Dr. Deborah Smilovitz Foster

Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Neuropsychologist

    Dr. Deborah Smilovitz Foster, specializes in neuropsychology with a sub-specialty in children, trauma and balance.  These areas of expertise have provided a strong foundation about how physiological, neurological, and psychological processes interact.  Dr. Foster has studied and worked with children for over 30 years, first as as a nurse and then as an elementary school teacher.  Her clinical training includes working with gang members, teenage mothers, domestic violence and anger management individuals and groups, domestic violence shelters, women's groups, Santa Barbara County Alcohol, Drug & Mental Health as a certified member of the crisis team (certified to 5150), assessment team and working with children and families.  Her research took place for 3 years at the internationally acclaimed Reiss-Davis Child Study Center-Louis B. Mayer Treatment Center.  This is part of a group of child study centers that includes the Yale and Harvard Child Study Centers. 

    Dr. Smilovitz Foster's research focused on balanced internal and external regulation, parent child attachment, recovering from trauma and therapeutic interventions in collaboration with  Dr. Jim Grotstein of UCLA Geffen Medical School.  In addition to a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in Depth Psychology, Dr. Foster also has a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Global Peace and Security.  Her undergraduate thesis was on solving child abuse nonviolently in our community, used Gandhi’s notion of satyagraha, the search for truth.

     Dr. Smilovitz Foster has given talks and led workshops at schools, Mental Health centers and to parents and professionals for the last several years.  Her work consulting with parents focuses on a healthy, balanced way to relate with their family members and themselves through a deeper understanding of neuropsychological functions.  These skills and tools work toward creating a compassionate, loving and kind relationship that makes each person and situation less stressful and healthier. Her work and training for 8 years with Dr. Radhule Weininger, MD, PhD focused on Cultivating Emotional Balance and well-being as well as Mindfulness Meditation. Dr Weininger instilled her wisdom from collaboration with leaders including the Dalai Lama, Alan Wallace, Jack Kornfield and others. Dr. Foster's training provided a solid sense of how to care for oneself with love, compassion, caring and kindness all from a gentle perspective. To this day these are the keystone of her therapeutic work and her personal life. 

  Dr. Smilovitz Foster is available for personalized individual sessions, lectures, workshops and consultations.  She has been featured in newspapers and television.
​