About Claudia
Claudia Smith is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 40 years of professional experience in California. She draws on decades of practice to help people face stress, anxiety, depression, addiction concerns, self-esteem struggles, and ADHD. Claudia speaks English and works with clients across regions, including international callers.
Her style is straightforward and supportive. She treats each person as the expert on their own life and looks for strengths to build on.
Background and approach
Sessions focus on practical steps and skills that fit day-to-day life rather than long lectures or jargon. Claudia uses proven methods to help people manage strong emotions and impulsive reactions. She often incorporates mindfulness to steady attention and DBT-informed skills to handle intense moments.
Solution-focused strategies are used when clients want clear, short-term goals and quick progress. She also helps people untangle issues tied to adoption and foster care, attachment concerns, blended family dynamics, and family of origin patterns. Other areas she addresses include chronic illness or pain, substance use, codependency, grief, and questions about life purpose.
Claudia aims to empower clients to make changes they choose. New clients complete a brief matching questionnaire to begin, and sessions are offered through video, phone, live chat, or text messaging. Her approach is collaborative and paced to fit each person’s needs.
Practical approaches for online care
Claudia commonly uses Client-Centered Therapy, which emphasizes listening and helping people discover their own solutions. This approach supports people who need a steady, accepting presence while they sort out decisions and feelings.She also brings Dialectical Behavior Therapy ideas into sessions, offering concrete skills for managing intense emotions and impulsive actions. Those techniques can help with mood swings, self-control challenges, and high-stress moments.
Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. Claudia will work with each person to match methods to their goals and preferences, adjusting techniques as progress is made and needs change.
Online formats make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives. Video calls let people keep face-to-face contact from different locations, while phone sessions can be a simpler option when bandwidth is limited. Live chat or text-based messaging are useful for brief check-ins, faster problem-solving, or when typing feels more comfortable than speaking. These options offer flexibility so therapy can continue around work, travel, or other demands.
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What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Fatherhood issues
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Impulsivity
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Self-harm
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 40 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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