About Kelly
Kelly Smith is a licensed clinical social worker with thirty years helping people manage worry, stress, and major life changes. Kelly offers a calm and respectful presence for people feeling overwhelmed by anxiety, depression, grief, or relationship strain. Sessions focus on practical steps and clear conversation.
Kelly listens first, then works with each person to build small, manageable changes. The tone is warm and direct, with attention to respect and sensitivity.
Background and approach
Kelly draws on client-centered methods and cognitive-behavioral approaches to help people notice unhelpful patterns and try new ways of thinking and acting. Dialectical behavior strategies and mindfulness practices are added when people need tools to tolerate strong emotions and stay grounded.
Across three decades of practice Kelly has worked with many kinds of concerns, including trauma and abuse, addictions, parenting stress, relationship problems, and issues related to LGBT identity. Kelly also supports people coping with ADHD, bipolar mood concerns, and compassion fatigue brought on by caregiving or work stress. Therapy sessions are tailored to the person’s needs.
Kelly aims to create a steady, collaborative relationship where goals are revisited and techniques are adjusted as progress is made. The focus is on useful steps you can take between sessions. People who prefer straightforward guidance alongside empathetic listening often find this style helpful.
Kelly practices in Virginia and brings long experience guiding people toward more manageable days and clearer choices.
Approaches that translate to online therapy
Clients often work with cognitive behavioral techniques to identify patterns of thinking and behavior that keep anxiety and depression active, then try small behavioral experiments to test new ways of coping. Client-centered therapy focuses on building a respectful, collaborative relationship where the person's own goals guide each session. DBT skills offer concrete tools for managing intense emotions, improving distress tolerance, and strengthening communication in relationships.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. Kelly will talk through goals, preferences, and day-to-day realities to decide which methods to emphasize. That plan can change over time as progress is made and new needs arise, with regular check-ins to see what is helping.
Online therapy offers practical flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation when a fuller interaction is helpful. Phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging suit quick questions, brief check-ins, or people who prefer written reflection. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, caregiving, or travel schedules while keeping the focus on steady progress.
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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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