About Kelly
Kelly Smith is a licensed clinical social worker with thirty years of experience helping people manage stress, anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, and trauma. Kelly offers a calm, respectful presence and focuses on practical steps people can take right away. The tone is warm and straightforward, aimed at families and individuals facing everyday strains and bigger life changes.
Kelly combines several practical therapy methods to match each person's needs. Sessions often include simple tools for handling intense emotions, ways to rethink stressful thoughts, and exercises that build stronger communication.
How Kelly works
Kelly listens closely and adapts the pace and focus based on what the person finds most useful. Clients can expect a collaborative approach. Kelly aims to validate feelings while encouraging skills people can use between sessions.
That can mean skill-building from Dialectical Behavior Therapy, thought work from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or a client-centered conversation that follows whatever matters most in the session. Kelly's background includes long clinical experience and supervisory work across different care settings. This practical experience informs straightforward strategies for coping with grief, addiction, parenting strain, identity questions related to LGBT concerns, and ADHD-related challenges.
Sessions are offered from Virginia and conducted in English. Kelly uses an approachable style and focuses on helping people feel heard, understood, and better able to manage the next steps in their lives.
Kelly lists 10 ways of working on the entry:
What Kelly works with
The areas below are the ones Kelly selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- 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
Training and background
| Register | LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 30 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Virginia |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How Kelly Uses Practical Therapies Online
Kelly often draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy when working with emotional stress and relationship patterns. CBT focuses on identifying and changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors to reduce anxiety and depression. DBT teaches concrete skills for tolerating distress, regulating emotions, and improving communication.Kelly also uses Client-Centered Therapy, which centers the conversation on the person's priorities and experience. That approach is useful when someone needs space to make sense of identity questions, grief, or decisions about relationships. Kelly works together with the client to pick the approaches that fit their goals and pace rather than imposing a single path.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video is suited to full sessions that feel most like in-person work. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or for shorter check-ins. Live chat and text messaging work well for quick updates, skill coaching between sessions, or when someone prefers written conversation. These options make it simpler to fit therapy into a busy life and to continue care from Virginia with a licensed professional.
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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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