Theresa Smith
Compassionate counselor for stress and relationships
LPC Oklahoma
- Experience
- 20 years in practice
- Focus areas
- Stress, Anxiety, Addictions, Trauma and abuse
- Approaches
- Gottman Method, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Languages
- English
About Theresa
Theresa Smith is a Licensed Professional Counselor with twenty years of experience helping people manage stress, anxiety, addiction, grief, and mood challenges. She combines practical talk therapy with techniques that focus on emotions, thinking patterns, and relationships.
Background and approach
Theresa keeps sessions straightforward and respectful so people feel heard and understood. She began her work supporting women affected by domestic violence and sexual abuse, and later expanded to working with men who had been victims or perpetrators.
That early work led her to learn more about substance use and addiction, and she spent many years in drug court and personal substance abuse counseling. Those roles shaped a hands-on approach to crisis, trauma, and recovery.
Theresa uses client-centered methods alongside cognitive behavioral strategies. She also draws on attachment-focused ideas and acceptance-based techniques to help people notice patterns and make steady changes.
The Gottman Method is part of her toolkit when relationship skills are needed. Sessions often focus on small, practical steps.
Theresa helps clients identify unhelpful thoughts, practice new ways of relating, and build routines that reduce stress. She will include spiritual resources like Biblical counseling or prayer when a client asks for that support.
Her work covers emotional issues such as abandonment, shame, anger, and loneliness, plus life transitions like divorce and career changes. Theresa is based in Oklahoma and offers services in English, including options that work for international clients.
How therapeutic approaches translate to online care
Theresa uses the Gottman Method in sessions to help people learn practical communication skills and manage conflict in relationships. Gottman-based exercises focus on improving everyday interactions, building friendship, and reducing criticism and defensiveness.She also uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which helps people notice thoughts and feelings without getting stuck and choose actions that match their values. Attachment-Based Therapy is another part of her work; it looks at early relationship patterns to understand how people connect and respond to one another. Both approaches can help with anxiety, grief, intimacy issues, and long-term patterns that affect mood and behavior.
Choosing the right approach is part of the process. Theresa works together with each person to decide which methods fit their goals, concerns, and preferences. That collaborative planning helps shape session goals and homework between visits.
Online options include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video calls are useful for deeper conversations and role-play exercises. Phone sessions can fit a lunch break or low-bandwidth situation. Chat or messaging allow for brief check-ins, step-by-step guidance, and written tools to practice skills between sessions. These formats provide flexibility so people can get support in ways that match their schedule and comfort.
Frequently asked questions
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Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Also works with
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
20+ years
Licensed in
Oklahoma
Languages
English