Kristen Smith, LMHC

Kristen Smith is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) practicing in Florida. She has 27 years of experience helping people manage anxiety, depression, relationship strain, and trauma and abuse. Kristen values a straightforward, respectful approach and focuses on practical steps people can use right away.

She believes clients are the experts on their own lives and builds on existing strengths. Sessions are a chance to name what feels hard, try small changes, and practice new skills between meetings. Kristen frames therapy as a team effort where goals are set together.

Her background includes long-term clinical work with addiction, grief, bipolar concerns, and stress related to caregiving and career challenges. She also helps people dealing with self-esteem, body image, and intimacy-related difficulties. Kristen draws on what has worked before and adapts methods to each person’s situation.

Therapeutic tools in her practice include client-centered conversations, cognitive behavioral strategies to shift thoughts and behaviors, and dialectical behavior techniques for managing strong emotions. Those methods are used in simple, step-by-step ways so people can apply them in day-to-day life.

Kristen supports people facing life transitions such as divorce, adoption and foster care questions, aging issues, and parenting strain. She helps with practical coping plans, clearer communication, and rebuilding a sense of purpose after loss or change.

How her approaches guide online work

Kristen uses client-centered therapy to focus on each person’s experience and priorities, listening closely and shaping sessions around what matters most. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, helps identify unhelpful thinking patterns and replace them with practical behaviors that reduce symptoms like anxiety and depression. Dialectical Behavior Therapy, DBT, offers concrete emotion regulation and distress tolerance skills for people managing intense feelings or impulsive behaviors.

Finding the right approach is part of the process. Kristen will work with each person to decide which methods fit their goals and preferences. Treatment plans are adjusted over time based on progress and what feels useful in everyday life.

Confirm the available session formats before booking, as this profile does not list specific options. Online sessions can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy schedule, save travel time, and allow shorter check-ins when needed. Therapists can also tailor pacing and homework to fit work, caregiving, or other responsibilities so therapy fits into daily life rather than adding extra burden.