Katie Smith, LCMHC

Katie Smith is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LCMHC) based in North Carolina. She brings five years of clinical experience to sessions and focuses on practical steps people can use to feel steadier in daily life.

Katie centers work on common struggles like anxiety, depression, stress, grief, relationship and family problems, and issues around self-esteem. She also supports people coping with trauma, abuse, mood and personality disorders, and caregiving or compassion fatigue. Her background includes helping people with blending families, communication problems, codependency, and intimacy-related challenges.

Her approach draws on cognitive behavioral ideas and skills from Dialectical Behavior Therapy. Katie uses clear, concrete tools to help people notice unhelpful thinking and try new ways of responding. Mindfulness, motivational interviewing, and solution-focused ideas also appear in sessions when they fit the persons goals.

Sessions are collaborative and goal-oriented. Katie treats each person as the expert on their life and works together with them to set realistic steps forward. She emphasizes practical strategies people can try between meetings to build momentum.

Katie has worked in individual and group settings and has experience supporting survivors of trauma, domestic violence, and sexual assault. She also has clinical experience with veteran and armed forces issues. Her aim is to help people find clearer choices and more steady days ahead.

Therapeutic approaches and online care

Katie often uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people identify unhelpful thoughts and test new behaviors. CBT focuses on clear, practical exercises that target the patterns keeping someone stuck, which can help with anxiety, depression, and mood challenges.

She also draws on Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills to teach emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and better interpersonal effectiveness. DBT-based tools can be useful when emotions feel intense or relationships are chaotic. Mindfulness techniques are used alongside these approaches to improve moment-to-moment awareness and reduce reactivity.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Katie collaborates with each person to decide which methods match their goals and preferences, and she adjusts the plan as progress is made. The process is shared and goal-focused rather than one-size-fits-all.

Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video gives face-to-face interaction for skill teaching and deeper conversation, phone works well for lower bandwidth or when being on camera is difficult, and chat or messaging can support shorter check-ins or ongoing skills practice between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, family, or other commitments while still accessing licensed professionals and consistent care.