Shawn Smith

Shawn Smith is an LCSW practicing in Louisiana with 30 years of experience. She focuses on helping people facing family conflict, trauma and abuse, and the stress of life changes. Shawn brings a calm, steady presence to sessions and centers the person's own goals in the work.

Her approach emphasizes clear communication and practical skills. She helps people build self-esteem, manage anxiety and depression, and improve how they relate to others. Sessions often include practicing new ways to speak up, setting boundaries, and learning coping tools that fit daily life.

Shawn draws on client-centered therapy to follow each person's pace and priorities. She also uses cognitive behavioral techniques to identify unhelpful thinking patterns and DBT skills for emotion regulation and distress tolerance. Mindfulness and motivational interviewing are woven in to support motivation and attention to the present moment.

Her background includes long-term clinical work with survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, veterans, and young adults. That experience informs a trauma-aware style that aims to be respectful and stabilizing. Shawn pays attention to cultural context and personal history when planning sessions.

People come to Shawn for many reasons - grief, parenting strain, anger, relationship struggles, codependency, or a search for purpose. She aims to help people discover practical steps forward, regain a sense of agency, and practice small changes that add up over time.

How Shawn's approaches translate to online work

Client-centered therapy puts the person's goals first and creates room to set the pace. In online sessions this means Shawn follows what matters most to the client and helps shape each meeting around current needs. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on noticing and changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors; online sessions can include homework, guided practice, and real-time problem solving to apply new skills between meetings.

Choosing an approach is a shared process. Shawn will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what has helped or not helped before. Together they decide which methods to emphasize and adjust the plan as work progresses so it fits the person's life.

Please confirm the session options available before booking, as specific formats are not listed here. Online therapy can make it easier to fit appointments into a busy week, allow shorter check-ins when time is limited, and remove travel time so sessions are more consistent. Licensed professionals can guide clients in practicing breathing, grounding, communication exercises, and behavioral experiments between meetings to reinforce progress.