Dr. Mary Smith

I've spent nearly a decade working with veterans and years working with children, teens, and adults navigating trauma, anxiety, ADHD, relationships, emotional regulation, and some pretty complicated life circumstances.

I've worked with people facing all kinds of challenges, and one thing I've learned is that there's usually a lot more to someone's story than what you see on the surface. People make mistakes, relationships get messy, and sometimes we find ourselves repeating the same behaviors even when we know they aren't helping.

I'm a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a Doctorate in Social Work, but I'm also a person who understands that life isn't always straightforward. I bring professional experience, lived experience, honesty, and humor into my work.

I won't shame you for your choices or criticize you for struggling. You don't have to tell me what you think I want to hear. I'd much rather understand what's actually happening in your life, even when it's complicated.

I don't believe therapy has to be formal or impersonal to be effective. I'm a real person sitting across from you, and I don't pretend otherwise. I'll ask questions, offer different perspectives, teach practical skills, and sometimes share examples from my own experiences when they're relevant.

We might laugh, have a difficult conversation, or explore why certain patterns keep showing up. I draw from evidence-based approaches, including CBT, DBT, and trauma-informed care, but I don't follow a script. What works for one person may not work for another.

You know your life better than I ever could. My role is to help you explore your experiences and consider possibilities, not decide what's best for you. I want our conversations to feel genuine, not rehearsed.

And I want to know whether therapy is actually helping. What's working? What isn't? Are we making progress toward what matters to you? Those are conversations I believe we should be having.

I see our first session as an opportunity for both of us to get to know each other. You're deciding whether I'm someone you feel comfortable talking to, and I'm considering whether my experience and approach are a good fit for what you're looking for.

I'll ask about what brought you to therapy, your history, what's happening in your life, and what you'd like help with. Some questions will be clinical because understanding your mental health is part of my job, but I also want to understand you beyond a diagnosis.

You don't have to know exactly what you want from therapy, and we don't have to figure everything out in one appointment. I want us to be able to talk openly, ask questions, and get a sense of whether working together makes sense for both of us.