Lisa Smith
Compassionate, practical care for life's hard moments
- Credentials
- LCSW
- Experience
- 30 years
- Licensed in
- Missouri
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Lisa
Lisa Smith is a licensed clinical social worker with 30 years of experience helping people cope with stress, anxiety, grief, depression, and major life changes. She draws on straightforward, practical methods so clients can start using new tools right away. Her work often addresses compassion fatigue, addictions, mood disorders, and trauma-related concerns.
Lisa practices in Missouri and provides services in English. Her approach is down-to-earth and respectful. Sessions focus on what is happening now and what the person wants to change.
Background and approach
She listens without judgment and helps clients break problems into manageable steps. The goal is to build skills that make daily life easier. Lisa blends several evidence-informed methods.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps identify unhelpful thoughts and create different habits. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy supports values-based choices when feelings feel overwhelming. Dialectical Behavior Therapy offers practical skills for emotional regulation and distress tolerance.
She also uses Motivational Interviewing to strengthen commitment to change and Solution-Focused Therapy to set clear, achievable goals. Together these tools are adapted to fit individual needs. That mix helps people address things like panic attacks, obsessive behaviors, guilt, and recovery from disrupting events.
Sessions may include short-term problem solving or longer work on deeper patterns. Lisa aims to help clients gain clarity, reduce symptoms, and regain a sense of direction. For those ready to begin, she guides them through next steps for scheduling and getting started.
Therapeutic approaches and online care
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people notice painful thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them. It emphasizes choosing actions that match personal values even when emotions are strong, which can help with anxiety, depression, or grief. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on spotting unhelpful thought patterns and changing behaviors that keep problems going. It is useful for panic, obsessive thoughts, and mood disorders because it teaches step-by-step skills to shift reactions.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will discuss options and collaborate with each person to decide which methods fit their needs and goals. Treatment plans may combine elements from different approaches so they match what a person wants to change and how they prefer to learn skills.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to offer flexibility for busy schedules and distance. These options make it easier to meet weekly check-ins, practice skills between sessions, and get support when facing setbacks. For many people, remote sessions reduce travel time and make it simpler to maintain continuity of care while working toward concrete goals.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Less about arguing with difficult thoughts, more about loosening their grip and acting on what matters to you anyway. Values and committed action carry the work, which suits conversation at a distance.
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.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Concrete skills for riding out strong emotion, tolerating distress, and handling relationships without things escalating. The skills are practised in daily life, so between-session support by message or phone fits naturally.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Grief
- Anger management
Also works with
- Addictions
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Co-morbidity
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Domestic violence
- Family conflicts
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 30 years
- Licensed
- Missouri
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Lisa
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point