About Kelly
Kelly Smith is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 30 years of experience who helps people facing anxiety, stress, depression, addictive behaviors, and relationship concerns. Kelly works in Virginia and focuses on practical support for life changes, grief, parenting strain, and issues related to sexual identity. They use a warm, respectful style so people feel heard from the first session.
Kelly keeps sessions interactive and focused on what matters to each person.
Background and approach
Conversations are tailored to real-life problems like coping with ADHD, managing anger, or rebuilding intimacy. Kelly draws on a mix of approaches to match each person's needs and pace. Their approach centers on listening closely, offering clear strategies, and encouraging small, manageable steps.
Cognitive-behavioral ideas are used to notice and change unhelpful thoughts and habits. Mindfulness practices are taught to reduce overwhelm and increase calm in daily life. Kelly also brings elements of dialectical behavior ideas to teach emotion regulation and distress tolerance skills.
Motivational interviewing helps people gather their own reasons for change and build forward momentum. The goal is to leave each person with tools they can use between sessions. People who reach out can expect a compassionate, nonjudgmental partner who focuses on practical progress.
Kelly aims to make therapy understandable and useful, helping clients set clear goals and measure change over time.
Therapeutic approaches and online care
Kelly often uses cognitive behavioral therapy to help people spot thought patterns that worsen anxiety or depression and then practice concrete behavior changes to feel better. She pairs that with mindfulness techniques that teach simple ways to lower stress and stay grounded during difficult moments.Dialectical behavior therapy elements are used when people need skills to manage strong emotions and handle crisis moments without making things worse. Kelly treats finding the right mix of approaches as a shared process; she will work with each person to decide what methods match their goals and preferences and adjust the plan as progress happens.
Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat, or text messaging to fit different needs. Video calls let people have full conversations and use visual cues. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth or environment make video hard. Live chat and text-based messaging are useful for short check-ins, skill practice, or when writing feels more comfortable than speaking. These options make it easier to schedule therapy around work, family, and daily life.
Questions people ask
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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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