Claire Smith

Claire is a Resident in Counseling. She has experience working in private practice with adolescents, young professionals, and adults with a variety of mental health concerns, ranging from anxiety to life transitions. Her goal is to empower her clients to discover a life filled with purpose and meaning and to rewrite their old narratives with new ones of hope and self-discovery.  

As a counselor, she believes that the therapeutic relationship between the counselor and client is built on trust, empathy, and compassion and is the foundation for true therapeutic change. Working from an integrative, holistic approach to meet each client’s individual needs, she employs Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Narrative Therapy, and mindfulness techniques to guide her clients in creating new stories of hope and purpose and in experiencing transformative healing within one’s self and with others. Her areas of clinical interest include: anxiety; depression; obsessive-compulsive disorder; eating disorders; life transitions, such as college and career changes; physical health issues that impact one’s mental health; and relationship dynamics and boundaries. 

She lives in Fairfax with her cat, Fiona. In her free time, she enjoys baking, reading, watching Jane Austen movies, playing with her rambunctious cat, and spending quality time with friends and family.