Meet the founder

Rachel Robb Avery, Ph.D., President and Founder, Smart Thot

Dr. Avery developed Smart Thot products to reflect a balance between clinical theory and fun execution.

She is a licensed Clinical Child Psychologist, with over 30 years of experience with children and parents. Dr. Avery is a published author on topics that cover infant mental health, childhood trauma and resilience, child social emotional development, play assessment and therapy, parent-child relationships and child friendships.

Dr. Avery has taught and supervised students of various professional disciplines (medical, school psychology, education, social work). She has developed a curriculum for training professionals in play therapy that she has introduced overseas to the Latvian Medical Academy as well as to the University of Rochester and the Maine Medical Center. She has lectured about trauma in the very young child in Egypt and Israel. She also worked on the original "Study Buddies" curriculum which promotes childrens' successful social skill developments and is distributed by the Internationally recognized Children's Institute in Rochester. Dr. Avery has also served as an expert witness in court.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Williams College, Dr. Avery received her M.S. in Counseling at the State University New York at Albany and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Rochester. She has three children and resides in Southern Maine.