About Kelly
Kelly Smith is a licensed clinical social worker who offers steady, practical help for people feeling overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, loss, or major life changes. Kelly writes and speaks plainly, and aims to make sessions feel accessible and respectful. The first goal is to help a person feel heard and understood so they can start finding clearer ways forward.
With 30 years of experience, Kelly draws on a mix of approaches to match what each person needs.
Background and approach
Sessions often focus on sorting immediate problems, building coping skills, and noticing patterns that keep repeating. Practical tools from cognitive-behavioral work are combined with talk-based reflection to support long-term change. Kelly helps people facing depression, trauma and abuse, grief, addiction concerns, and relationship or intimacy-related issues.
Other common focuses include parenting strain, ADHD, self-esteem struggles, and care around aging or adoption and foster care topics. The therapist also addresses more specific concerns like codependency, communication problems, and body image in straightforward terms. People can expect a warm, interactive style that balances support with clear strategies.
Kelly aims to tailor conversations and exercises to each person’s goals. Sessions emphasize building skills people can use between meetings as well as exploring deeper themes that affect day-to-day life. Kelly holds a Licensed Clinical Social Worker credential and practices in Virginia.
Sessions are offered in English through a mix of remote formats to accommodate different needs and schedules.
How Kelly's Approaches Work Online
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening closely and shaping sessions around what matters most to the person. It helps people feel understood and guides the work at their pace.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, uses clear steps to spot unhelpful thoughts and try new behaviors. It is useful for anxiety, depression, and stress when someone wants concrete tools to manage daily problems.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, adds skills for managing intense emotions and improving how people relate to others. It can help with emotional instability, anger, and relationship difficulties.
Deciding which approach to use is a collaborative process. Kelly will talk with each person about their goals, preferences, and what has or hasn't helped before, then adjust methods over time to find the best fit.
Online therapy offers practical flexibility. Video calls let face-to-face conversation when more connection is helpful. Phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited or a quieter check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging suit brief updates, shorter coaching-style exchanges, or times when typing feels easier than speaking. These options make it simpler to fit therapy around work, caregiving, and busy family life.
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- LGBT
- Relationship issues
Also works with
- 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