Heather Smith
Psychologist - PhD
I am a Colorado licensed psychologist with 17 years of psychotherapy experience. I am passionate about applying psychotherapy research to practice by both using evidence-based treatments and by measuring outcomes to make sure you are getting the results you expect.
As a generalist I work with a wide variety of problems. Some favorites include men’s issues, relationship problems, and difficulty managing anger. I also work with some less common specialties including insomnia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, religious/spiritual concerns, financial/money issues and career problems. My primary approach tends to be TEAM cognitive-behavioral therapy but I incorporate insights and techniques from many other effective approaches including ACT, mindfulness-based, solution-focused, narrative and positive psychology interventions. For mood disorders such as depression and anxiety I additionally incorporate lifestyle strategies that have been strongly supported by research to reduce symptoms and improve quality of life. I pride myself on staying up to date on a wide variety of psychological, medical and scientific topics and am always on the lookout for new information that might benefit my clients.
Most importantly, I strive to create an environment that will best facilitate change by being someone who you can fully trust and from whom you can expect empathy and compassion tempered with honesty and directness. The strength of our relationship is what will best predict how much you benefit from treatment, so I prioritize making sure you are getting exactly what you need from me. I aspire to fit myself to you and your needs not vice versa, so I will not impose a specific approach on you. Instead we will co-create goals and a treatment plan, and I will gather feedback from you and will be open to changing my approach if I am off track. Together we will figure out how to create lasting change so that you can live your best life possible.
Skills and Expertise
Adjusting to Change / Life Transitions
Adjustment to College
Adult
Agoraphobia
Anger Management
Anxiety
Breakups
Career Counseling
college age
Communication Problems
Compulsive Spending and Shopping
Control Issues
Divorce and Divorce Adjustment
Emotional Intelligence
Family of Origin Issues
Fatherless
Forgiveness
Guilt
grief
Individuation
Inadequacy
Infidelity and Affair Recovery
Irritability
Isolation
Jealousy
LGBTQ
Life Coaching
Life Purpose
Loss or Grief
Men
Mens Issues and Problems
Midlife Crisis
Mood Disorders
Multicultural Concerns
Navigating Identity in Relationships
Obsessions and Compulsions
Obsessive-Compulsive (OCD)
Panic
Perfectionism
Phobias
Polyamory and Nonmonogamous Relationships
Relationship Issues
Self Esteem
Self-Harming
Sleep or Insomnia
Spirituality
Stress
Sexual Minorities
Treatment Orientation
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
DBT Informed Therapy
Gottman Method
Health/Wellness-based
Humanistic
Integral Psychotherapy
Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
Psychotherapy
Therapy unique to each client
Modality