I am Dr. Karnesha L. Smith a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) who attained a Master of Social Work degree, with a concentration in mental health, from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2012. In 2020, I earned my Doctorate in Social Work from Capella University. I have been a practicing clinician for over ten years and believe in building rapport with clients and meeting them where they are. “Come as you are, I will meet you there, and we will figure it out together” is something I often tell my clients, especially those nervous about the therapeutic process. I intentionally create a safe space to ensure my clients are at ease and comfortable in vulnerable moments. I am trained in a myriad of treatment modalities, I am a subject matter expert in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Solution Focused Therapy.
In our first session together, we'll start with brief introductions, build rapport, and then discuss the specific challenges you're facing. We will begin where you want to begin and I will tailor a plan for us to work through in follow-up sessions. The plan does not have to be strictly followed, we will go at your pace.
Being in the field for the last 13 years, has allowed me to develop a tried-and-true playbook for helping you (a) identify the root cause of your challenges, (b) building rapport (c), helping you feel comfortable in sessions, and (d) helping you move out of your comfort zone so you can make progress towards your goals.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help you make sense of overwhelming problems by breaking them down into smaller parts. While is session we will process how situations thoughts, emotions, physical feelings, and actions are interconnected and affect each other.
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is a short-term goal-focused evidence-based therapeutic approach, which incorporates positive psychology principles and practices, and which helps clients change by constructing solutions rather than focusing on problems.
Family counseling, or family therapy, is a method to develop and maintain healthy and functional family relationships. The goal is to identify and address problems in the family. These issues could be emotional, psychological, or behavioral.
Psychoeducation is a therapy intervention that involves the therapist providing their client with information about their diagnosis, symptoms, or the method of treatment used. The goal of psychoeducation is to help the client understand and cope with their diagnoses as well as improve treatment adherence, as clients who understand their treatment are better able to follow through on recommendations
Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) is a short-term therapy that helps people deal with trauma by helping them understand and process their traumatic experiences. TF-CBT is designed for adults and adolescents, and has eight components, including: psychoeducation, relaxation techniques, identifying and expressing emotions, and replacing negative thoughts with more helpful ones