Mark D Smaller, PhD

Mark D. Smaller, Ph.D., is founding president of Forward Edge Services PLC seeing adults, adolescents and children in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. He maintains offices in Douglas/Saugatuck and Grand Rapids, Michigan. In addition to his private practice he consults to schools and to non and for profit corporations. Dr. Smaller received his B.A. degree in English from the University of Michigan, an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He received a certificate in adult, adolescent, and child psychoanalysis from the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. Dr. Smaller is past president of the American Psychoanalytic Association; former Board member, International Psychoanalytic Association; and Executive Director Emeritus, the Neuropsychoanalysis Foundation in New York. As former Public Advocacy Department Head of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Dr. Smaller led lobbying efforts in the United States Congress regarding the impact of trauma on children from community violence. Dr. Smaller is Founding Director of the Project Realize Foundation, having created an in-school treatment and research project in Chicago. Project Realize was awarded the 2012 Award for Excellence by the American Association for Child Psychoanalysis, and was featured in the New York Times, January 2010. Currently, Project Realize supports patients and families in west Michigan unable to afford private psychotherapy, and is funded through grants and private donations. Currently, Dr. Smaller is conducting research on the impact of a self psychological approach in psychotherapy, and its usefulness to psychotherapists.