Steven Smith
Compassionate, practical help for life and relationships
- Credentials
- LMFT
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed in
- California
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Steven
Steven Smith is a licensed marriage and family therapist practicing in California. He helps people facing stress, anxiety, depression, bipolar symptoms, relationship troubles, and parenting challenges. Steven also works with issues like trauma and abuse, addiction, grief, intimacy concerns, ADHD, and questions around gender and sexuality.
He uses a straightforward, collaborative approach to support people through hard moments. Steven trained in psychology and holds a Master’s degree in clinical psychology.
Background and approach
He is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist - LMFT - and has ten years of experience in clinical work. He meets people where they are and focuses on practical steps they can try between sessions. In sessions he listens first, then helps clients set clear goals.
He uses tools from client-centered therapy and existential therapy to help people name values and make choices that fit their lives. He also draws on mindfulness practices and motivational interviewing when those techniques fit a client’s goals. For relationship concerns he incorporates the Gottman Method to address communication and connection.
For trauma-related work he brings trauma-focused techniques alongside grounding and mindfulness to reduce immediate distress. Sessions are collaborative and paced to each person’s needs. Steven offers several online formats including video calls, phone, live chat, and text messaging.
He explains options up front and helps clients pick the format that matches their schedule and comfort level.
Therapeutic approaches and online care
Steven draws on client-centered therapy to keep sessions focused on each person’s needs and goals. This approach means the therapist listens closely and helps clients decide what matters most, which is useful for stress, depression, and navigating life changes.He also uses the Gottman Method when working on relationship and communication problems. That method offers practical exercises and clear steps couples can try to improve how they talk and connect.
Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Steven collaborates with clients to identify which methods match their goals and comfort level, and he adjusts the plan as needs change over time.
Online therapy options include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text messaging. These formats make it easier to fit sessions into a busy schedule, continue work during transitions, and choose the pace that feels best. Licensed professionals can use these tools to deliver the same conversational and skills-based work as in-person sessions, while offering flexibility for families and individuals balancing many responsibilities.
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.
Existential Therapy
Takes the larger questions seriously: meaning, choice, mortality, responsibility. Suited to periods when the difficulty is less a symptom than a sense that something has to change.
Gottman Method
A research-based framework for couples, focused on how partners argue, repair, and stay connected. Practical and structured, with exercises to try between sessions.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also works with
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trichotillomania
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Steven
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point