Dr. Schmitt is a generalist practitioner who is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist (LCP) and Certified Substance Abuse Counselor (CSAC) in Virginia. Trained as a counseling psychologist, she takes a strengths-based, person-centered, transtheoretical approach, matching a client’s needs with technique. She is well-versed in cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, biopsychosocial, and family systems approaches. She is trained in a number of evidence-based programs, including Motivational Interviewing, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), and Skills Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation (STAIR for trauma). Having worked as a classroom teacher, in a hospital, as well as been trained in law enforcement, she understands the on-going traumas that can result from being in people-serving professions, the frustrations of navigating large systems in these roles, and the importance of self-care in continuing to serve others.
Dr. Schmitt works with individuals ages 13 and older with a wide variety of concerns in individual, couples and family therapy. She utilizes her knowledge and skills to address anxiety, depression, personality disorders, bipolar disorders, OCD, ADHD, PTSD, grief, anger management, interpersonal, relational and substance use concerns.
Dr. Schmitt received her bachelor’s from Purdue University, a master’s from Boston College, and her doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in 2003. She has over twenty-five years of social service experience in a broad range of settings and geographical locations. She has worked as a mental health counselor/psychologist in community settings, inpatient hospital units, university counseling centers and prisons. She has spent the majority of the past 15 years doing grant development and implementation for state agencies as a faculty member at VCU. Her grant work encompassed a variety of state-wide mental health, prevention and school change initiatives.