Dr. Lauren Smithee

Welcome! I'm glad you're here. I am a licensed and PhD-level marriage and family therapist committed to helping individuals, couples, and families overcome difficult situations they are experiencing.

My passion is helping my clients feel empowered to invite healing into their lives. I help my clients build on their inherent resiliency and provide them with the tools they need to look deeper at their emotions, strengthen their relationships, and begin to feel better. I assist clients in beginning their healing process, through a combination of technique and support. My job is to help clients live their lives more fully, engage in more self-compassion and understanding, and to co-create a healing process together. My responsibility is to meet you where you are without judgment and to help nurture an atmosphere of hope, compassion, and respect.

I have years of experience working with individuals, couples, and families from a wide variety of backgrounds. However, I specialize in working with LGBTQ+ youth, adults, couples, and families (particularly trans and gender diverse people), survivors of trauma seeking to heal traumatic experiences and couples seeking to enhance emotional connection, conflict resolution, and communication.

I am an affirmative couple and family therapist. As a queer woman, my work in allyship to LGBTQ+ communities is extremely important to me both personally and professionally. I am particularly passionate about working with trans and gender diverse youth, their families, and trans adults in romantic relationships seeking couple's therapy. Both in my research and my clinical work, I am committed to advocacy and promoting the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ individuals and their families.

I am fully trained in providing EMDR, an evidence-based treatment for trauma (both levels 1 and 2), Gottman Method Couple's Therapy (levels 1 and 2), Theraplay, and the Marschak Interaction Method (Foundational Theraplay Practitioner Certification). I also have years of experience incorporating emotionally-focused couple's therapy, trauma-informed therapy practices, expressive play therapy practices (both directive and non-directive approaches), experiential therapy, systems work, and LGBTQ+ affirmative practices into my clinical work.

My therapeutic lens is emotion-focused, connection-focused, empathic, and empowering.

Please feel free to reach out with any questions you might have.