frighten people and institutions into acquiescence and withdrawal to achieve unquestioned control.

In 1974, Smullens joined the academic staff of Hahnemann Medical College and University, leaving as a clinical assistant professor in 1997 when her Department of Mental Health Technology, led by esteemed Piaget scholar, Hugh Rosen, DSW, was disbanded. During this teaching period she won an award for most outstanding clinical teacher.

From 1970 to 1978, she conducted courses, seminars, lectures, and workshops at the YMHA of Philadelphia. She also taught educational courses for men and women at Temple University and courses at the Philadelphia College of the Arts in the 1980s.

Between 1976 and 1982, Smullens contributed columns to The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Bulletin, addressing social and public policy issues. During Lynne Abraham's tenure as Philadelphia District Attorney (1991–2010), she provided pro bono intensive therapy to carefully selected first offenders in domestic violence cases where there were no fatalities. Decisions about therapy direction were made on a case-by-case basis, where combinations of group psychotherapy, individual therapy, relationship therapy, and family life education were selected as alternatives to incarceration.

Smullens was also involved in the necessary legislative reform of Pennsylvania’s antiquated divorce laws, where Philadelphia was the only state with the following lethal combination: no “no-fault” divorce, no equitable division of marital property, and no alimony. Through her columns and articles in different publications, she told stories of the suffering of those whose lives and safety were put on hold due to brutal laws, which were finally reformed in 1980.

With the support of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Jewish Congress, where she was a board member from 1995 through 1999, Smullens founded the Sabbath of Domestic Peace Coalition, a diverse, multicultural bonding of religious leaders, the domestic violence community, social workers, physicians, attorneys, volunteers, and law enforcement officials who identified clergy as "a missing link" in addressing the complexities of the virulent epidemic of domestic violence, which prayer alone could not solve. The SDP Coalition stressed that once domestic violence was reported, the couple could not be seen together, as doing so placed the reporter and children in danger. Trainings for clergy and parishioners were held throughout Philadelphia and surrounding areas.  The Coalition’s yearly non-denominational prayer service was attended by hundreds. After several years, the SDP Coalition was able to disband as individual faith communities and houses of worship incorporated their mission.

From 1984 to 1996, Smullens was a member of the Women’s Board of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, serving on the executive board as secretary from 1989 to 1995. During this period, she worked to provide ecumenical in-service support to patients and their families desiring it. Her correspondence is with the Jefferson University archives, with papers documenting the history of the hospital’s dedicated Women’s Board, which celebrated its centennial anniversary in 2007. Copies are also housed with Smullens’s papers in the University of Pennsylvania archives. Of special interest are personalized letters of condolence.

In the 1990s, Smullens served as a board member of her University of Pennsylvania social work alma mater, where in 1997, she introduced the Crystal Stair Award to recognize "natural social workers,” volunteers and professionals from any discipline who have worked passionately for social justice and the elimination of prejudice and oppression. The Award was named for the central image in Langston Hughes's 1922 poem "Mother to Son":

“Don't you fall now--

For I'se still goin', honey,

I'se still climbin'

And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.”

Recipients of the inaugural 1977 award were Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund; C.B. Kimmins, executive director and chief of staff of Mantua Against Drugs; and the New York-based attorneys Jeffery D. Lobach and Craig T. Trebilcock, who provided pro bono advocacy on behalf of Chinese refugees from the freighter Golden Venture.

Between 2008 and 2014, Smullens served as a trustee of her alma mater, Goucher College, and chaired the college’s Trustee Campus Life Committee (now called the Student Success Committee) from 2010 to 2013.

In 1994, Ed Rendell, Philadelphia's mayor from 1992-2000, appointed Smullens to the Child Welfare Advisory Board, where she was elected Vice Chair in 1994 and Chair in 1995.  This appointment showed Smullens the dire conditions many of Philadelphia’s children endured. Press coverage of children who died tragically and unnecessarily during this time are with Smullens’s papers in the Archives of the University of Pennsylvania, including one child in the city’s care, identified as Tara M., who endured a nightmare while in the city’s care.  Tara M. was burned on her genitalia for masturbating by her foster parents in the process of adopting her. This period coincided with Smullens's pro bono clinical work, and workers from various city agencies requested training in her approach, which in 2010 had been highlighted in the peer-reviewed journal, the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy.

Smullens was nominated twice for the Philadelphia School Board, once during the tenure of Ed Rendell (1992-2000) and subsequently during the mayorship of John Street (2000-2008).  She urged the city officials who interviewed her to recognize that far too many of Philadelphia’s youth were too traumatized to learn. Smullens advised that their teachers were in an excellent position to identify children in need, and computers could be used to track the progress of families requiring assistance, She emphasized how essential it was for traumatized children to receive high-quality therapy. Smullens also stressed that it was necessary for teachers and the mental health professionals who worked with them to be in close communication and involve parents and caretakers in the well-being of the children in their care. She also suggested the involvement of church and synagogue communities in Philadelphia and suburban areas who could provide mentors for Philadelphia children, offering skills, such as computer competency, to enhance their lives.  Smullens was not selected for the School Board under either administration. Although she presented her pro bono proposal to city leaders three times in response to those who asked to be trained in her model, offering to supervise their work until they felt secure, her offer was rejected.

Disappointed but undaunted, she decided to turn to writing. Three books that followed, and related commentaries, film, and theatre reviews offer what she hoped to provide in training. From 2008 through 2011, Smullens wrote monthly commentaries for the Philadelphia Daily News.  From 2009 to 2022, she served on the planning committee for One Book Philadelphia. She has utilized an understanding of the complexities of psychological vulnerabilities and recovery from abuse as a consultant for Philadelphia's Theater Exile and Jennifer Fox’s 2018 film, The Tale, which focused on Fox’s sexual abuse at age 13 by two trusted mentors. Smullens also co-chaired the inaugural board of the Live Well (With Depression) Foundation from 2017 to 2019. Since 2018, she has served as the film reviewer for The New Social Worker Magazine. In 2021, her letter submissions began to appear with regularity in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Smullens believes that appropriate, understandable reactions to life events, such as the loss of a beloved partner,  betrayal, and connivance by those trusted have been pathologized. Her training and clinical experience show the effectiveness of talk therapy with a trusted clinician, which leads to insight and the development of a reliable “emotional sense of direction.” This growth is protected and enhanced through personalized self-care behaviors, strategies, and attitudes. In like manner, she views the cause of burnout to be overload, a syndrome, not a psychiatric disorder.

Since 1989, SaraKay Smullens has been delivering lectures, facilitating discussions, and giving presentations in personal, business, professional, and academic settings.

Throughout her professional career, Smullens has drawn attention to relationship challenges and societal issues, such as emotional abuse and burnout. At the heart of her teaching is an emphasis on the interplay between personal development and familial and societal health. She addresses ways in which unmet childhood emotional needs experienced by leaders in families, work settings, and elected and appointed office are dangerously and tragically displaced to achieve dominance of those who rely on them.

Smullens’s work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals and blogs, such as Huffington Post, Medium, and Thrive Global, the online magazine The New Social Worker, and newspapers throughout the United States. Her research on burnout resulted in Burnout and Self-Care in Social Work (2016), which analyzed burnout as a syndrome, not a psychiatric disorder. A second edition, published in 2021, expanded on these ideas, introducing the dangers of societal burnout, compounded by dysfunctional leadership. Her articles and research have been cited in over 70 academic papers. Her research papers and professional memorabilia are divided between the Archives of the University of Pennsylvania, the Library Collections of Goucher College, and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

As of 2025, Smullens continues her expressions of “Good Trouble.”  Her passionate stands against injustice and dangerous leadership in families, work settings, on boards, and in elected and appointed offices continue to be expressed through her clinical work, presentations, teaching, writing, and advocacy.

Selected publications

Books

• Whoever Said Life Is Fair? A Guide to Growing Through Life’s Injustices (1980, Charles Scribners; 1982, 1984 Berkley trade paperback; 1988 Berkley mass market edition; 2000 paperback, iUniverse)
• Setting YourSelf Free: Breaking the Cycle of Emotional Abuse in Family, Friendships, Work, and Love (2002, New Horizon Press)
• Burnout and Self-Care in Social Work: A Guidebook for Students and Those in Mental Health and Related Professions (2016, NASW Press; 2nd edition, 2021, NASW Press)

Articles

• “Counseling the Clergy on How to Help Victims of Domestic Violence (Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association, 2001)
• "The Five Cycles of Emotional Abuse: Investigating a Malignant Victimization" (Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association, 2002)
• "Developing an Emotional Sense of Direction: Therapeutic Model for the Treatment of Emotional Abuse" (Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association, 2003)
• "The Codification and Treatment of Emotional Abuse in Structured Group Therapy" (International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 2010)
• "The University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work: Reflections of a Graduate" (in A Century of Social Work and Social Welfare at Penn, edited by Ram A. Cnaan, et al., University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2008)
• "Courage" and "Loyalty" (in Wisdom for Parents, edited by Robert E. Keim & Arminta L. Jacobson, de Sitter Publications, Canada, 2011)
• "Friendship" (in Coming of Age: An eBook for Those Over Fifty, edited by Gloria Hochman, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 2011)

• "Male Sex Assault and the Silence of Women" (Broad Street Review, May 2011) (Reprinted in The Huffington Post, January 2017)
• "Addressing the Prevalence of Emotional Abuse of College Age Female Students" (NASW Intersections in Practice, June 2011)
• "Review of Film, Blue Valentine" (The Huffington Post, February 2011)
• "The Failure of Trusteeship at Penn State" (The Huffington Post, January 2012)
• "What I Wish I Had Known: Burnout and Self-Care in Our Social Work Profession" (The New Social Worker, November 2012)
• "The Universality of The Sessions: Why This Film Can Help All Couples Sustain Committed Love and Avoid Divorce" (The Huffington Post, November 2012)

• "The Unpredictable Messiness of Real Life (a review of the film Margaret)" (Philadelphia Broad Street Review, January 2013)
• “The Great Divide: A Growing Disconnect Response to the DSM” (The New Social Worker, Fall 2013)
• “Harper Lee’s sister: Protector or warden?” (Broad Street Review, August 2015)
• “The Road to Resilience: Its Achievement and Maintenance” (Network, Spring 2017)
• “The Prevalence and Impact of Emotional Abuse and the Gifts of Reflection” (The Philadelphia Lawyer, Philadelphia Bar Association Quarterly Magazine, 2022)
• “Riding the Waves of Burnout" (Philadelphia Medicine, SPRING 2022)
• “What is societal burnout? We are living it” (Chicago Tribune, 2023)
• “The Heart and Art of Social Work Relationships: Protecting the Future with a Strong Deterrent to Burnout” (Private Practice Specialty, 2024)

• “The Enemy Within: Donald J. Trump” (Medium, March 20, 2025)

Selected awards and honors

• Peace Medal, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (1962)
• Listed in Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities (1962)
• Louise Waterman Wise Award, American Jewish Congress (1996)
• Woman Leader of Distinction Award, The Eastern Region Women’s Ministry,  the  Pennsylvania Baptist State Convention (2003)
• Lifetime Achievement Award, Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (2004)
• A Woman of Distinction Award,  Jewish Women International Pennsylvania Chapter (2004)
• Ethel Cockey Alumnae/i Award, Goucher College (2012)
• NASW Media Award for "What I Wish I Had Known: Burnout and Self-Care in Our Social Work Profession" (The New Social Worker) (2013)

• Social Worker of the Year Award, NASW-PA (2018)
• Induction into the inaugural Hall of Fame, University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice (2018)
• Kermit D. Nash Award, Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care (2021)

References

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