About
Author of three books, Kimberly Quinn Smith achieved
a Bachelor of Science degree from St. Michael’s
College, majoring in both Biology and Psychology, a reflection
of her interest in both the mind and body and their in
intricate connection. She then attended graduate school
at Boston College and achieved a Masters of Arts degree
in Counseling Psychology. Kimberly has worked within the
field of psychology for over seventeen years as a family
and child therapist, a parenting skills educator, and
a facilitator of teen esteem workshops. She has lived
in the small, rural, northern Vermont town of Montgomery
for ten years with her husband, five children, and dog.
Kimberly believes that mothers need to actively learn
how to practice self-care, as the majority of mothers
have been programmed to put themselves last on the list.
Mothers have become accustomed to deriving their honor
from running on empty and being everybody’s everything.
This is because women have been taught that a good mother
is a selfless mother. To be good to ourselves and to do
what makes our hearts sing would make us selfish and therefore
a bad mother. This is why many of us feel guilty when
we buy a new pair of jeans, or sit down to read a magazine
instead of cleaning the bathroom while the baby is napping.
Kimberly states that, “By taking care of ourselves
and re-charging our batteries, we are better able to enjoy
the lives we have been given as well as being better able
to love and give to our families. By doing so, we are
also role-modeling a healthy lifestyle for our children
who may eventually be parents someday themselves. We need
to stop running around like over-scheduled, anxious gazelles
and return to the moment. The present moment is truly
all that we have. It is also the only place where joy
and peace may be found.”
Kimberly also acknowledges that in this fast-paced world
we live in that this is all easier said than done and
that, “we need to carve out this time and avoid
answering the phone during dinner.” In her book
Striving for the Purple Heart,” Kimberly addresses
the universal feelings of guilt and deprivation that many
mothers feel, the source of these feelings, the concept
of the supermom, as well as strategies to more fully enjoy
motherhood. Kimberly interviews women from across the
country and Canada, talking with stay-at-home moms, career
moms, moms who work out of their homes, and discusses
the issues of each. She also talks with adoptive moms,
moms of blended families, and moms of children with special
needs. Regardless of which category a mom falls into,
the feelings of guilt, failure at not meeting the ideals
we hold onto so tightly of what a perfect mother is, the
need to “score-keep” or compare ourselves
to other mothers is universal, as we are all striving
for that Purple Heart.
In her second book, “On The Fast Track - teens
getting too much too soon in these rapidly changing and
uncertain times and what parents can do to stay connected,”
Kimberly addresses the issues that teenagers are presently
dealing with in relation to their world. She offers strategies
to help parents understand their teens, and in a sense
to grow with them. Kimberly interviews current experts
in the fields of gender issues, social psychology, and
clinical psychology, as well as teens who are struggling
with alcoholism and drug addiction, depression, social
disorders, parenthood, and homosexuality. In “On
the Fast Track,” there is a large focus on the issues
of attachment and emotional disconnection that is so prevalent
in today's society.
