About Marlene
Marlene Smith is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) who focuses on helping people facing stress, anxiety, relationship strain, low self-esteem, and depression. She speaks plainly and creates a calm space where clients can talk about what matters most to them. She encourages people who are taking the first step toward support and acknowledges that starting therapy can feel hard.
Marlene uses straightforward conversation and practical tools to help clients manage emotions and build confidence.
How Marlene works
She draws on approaches that center relationships and present-day thinking to guide sessions. Sessions aim to identify what is getting in the way and then work on small, doable changes. Her background includes three years of clinical experience in West Virginia as an LPC.
That work has involved a range of concerns beyond mood and anxiety, including adoption and foster care issues, attachment concerns, body image, cancer-related stress, and the effects of divorce and separation. She also addresses communication and commitment issues, fatherhood challenges, and coping after disasters. Marlene incorporates techniques from attachment-based work, client-centered therapy, cognitive behavioral strategies, dialectical behavior methods, and emotionally-focused approaches.
These methods shape how she listens, gives feedback, and helps clients practice new skills outside sessions. She offers a direct and empathetic style that suits people who want clear steps and honest conversation. Marlene supports people through life transitions and the emotional work that comes with them.
Marlene lists 8 ways of working on the entry:
What Marlene works with
The areas below are the ones Marlene selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
Also listed
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-love
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LPC |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 3 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | West Virginia |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Therapeutic approaches for online care
Attachment-based work looks at how connections shape feelings and behavior, and it helps people understand patterns in close relationships so they can build safer bonds. Client-centered therapy focuses on listening without judgment and following the client's lead to strengthen self-understanding and confidence. Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, teaches practical ways to spot unhelpful thoughts and test new behaviors to reduce anxiety and low mood.Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, worries, and preferences, then suggest methods to try. Decisions about techniques are collaborative and can change as progress is made.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to meet that fit different schedules and needs. Video calls let people see facial cues and use a full conversation. Phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited or when someone prefers not to be on camera. Live chat and text-based messaging are useful for brief check-ins, in-the-moment coping, or when shorter exchanges are preferable. These options make it easier to fit regular sessions into a busy life.
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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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