About Kristen
Kristen Smith is a licensed mental health counselor in Florida with 27 years of experience. She helps people facing addiction, anxiety, depression, relationship strain, and questions about life purpose. Kristen focuses on practical steps that people can use right away and offers steady, respectful support through hard moments.
She believes each person knows their own story and brings strengths to the work. Sessions are collaborative - Kristen listens first, then helps set clear, doable goals.
How Kristen works
She uses plain talk and concrete tools rather than jargon so progress feels understandable. Her approach draws from client-centered work that prioritizes the person's perspective, cognitive behavioral techniques that look at thoughts and behaviors, and skills from dialectical behavior therapy to manage intense emotions. These methods can help with mood problems, stress, addictive patterns, and relationship struggles.
Kristen also addresses concerns tied to identity and life transitions, including LGBT-related issues, parenting stress, caregiving strain, grief, and career shifts. She pays attention to how past losses or attachment wounds affect present relationships and coping. People who prefer a steady, nonjudgmental guide and clear, skills-based steps tend to fit well with her style.
Kristen offers sessions that focus on what the person wants to change and on small, practical moves that build momentum toward a more satisfying life.
Kristen lists 3 ways of working on the entry:
What Kristen works with
The areas below are the ones Kristen selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Stress, Anxiety
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LMHC |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 27 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Florida |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How her approaches work online
Kristen draws on client-centered therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and dialectical behavior therapy to guide online work. Client-centered therapy focuses on understanding the person's perspective and building a trusting, nonjudgmental space to talk. Cognitive behavioral therapy helps identify unhelpful thoughts and habits and replaces them with more useful patterns to reduce symptoms like depression or anxiety. Dialectical behavior therapy teaches practical skills for managing strong emotions and improving interpersonal effectiveness, which can help with intense stress, relationship conflicts, and self-management.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. Kristen will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what has or hasn't worked before. Together they decide which techniques to try first and adjust as progress is made so the plan fits the person's life and needs.
Online sessions are offered as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy flexible. Video is useful for in-depth sessions that benefit from face-to-face interaction. Phone calls work well when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text messaging let people send quick updates or work through smaller challenges between sessions. These options help fit therapy into busy schedules and different routines.
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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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