SaraKay Smullens
Contributor
BSR Contributor Since August 9, 2008
SaraKay Smullens (she/her pronouns) is a licensed diplomate in clinical social work and a trained family therapist and educator, and the best-selling author of Whoever Said Life Is Fair?, Setting Yourself Free: Breaking the Cycle of Emotional Abuse in Family, Friendship, Love and Work, and Burnout and Self-Care in Social Work. Find out more at www.sarakaysmullens.com.
SaraKay Smullens, MSW, LCSW, BCD, CGP, CFLE, whose private and pro bono clinical practice is based in Philadelphia, is a long-time contributor to BSR and a best-selling author. A licensed diplomate in clinical social work and family therapist, she is certified as both family life educator and group psychotherapist. SaraKay’s fourth book, Burnout and Self-Care in Social Work: A Guidebook for Students and Those in Mental Health and Related Professions (edition 2), was published in 2021 (NASW Press). She has published in peer-reviewed journals, on numerous blogs, including The Huffington Post, and the popular press, and writes monthly film reviews for The New Social Worker.
In 2004 SaraKay received a Lifetime Achievement Award from NASW-PA for the recognition of clergy as “the missing link” in confronting domestic violence and subsequent trainings offered as well as her identification of invisible cycles of emotional abuse, always part of physical and sexual abuse, but meriting their own codification. In 2018, due to her advisory contributions to film maker Jennifer Fox’s award-winning drama, The Tale, she received the organization's Social Worker of the Year award.
In 2018, SaraKay was one of five graduates of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice (SP2) selected for their inaugural Hall of Fame. In 2021, due to her years of clinical concentration, advocacy, and activism, the Society of Social Work Leadership in Health Care selected her for their Kermit D. Nash Award. SaraKay’s professional papers and memorabilia are divided between the archives of the University of Pennsylvania, Goucher College, and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
