Deborah Smart , LMHC

Deborah Smart is a licensed mental health counselor with 22 years of practice. She began her career after earning a Bachelor of Science in Education, a Master of Education in School Counseling, and a Master of Arts in Mental Health Counseling. Deborah draws on a long guide-and-mentor tradition to support people through hard moments and life transitions.

She works with stress, anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, and mood disorders. She also helps with relationship and intimacy-related issues, parenting concerns, career transitions, and coping with life changes. Deborah includes Christian counseling when a client requests faith-informed support.

Her style is warm and collaborative. She emphasizes connection and clear communication in sessions. Deborah focuses on practical steps clients can use between meetings to reduce emotional pain and build new habits.

Deborah uses several evidence-based approaches to shape sessions, including attachment-focused work, cognitive and behavior strategies, emotion-focused methods, and mindfulness skills. She helps people recognize patterns, practice new ways of relating, and set realistic goals.

Clients can expect straightforward conversation and tools they can use right away. Deborah aims to help people gain clarity, move toward purpose, and feel steadier in day-to-day life.

How therapeutic approaches translate to online care

Deborah commonly uses Attachment-Based Therapy to look at how early relationships affect current patterns. This helps people who struggle with trust, closeness, or repeating difficult relational habits. She also incorporates Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or CBT, which focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and practicing different behaviors to reduce anxiety and depression.

Choosing a therapeutic approach is part of the work together. Deborah will discuss options and tailor methods to match a person's goals, needs, and preferences. She treats the first sessions as a chance to find what fits and adjusts the plan as progress unfolds.

Online therapy is offered through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to make care more flexible. Video is useful for face-to-face conversation and teaching skills, phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited, and messaging or live chat can fit short check-ins or moments when a brief touchpoint helps. These options make it simpler to fit therapy into busy days and to keep momentum between sessions.