Dr. Martez Smith, LMSW

12/04/2025

A Native Son Conversation: Kalvin Leveille, Dr. Martez Smith, and Steven Claiborne talk candidly about being HIV+, access to care, and the well being of the Black q***r community in the era of cutbacks, healthcare, employment, and housing insecurities;

A Native Son Conversation: Kalvin Leveille, Dr. Martez Smith, and Steven Claiborne talk candidly about being HIV+, access to care, and the wellbeing of the B...

12/04/2025

The NYCenter for Advancing Translational Research & Health – Community Engagement Core, in collaboration with the Brooklyn Community Pride Center, recently hosted a powerful fireside chat reflecting on the history, radical changes, and future of HIV prevention and treatment.

Over the past four decades, the HIV landscape has shifted from fear and stigma to groundbreaking advancements in long-acting prevention and care. Our communities have led that change — with resilience, innovation, and love.

This intergenerational panel conversation honored those who paved the way, addressed today’s challenges, and imagined a healthier future for all.

🎥 Watch the recording below to hear insights from:

• Jennifer Barnes-Balenciaga
• Juan Michael Porter II
• Aracelis Quinones
• Maria A. Davis

🎤 Moderated by Dr. Martez Smith, LMSW

Thank you to everyone who joined us in commemorating World AIDS Day and elevating the voices and experiences that continue to shape the movement.

11/18/2025

Western psychiatry has historically labeled Indigenous grief, Black resistance, or immigrant anxiety as pathology rather than responses to oppression. So therapy often educates marginalized people to see their reactions to systemic violence as personal defects, instead of as reasonable responses to racial trauma. In addition, Therapy often teaches people of color to cope with racism instead of confront, resist, or transform it.

A Eurocentric lens says:
• meditate through your oppression
• regulate your trauma
• adjust your thinking
• focus on the self, not the system

This produces “good, manageable clients”—not liberated ones. This turns therapy into an institutional tool designed to maintain the status quo.

In this essential conversation with Dr. Jennifer Mullan, author of Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma, and Politicizing Your Practice, we face a truth long evaded in Eurocentric clinical training:
Therapy is not—and has never been—neutral.

Register here: https://scienceandnonduality.com/event/therapy-is-not-neutral-a-decolonial-invitation-to-remember-relearn-and-resist/

07/10/2025

Looking for Therapy in New York State?

I’m currently accepting new clients for evening sessions and working with the following insurance plans:

🧠 1199 SEIU
🧠 Affinity/Molina (including Medicaid)
🧠 Carelon: HIP, EmblemHealth – Commercial
🧠 CDPHP Magnacare
🧠 First Health Network Magnacare
🧠 Healthfirst (including Medicaid)
🧠 Independent Health (IHA) – Commercial
🧠 Magnacare
💳 Self-pay options are also available

If you’re ready to start your therapy journey, complete our online referral form to reserve a slot:
👉

Comprehensive Counseling LCSW provides online patient referral forms at our offices in New York Ciy, NY. Learn more and call to schedule your appointment today!

04/28/2025

“come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.”

Excerpt from
won’t you celebrate with me
Lucille Clifton

04/25/2025

You've worked your entire life to get to where you are now. Sometimes it feels like the rug is being snatched from under your feet. Don't let that disillusion you and stop your motivation. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going.

04/21/2025

✨ Welcome! ✨

I’m Dr. Martez Smith, LMSW (he/him), and I’m so excited to announce that I am back in business as a therapist with Comprehensive Counseling LCSW! I offer therapeutic services via telehealth to individuals and couples residing in the state of New York. I support all types of people with an emphasis on creatives, organizers, and community-rooted folks, especially Black, LGBTQ+, and other marginalized communities who are navigating identity, healing from trauma, and doing the deep work of showing up for themselves and others.

This is a space for rest, reflection, and real talk. A space where your story matters. A space where you don’t have to shrink.

Whether you’re feeling stuck, burned out, grieving, or just ready to grow—I’m here to walk alongside you.

💜Let’s build something grounded in care, truth, and liberation💜

***rmentalhealth