Dr. LaShaunda Smith, LPC

Dr. LaShaunda Smith is a licensed professional counselor (LPC) in Mississippi with eight years of clinical experience. She focuses on stress and anxiety and helps people facing relationship and family concerns. She also supports those coping with major life changes. She encourages clients to recognize their strengths and to take steady steps toward change.

Dr. Smith centers sessions on practical problem solving and clear goals. She uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people notice unhelpful thoughts and try different responses. She also draws on Internal Family Systems to look at the parts of a person that hold strong feelings or beliefs.

Over her career she has worked with a range of concerns including trauma and grief, parenting and family problems, self-esteem and anger, and issues related to identity such as LGBT concerns. Additional focuses include abandonment, adoption and foster care, blended family issues, divorce and separation, and multicultural matters.

Her approach is collaborative and straightforward. She encourages clients to build on what already works and to try small changes between sessions. People can expect clear worksheets, practical strategies, and conversations that connect daily life to therapeutic goals.

Dr. Smith offers sessions in English and is based in Mississippi. She recognizes starting therapy can feel brave and aims to make the process manageable and respectful of each person’s experience.

How CBT and Internal Family Systems inform online therapy

Dr. Smith draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which focuses on identifying thoughts and behaviors that contribute to stress and anxiety and testing small changes to see what helps. CBT often uses simple activities and worksheets that people can do between meetings to track progress.

She also uses Internal Family Systems, a way of noticing and talking with the different parts inside a person that hold strong emotions or beliefs. This approach helps people understand inner conflict and build kinder ways to relate to themselves after trauma or loss.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Dr. Smith will collaborate with each person to decide whether CBT, Internal Family Systems, or a blend fits best. She asks about goals, daily routines, and what feels most useful, then adjusts methods over time based on progress and preference.

Session formats are not specified in the original biography, so confirm current options before booking. Online sessions can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy day, reduce travel time, allow for shorter check-ins when needed, and let people work from a quieter spot. Licensed professionals can adapt exercises and homework for online meetings so therapy connects to real life without requiring a special setup.