Mary Smith
Experienced Michigan clinician for family-focused needs
- Credentials
- LMSW
- Experience
- 23 years
- Licensed in
- Michigan
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Mary
Mary Smith is a Licensed Master Social Worker with 23 years of practice in Michigan. She focuses on helping people who feel overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, depression, addiction, or life changes. Parents and caregivers often seek her out for help with parenting concerns and family challenges.
She works in a straightforward, compassionate way that aims to make the next steps clear and manageable. Mary listens first and helps people put words to what is happening.
Background and approach
She uses plain talk to identify patterns and test small changes that can reduce distress. Sessions often include practical tools for sleep, anger, relationships, and coping with grief or trauma. Motivational techniques are used when clients want to shift habits or substance use.
Her approach draws from client-centered therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and mindfulness practices. That mix lets her address immediate symptoms while exploring deeper feelings and life history. She also integrates psychodynamic ideas when understanding past relationships helps explain current struggles.
Mary has worked with a wide range of concerns across two decades, including bipolar disorder, ADHD, intimacy issues, and caregiver stress. She pays attention to how medical problems, aging, and chronic pain intersect with mental health. Her practice aims to help people build clearer communication, healthier routines, and better self-care.
Sessions are offered in English and Mary accepts international clients. She offers video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to fit different schedules and needs.
How Mary blends approaches for online therapy
Mary uses client-centered therapy to start by listening closely and following what matters most to the person. This approach focuses on empathy and understanding so clients feel heard and can set their own goals.She also uses cognitive behavioral therapy, which breaks problems into patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions. CBT teaches clear skills for managing anxiety, sleep problems, low mood, and unhelpful behaviors so people can try small, practical changes between sessions.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. Mary treats the process as collaborative and will help you figure out which methods fit your needs, goals, and preferences. That may mean combining listening-based care with skill-building exercises and short-term motivational strategies.
Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging, which makes it easier to fit therapy into busy family schedules. These options allow for flexibility in timing and format so people can keep momentum while balancing work, caregiving, or health needs.
Client-Centered Therapy
The direction comes from you rather than from a set programme. The therapist offers a warm, non-judgemental space to think out loud and work at your own pace. Online, this rests on the relationship rather than on being in the same room.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT looks at the link between what you think, how you feel, and what you do. You work on noticing unhelpful patterns and practising steadier responses. It suits online sessions well, because much of the work happens between appointments and can be talked through from anywhere.
Mindfulness Therapy
Attention training: noticing thoughts and physical feelings as they arrive without being carried off by them. Much of it is practice you do yourself, so guidance over video or audio works much as it would in person.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 23 years
- Licensed
- Michigan
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Mary
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point