About - Brain Bridge Psychological Healt

About Us

Meet Andrea

Dr. Andrea Wierzchowski is a licensed psychologist and co-founder of Brain Bridge Psychology and Behavioral Health, PLLC. With a background in clinical and neuropsychology, she brings extensive experience from hospital, community mental health, academic, and private practice settings. Dr. Wierzchowski oversees the strategic and operational aspects of Brain Bridge, ensuring that the practice maintains the highest standards of clinical excellence, ethical care, and professional development. Her leadership and clinical insight help guide the team’s mission of delivering compassionate, evidence-based psychological services to individuals across the lifespan.

Meet Amy

Dr. Amy Fisher-Smith is a licensed psychologist and co-founder of Brain Bridge Psychology and Behavioral Health, PLLC. Dr. Fisher-Smith has over 25 years of experience in clinical psychology with expertise in diagnostic, cognitive, and neuropsychological assessment. Her clinical work has spanned hospital, rehabilitation, and private practice settings, including the South Texas Veterans Health Care System and the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services. In addition to her clinical practice, Dr. Fisher-Smith has trained and supervised doctoral-level clinicians, integrating her deep expertise in assessment, ethics, and evidence-based care with a humanistic, phenomenological approach. An active researcher and publisher, she has been a long time member of the American Psychological Association, serving on the executive committee of Division 24 of the American Psychological Association, The Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology for almost two decades in various capacities, and is currently the division’s representative for the Divisions for Social Justice. She is also on the editorial board of the Division 32 journal, The Humanistic Psychologist.

Publications

Fisher Smith, A., Sullivan, C., Msall, K., & Roffino, J. P. (2025). Last Girls: Necropolitical Death-Worlds and Agentic Resistance Among Yazidi Female Survivors of Genocide. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/teo0000329

Churchill, S.D. & Fisher Smith, A. (2025). Psychological resilience as striving to preserve oneself: On the possibility of a “positive” existential psychology. Journal of Positive Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2025.2509984

Churchill, S.D. & Fisher Smith, A. (2025). Qualitative methods for humanistic and existential research grounded in phenomenological, hermeneutic, and constructivist paradigms. In Louis Hoffman & Eugene de Robertis (Eds). APA Handbook of Humanistic and Existential Psychology, American Psychological Association.

Fisher Smith, A., Sullivan, C., Msall, K., Roffino, J. Telander, J., & Temminck, J. Barajas, I. (2024). Gendered traumatization: Male and female survivors of the Yazidi genocide and ISIS captivity. Journal of History, 59 (2), 95-120.

Churchill, S.D. & Fisher Smith, A. (2023). Existenzielle phänomenologische forschung: Eineverstehend-geisteswissenschaftliche alternativefürdie psychologie. Journal für Psychologie, 31(1),82–102. https://doi.org/10.30820/0942-2285-2023-1-82

Fisher Smith, A. & Sullivan, C. (2022). Exiting Far-Right Extremism: A Case Study in Applying the Developmental Core Need Framework. Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, 1-22. DOI: 10.1080/19434472.2022.2076718

Churchill, S.D. & Fisher Smith, A. (2022). Existential phenomenological research: A
‘human science’ alternative for psychology. In Brent Slife, Stephen Yanchar, & Frank Richardson (Eds). Routledge International Handbook of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology. (pp 473-494). Routledge.

Fisher Smith, A., Sullivan, C., Macready, J., & Manzi, G. (2020). Identity reconfiguration and the core needs framework: Exit narratives among former far-right extremists. Journal for De-radicalization, 22, 1-36.

Fisher Smith, A., Sullivan, C., Macready, J., & Manzi, G. (2020). Methodology matters: Researching the far right. Researching the Far Right: Theory, Method, and Practice, A. Winter, G. Macklin, & J. Busher (Eds.). New York: Routledge.

Fisher Smith, A., Sullivan, C., Freeman, E., & Alonso, A. (2016). Ambivalent Engagement: Relational Connection and Depthful Dwelling in a Site of Conscience. Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History, 23, 1-26. doi.org/10.1080/17504902.2016.1209283

Wierzchowski, A. (Anticipated Winter 25/26). Babi the Butterfly. A children’s book on grief. Currently in formatting phase.

Wierzchowski, A. (2025). Cystic Fibrosis. In Maricle, D. E., Bedford, C., Gettman, J., Miller, D.C., & Johnson, W. L. (Eds.), Understanding and Managing Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Children and Adolescents: A Pediatric Treatment Guide.

Routledge