Kathy Smith, LCSW, LICSW

Kathy Smith is a licensed clinical social worker with 40 years of practice. She helps people who are dealing with stress, anxiety, grief, depression, coping with life changes, and compassion fatigue. She treats each person with respect and compassion and focuses on practical steps forward.

Kathy believes people are doing the best they can with the skills they have. She works from that starting point and supports gradual change. Conversations are shaped to fit each person rather than using one fixed plan.

Her approach blends straightforward, evidence-informed methods with a warm, client-centered stance. Sessions include skill building, gentle reflection, and concrete strategies to manage mood and stress. She also works with issues like loneliness, family of origin concerns, caregiver stress, and feelings of guilt or shame.

Kathy tailors the plan to what matters most to the individual. That can mean practicing new ways of thinking, trying mindfulness exercises, or setting small, achievable goals. She encourages clients to notice what helps and to adjust the approach as needed.

Getting started is treated as a team effort. Kathy recognizes the courage it takes to reach out and aims to make the first steps clear and manageable. Her years of experience inform a calm, steady style that focuses on day-to-day improvements.

How Kathy uses therapy approaches online

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, helps people notice what matters to them and take small actions toward those values even when hard thoughts or feelings show up. It often supports people facing grief, life changes, or ongoing anxiety. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on identifying unhelpful thought patterns and testing new behaviors to reduce symptoms like worry or low mood. It pairs well with practical coping skills for daily stress. Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes a respectful, nonjudgmental conversation where the therapist follows the person's lead and helps them find their own answers.

Kathy treats choosing an approach as a collaborative step. She will talk with each person about goals, try methods that fit their needs, and adjust the plan based on what helps. The emphasis is on working together to find the best fit rather than sticking to one fixed model.

Confirm the session formats available before booking, as the biography does not list specific online or in-person options. In practice, online work can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy day, allow brief check-ins when schedules are tight, and reduce travel time. Kathy aims to adapt session content to what a person can realistically use between meetings, whether that means short skill practice, mindfulness exercises, or step-by-step behavior changes.