Grief counselors and therapists in Blacksburg, VA

Danielle Smith is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) with extensive experience in the mental health field. She is dedicated to helping individuals and couples navigate life's challenges, overcome obstacles, and build more fulfilling and meaningful lives.

Danielle specializes in the treatment of trauma, PTSD, Complex PTSD (C-PTSD), depression, grief, anxiety, relationship concerns and substance misuse. She earned her Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Liberty University and is committed to providing compassionate, evidence-based care tailored to each client's unique needs.

Her therapeutic approach integrates a variety of treatment modalities, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Motivational Interviewing, Solution-Focused Therapy, mindfulness-based interventions, somatic techniques, breathing and relaxation strategies, and trauma informed care. Danielle believes that effective counseling is collaborative and focused on empowering clients to achieve lasting growth and healing.

Hi, my name is Austin and welcome to my private practice. As a man who has been deeply affected and healed by counseling, I get the need and role of counseling firsthand. This is why I love counseling: I believe humans were created to share their stories and to work through difficulties together. Counseling is my life’s passion. I am truly honored and delighted to now walk alongside others in dark places toward durable hope and lasting change.

I am personally acquainted with the pain of grief. After the loss of my mother to suicide, I began a counseling journey that revealed many unexplored areas in my life that needed compassion and care. These experiences have brought me face to face with life’s difficulties.

I received my Bachelor’s Degree from the United States Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs, CO) in Foreign Area Studies (Russia and Eastern Europe). After graduation, I worked as a military aviator and US Air Force Officer in domestic and international locations. I returned to graduate school to pursue a Master’s of Arts in Counseling and a Master’s of Divinity at Covenant Theological Seminary. Over the years, as a counselor, I have worked in a community-based counseling center, as a staff counselor for a church counseling center, and I am now in independent practice, working with men, veterans, couples, and families navigating trauma and PTSD, and the many ups and downs of life.

I have traveled throughout the world during my Air Force career. Seeing the many ways humans experience the world, in all its pain and joy, has only increased my passion to care for others. From working with teenagers and their struggles to individuals seeking hope to the married couple with decades of experience to everyone in between. I love working with people who are struggling and want change.

I have more than 25 years of experience assessing and treating adolescents, adults, and families. While I appreciate numerous approaches, my patients have stated that I provide a melding of both direct and indirect styles. In other words, my standard of care is challenging and supportive. More often than not, you won’t leave a session wondering what’s next.

Although I have a wide range of professional experience ranging from maternal/family health and parenting, to grief and trauma, my focus usually gravitates towards trauma, as it tends to be an underlying unaddressed symptom behind many different presentations. I believe everyone will be, at some point in their life, in need of help and because of this, everyone is thus also deserving of it. Unbiased, without judgement or fear of retaliation or criticism- just the ability to let go in a safe, trusting space. With my practice, you set the course- and I will provide the tools and support to get us there.

I have a holistic, creative approach to counseling, focusing not just on talk-therapy, but mind-body connection and our network of supports and relationships. I have worked in non-profit and community counseling centers and have experience with all ages of clients as well as multiple levels of abilities. My education background is not only in clinical mental health counseling but also peace and justice and art studies.

Sometimes just getting through the day can feel like a full-time job. Finding a mental health provider who truly understands you may seem out of reach, but it’s absolutely possible. Before anything else, I’m human. I’m also a woman, born overseas and shaped by the diversity of a Southern metropolitan city. I’ve had the privilege of working with people from all walks of life and am passionate about partnering with patients as they move toward greater health, balance, and fulfillment. You don't have to navigate it all alone. You can exhale- we’ll take it from here, together.

You’re the one who holds it all together. On paper it’s working — the career, the relationships, the discipline. Underneath, you’re anxious, tired, and disconnected. Intellect, stamina, perfectionism and people-pleasing may have gotten you far — but now its part of a pattern that keeps you stuck.

I see driven, self-aware adults who are often the most capable person in the room despite (and because of) their bodies holding patterns of high-functioning anxiety, trauma, and depression.

The pattern lives within your nervous system — so this work includes the mind, body, and environment. Yes, we will explore your patterns & why they exist, AND we’ll notice them in your body, in real time. Coherence, parts work, Brainspotting, ART, EFT- different tools, one principle: change consolidates through experience, not just explanation.

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