About Shawanda
Dr. Shawanda Woods-Smith welcomes people who are feeling overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, relationship struggles, or life transitions. She is a Louisiana psychologist with a calm, straightforward approach.
She aims to help people find practical steps they can use right away to feel steadier and more in control. Dr. Woods-Smith draws on client-centered work to keep sessions focused on each person's goals.
She also uses cognitive behavioral techniques to help people notice unhelpful thoughts and try different behaviors.
Background and approach
Mindfulness and solution-focused methods are included when they fit the person's needs. In sessions she emphasizes collaboration and clear explanations. People can expect straightforward talk, practical exercises, and short-term goals that reflect their real life.
She also provides psychoeducation about how mood, stress, relationships, and biology can interact. Her background includes 16 years of clinical experience as a practicing psychologist in Louisiana. The profile lists her credential as LA Psychologist 1298 and that experience covers a range of concerns from depression and grief to addictions and ADHD.
Dr. Woods-Smith often helps people dealing with family and relationship stress, parenting strain, caregiver burden, and communication or commitment issues. She also addresses trauma and abuse, immigration-related issues, and end-of-life concerns.
Her work aims to support clearer thinking and more manageable day-to-day coping. Sessions are offered in English and are available through multiple online formats. People who want to try therapy can start by completing a short matching questionnaire and scheduling a session based on the listed process.
How specific approaches work online and in sessions
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and building goals that matter to the person. The therapist uses reflective conversation to help people clarify what they want to change and to guide each session by those priorities.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and try different behaviors. It is often used for anxiety, depression, and coping with stress by breaking larger problems into small, practical steps.
Mindfulness therapy offers simple attention and breathing practices to reduce reactivity and increase awareness. That approach can help people manage strong emotions and return to calm when they feel overwhelmed.
Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, try techniques, and adjust methods based on what works best. Clients and therapist decide together which strategies to keep or change.
Online therapy makes these approaches accessible through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video is helpful for face-to-face conversation and visual cues, phone works well when bandwidth is limited, live chat supports shorter check-ins, and messaging lets people share thoughts between sessions. These options provide flexibility to fit sessions into busy schedules and differing daily demands.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 16 years
- Licensed
- Louisiana
- Languages
- English
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