About Rita
Dr. Rita Smith brings a practical, person-focused approach to counseling. She blends client-centered conversation with proven techniques to help people manage stress, anxiety, relationship struggles, and life changes.
With 25 years in the helping profession, she offers steady, straightforward support for those wanting clearer direction and better day-to-day coping. Her work emphasizes listening first. She helps people name what matters and set small, concrete goals.
Sessions often include thought work from cognitive behavioral therapy and brief solution-focused steps to test new habits between meetings.
Background and approach
Dr. Smith has worked in community agencies, university settings, independent practice, and military installations. That range gave her experience with a wide variety of concerns, including grief, trauma and abuse, workplace strain, and issues around intimacy and commitment.
She also supports people navigating divorce, communication breakdowns, and parenting strain. Clients can expect a collaborative pace. Conversations move from understanding toward practical changes like new routines, clearer boundaries, or skill-building for communication and emotional regulation.
Mindfulness techniques are used when helpful to reduce reactivity and improve focus. She holds an MD along with credentials listed as LCPC and LPC and practices in Georgia. Dr.
Smith offers multiple formats for sessions so people can choose what fits their schedule and comfort. Her aim is to help people find manageable steps that lead to a more meaningful life.
Approaches and online options that fit your life
Dr. Smith commonly uses client-centered therapy to create a supportive space where clients explain what matters most to them. This approach focuses on listening, reflecting, and collaborating so people feel heard and can make choices aligned with their values.She also applies cognitive behavioral therapy, which looks at how thoughts, feelings, and actions connect. CBT helps people spot unhelpful thinking patterns and practice small changes that reduce anxiety, improve mood, or ease relationship stress.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. She will discuss goals, try techniques that match those goals, and adjust the plan together as progress is made. That collaborative process helps clients find approaches that feel useful and realistic for their daily life.
Online therapy with her can take place via video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video is useful for fuller conversation and nonverbal cues. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or for shorter check-ins. Live chat and messaging let people share thoughts between sessions and get timely support while juggling work or family commitments.
Questions people ask
What kinds of concerns does Dr. Smith address?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How long has she been practicing?
Where is she licensed and located?
Which languages are sessions offered in?
What formats are available for sessions?
How does pricing work for therapy?
How do I begin working with her?
What this counselor works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Anger management
- Career difficulties
- Coaching
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Parenting issues
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed
- Georgia, Maryland
- Languages
- English