Alia Smith, LMFT

Alia Smith is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 15 years of clinical experience in California. She focuses on practical, skills-based work to help people manage anxiety, depression, bipolar symptoms, addictions, and stress. Her style is straightforward and collaborative, aimed at getting to workable steps quickly.

She uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to identify patterns of thinking that keep problems going and to build different daily habits. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is part of her approach when clients want to steer toward clearer values and committed action. Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills are used when emotion regulation and distress tolerance are needed.

Alia believes clients are the experts on their own lives. She helps people notice strengths and use them to solve problems. Sessions tend to focus on small, practical changes that add up over time.

Her background includes work with trauma, abuse, substance use, and relationship stress. She also supports people dealing with ADHD, panic attacks, eating struggles, and feelings of emptiness or shame. Over 15 years she has helped individuals through big life changes and ongoing mental health concerns.

Sessions are offered in English and are done remotely by video, phone, live chat, or text messaging. Alia uses a subscription model that can be canceled at any time. To begin, a short matching questionnaire is completed and scheduling is arranged based on therapist availability.

How CBT, ACT, and DBT work in online therapy

Alia commonly uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people spot unhelpful thoughts and try different behaviors in daily life. CBT focuses on clear, measurable steps like testing beliefs and building new routines to reduce anxiety and depression.

She also draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy when values and meaningful action matter most. ACT helps people notice painful thoughts without getting stuck in them and choose actions aligned with what matters. Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills are used for emotion regulation and managing intense reactions through concrete techniques like breathing, grounding, and distress-tolerance exercises.

Choosing the right mix of approaches is a joint process. The therapist works with each person to figure out which methods fit their goals and preferences, and adjustments are made as progress unfolds.

Online sessions use video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to offer flexibility. Video works well for longer therapy sessions and skills practice. Phone calls are useful when bandwidth is limited or for quick check-ins. Live chat and text messaging can support ongoing coaching, brief updates, and reminders between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules and to keep momentum between appointments.