About Kate
Kate Oliver-Smith is a psychotherapeutic counsellor with 13 years of experience. She combines counselling skills with former human resources work to help people set and reach realistic goals. Kate is warm, down to earth and approachable in sessions.
She works in English and accepts international clients while based in the United Kingdom. Her career began in human resources, helping people and teams with mediation, coaching and workplace problems. That background shaped her practical way of working and led her to train in psychotherapy, cognitive behavioural approaches and person-centred practice.
Background and approach
She uses those methods to respond to what each person brings. In sessions she focuses on what a person wants to change. She draws on client-centred listening and evidence-based techniques to address anxiety, depression, stress and phobias.
Kate also supports people with relationship and intimacy concerns, grief, addictions and issues around self-esteem and identity. She pays attention to life events and attachment themes, so work can include areas such as abandonment, adoption and foster care, or separation and divorce. Practical coping strategies are offered alongside space to reflect on feelings and patterns of behaviour.
The aim is to help people build skills and clearer choices. Kate is comfortable using a mix of short-term and deeper work. She will tailor sessions to each person’s goals, whether that means focused problem-solving, exploring past influences, or developing new ways of coping.
Her style is straightforward and compassionate.
Therapeutic approaches and online options
Kate commonly uses client-centred therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy as part of her work. Client-centred therapy focuses on listening without judgement and helping a person find their own answers; it can help when someone needs space to make changes at their own pace. Cognitive behavioural therapy looks at the links between thoughts, feelings and actions and offers practical tools to manage anxiety, low mood and phobias.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will work with each person to agree which methods suit their goals and preferences. That might mean short-term, goal-focused work or longer exploration of patterns that affect daily life.
Online therapy is offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat or text-based messaging. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation when that matters, while phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or a quieter setting is needed. Live chat and text messaging suit shorter check-ins, people who prefer writing, or those who want flexible scheduling. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, family or travel commitments and to continue work with the same therapist across distances.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Grief
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 13 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English
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