Donna Smith , LMHC

Donna Smith is a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) based in New York with 35 years of experience working across a range of mental health settings. She completed her counselor training through the University of Rochester and brings a master's level background to her one-on-one clinical work. Donna focuses on helping individuals improve the quality of their lives by combining evidence-informed skills with a compassionate, person-centered stance.

Alongside her clinical practice, Donna pursues creative writing and often weaves that sensibility into therapy, viewing each person as the author of a distinct life story made up of past experiences and future hopes. She approaches therapy as a collaborative journey, acting as a guide who partners with clients to clarify goals, explore choices, and move toward the future they imagine.

Donna offers a genuine, open, and hopeful therapeutic presence grounded in decades of professional experience. She aims to create an atmosphere of trust and respectful collaboration while drawing on practical therapeutic tools to address stress, anxiety, relationship concerns, grief, trauma, mood disorders, and related challenges. She is not currently accepting clients.

Therapeutic Approaches and Online Care with Donna Smith

Donna integrates several established approaches to help people manage life challenges. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps clients clarify personal values and develop psychological flexibility - it is useful for stress, anxiety, and navigating life transitions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying and adjusting unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and mood instability. Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes empathy, listening, and the client-therapist relationship as the foundation for growth, supporting people facing grief, relationship issues, self-esteem concerns, and identity questions.

Finding the right approach is part of the therapeutic process, and Donna works collaboratively with each person to determine which methods best fit their needs, goals, and preferences. She combines techniques as appropriate and adapts the pace and focus according to what the client finds most helpful.

Online therapy offers practical benefits for those seeking care from licensed professionals. Video calls and phone sessions allow for face-to-face conversations when in-person visits are not feasible, while live chat and text-based messaging provide flexibility for shorter check-ins or times when real-time verbal sessions are difficult to schedule. These options make it easier to maintain continuity of care and integrate therapeutic work into busy lives.