About Kelly
Kelly Smith is a licensed clinical social worker with thirty years of experience who helps people navigate stress, anxiety, depression, grief, and ADHD-related challenges. Kelly aims to make sessions straightforward and compassionate. Conversations are practical and focused on what matters most to each person.
Kelly uses a warm, interactive style that centers the client's concerns and goals. Sessions are conversational and respectful, with an emphasis on validation and practical steps.
Background and approach
People can expect to talk through patterns, try new strategies, and notice small changes over time. Her background includes long clinical practice and work as a clinical supervisor. That experience brings familiarity with many life situations, including trauma, relationship and intimacy issues, parenting struggles, substance concerns, and LGBTQ matters.
Kelly draws on multiple ways of working to meet different needs. Therapeutic tools are chosen to fit the person rather than force a single method. Cognitive behavioral techniques are used for shifting unhelpful thoughts and behaviors.
Dialectical skills help with emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness. Mindfulness and client-centered methods promote present-moment awareness and a steady therapeutic relationship. Sessions are offered from Virginia and conducted in English.
Kelly can support people coping with life transitions, chronic stress, abandonment or attachment issues, body image or identity concerns, and addiction or co-occurring conditions. The focus stays on practical steps that people can apply between sessions.
Approaches that translate well to online work
Kelly commonly draws on client-centered therapy to build a collaborative, respectful relationship where the person's goals guide sessions. This approach focuses on listening, validation, and tailoring conversations to what the client finds most important.She also uses cognitive behavioral therapy to help people identify patterns in thinking and behavior and to practice concrete skills that reduce symptoms. CBT techniques often include short exercises, behavioral experiments, and homework that work well between online meetings. Dialectical behavior therapy tools are used to teach emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness skills that can be practiced in daily life.
Choosing the right approach is a shared process. Kelly will discuss options at the start and adjust methods based on your needs, goals, and what feels most useful. The focus is on collaborating to find a mix of techniques that fit your situation.
Online therapy offers practical benefits for people with busy schedules or mobility limits. Video calls let you keep face-to-face interaction without traveling. Phone sessions require less bandwidth and can be easier during a short break. Live chat or text-based messaging work well for brief check-ins, journaling between sessions, or when writing out thoughts feels clearer. These options make it simpler to maintain consistency and try new skills in daily life.
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- LGBT
- Relationship issues
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 30 years
- Licensed
- New York, California, Virginia, Washington
- Languages
- English
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