About Kate
Kate Oliver-Smith is a psychotherapeutic counsellor with 13 years of experience. She combines practical skills from her earlier human resources work with talking therapies to help people set and reach realistic goals. Kate is warm and down to earth in sessions and aims to make conversations straightforward and focused.
Her background in human resources gave her early experience mediating conflict, coaching individuals, and supporting workplace issues. That foundation led her to train further in psychotherapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), and Client-Centred Therapy.
How Kate works
She now blends those ways of working to meet each person’s needs. In practice she listens without judgement and helps people name the problems they face. She uses clear tools from CBT when thinking patterns are part of the challenge.
She also draws on Client-Centred and psychodynamic ideas to explore feelings, relationships, and life choices. Kate works with many common concerns such as stress, anxiety, depression, grief, addictions, self-esteem and relationship difficulties. She also supports people dealing with parenting strain, career change, sleep problems and the emotional effects of chronic illness or caregiving.
Sessions are practical and focused on what a person wants to change. Conversations can include problem-solving, exploring past patterns, and building everyday coping skills. Kate aims to help people leave therapy with clearer options and small steps they can try between sessions.
Kate lists 7 ways of working on the entry:
What Kate works with
The areas below are the ones Kate selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- 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
Training and background
| Register | NCPS |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 13 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | United Kingdom |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Therapeutic approaches and online support
Kate blends Client-Centred Therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in online sessions. Client-Centred Therapy focuses on listening, empathy and helping people find their own answers; it suits issues where people need space to talk and feel heard. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy looks at how thoughts, feelings and behaviours interact and gives practical exercises to shift unhelpful patterns; it is useful for anxiety, low mood and sleep problems.Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will ask about your goals, what you prefer, and what has or hasn’t helped before. From there she will suggest methods to try and adapt them as therapy progresses, so the plan fits your needs and pace.
Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat or text-based messaging to give flexibility. Video calls let you have a face-to-face conversation without travel, phone sessions need less bandwidth and can be easier to fit into a busy day, while chat or messaging can suit short check-ins or people who prefer typing. These options make it easier to book regular time and keep therapy consistent alongside everyday commitments.
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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