About Steven
Steven Smith is a licensed marriage and family therapist practicing in California. He draws on a decade of clinical experience to help people manage stress, anxiety, depression, bipolar symptoms, addiction, and relationship struggles.
Background and approach
He works with individuals and couples and supports concerns around intimacy, grief, parenting, ADHD, and LGBT issues. Steven favors a straightforward, collaborative style.
He listens first, then helps people set clear goals. Sessions focus on practical steps that fit each person's life rather than on labels or forcing change.
His approach blends client-centered listening with existential questions about meaning and choice. He also uses techniques from the Gottman Method to address relationship patterns and from mindfulness to build emotional regulation skills.
Motivational interviewing helps when change feels difficult or stalled. Steven’s training includes a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in clinical psychology.
He holds the California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist credential, LMFT, and brings ten years of work in clinical settings. In sessions clients can expect clear communication, attention to relationship dynamics, and practical tools for coping with life transitions.
He helps people talk through family of origin issues, codependency, trauma-related symptoms, and challenges tied to sexuality and kink culture. Steven offers video, phone, live chat, and text-based messaging options.
He aims to make therapy fit into busy schedules and to help people take small steps toward more satisfying relationships and everyday functioning.
How therapeutic approaches work online
Client-Centered Therapy is about listening deeply and following the client’s priorities. The therapist helps people clarify what matters and supports them in taking steps toward those goals. This approach is useful for stress, anxiety, and relationship decisions.Existential Therapy focuses on meaning, choice, and responsibility. It invites people to consider what gives their life purpose and how they want to live. This can help with identity questions, life transitions, and concerns tied to gender dysphoria or major relationship shifts.
The Gottman Method targets relationship patterns and communication skills. It teaches practical exercises to reduce conflict and increase connection, which can help couples and partners who want clearer communication and better emotional responses.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will discuss these options with each client and together they will choose what fits the person’s goals, needs, and preferences. That collaborative process may mix approaches over time as needs change.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video lets people work face to face from different places, phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited, live chat is useful for brief check-ins, and text messaging supports ongoing reflection between sessions. These options make it simpler to fit therapy into busy lives and to maintain continuity during transitions.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also works with
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trichotillomania
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English