Non-fiction story by resident featured in newest Chicken Soup for the Soul book

Date: 10/30/2014

EAST LONGMEADOW – More than 100 stories featuring inspiring examples of resilience, positive thinking, and overcoming challenges have been collected for “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Find Your Inner Strength.” One story entitled “Now That’s Therapy!” is a personal non-fiction story by town resident Anthony Smith.

“If you had met me twenty years ago, you'd have said, “Tony Smith will never socialize, never mind be the center of attention for any reason.” Maybe it was because I was picked on for my Tourette’s or being overweight, but by age fifteen I had diagnosable social phobia,” writes Smith on page 347 of Chicken’s newest book published on Oct. 28.

“I yearned for camaraderie and wanted to flirt with girls, but I also feared being subjected to intense scrutiny,” he continued. “Lots of people did like me and invited me to get together, but although I recognized this, I still couldn't shake the nervousness and always refused. Despite therapy and anti-anxiety medications, I spent high school as a melancholy loner thinking I was losing my mind.”

Smith, now 36 years old, said the solution to his teenage anxiety and depression came in the form of his passion tying flies for fishing, which he later realized was a form of solution oriented approach therapy.

“The better I got at [fly tying] I kind of wanted to start meeting people because I wanted to learn more about it,” he explained. “So, I started pushing myself to maybe go to a fly fishing show or get in contact with some local people who are into it.”

Smith said he was later asked to demonstrate his fly tying techniques at shows and tie flies commercially for fishing shops.

“Twenty years later I’m invited to do shows all over Europe and coast to coast to here,” he added. “I do a lot of public speaking and demonstrating. So, ironically the hobby that I took to avoid socializing turned me into quite a socialite.”

Smith is a licensed mental health counselor in Massachusetts with a private psychotherapy practice in Indian Orchard and also works as a juvenile court clinician performing psychological evaluations. 

“I always try to find what’s called a strength based observation; what’s going right in your life that makes you feel good that you want to do more of and let’s look at that,” he explained. “No matter how bad things are, somebody’s always got something right in their life.”

Smith said he has had various fly-fishing magazines published in the past and has contributed to a textbook on abnormal psychology. He also teaches as an adjunct psychology professor at Bay Path University.

“I really enjoy [teaching abnormal psychology] because the kids are really interested in the topic and [there’s] always a lot of discussion,” he said.

Smith said he continues his passion of tying flies in his spare time and also enjoys hiking and backpacking.

“I fished a lot when I was going younger and when I started going to [Springfield College] it just wasn’t worth the time and the effort me to get out,” he added. “But I always had my fly tying stuff and I had a few minutes I could do it and it was a lot easier. I always enjoyed [fly tying]; the art of that.”