Kris Smith, LCSW

Kris is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (CSW003413) specializing in parenting concerns, grief and loss, relationship challenges within family and friendships, and toxic/narcissistic relationship patterns. Kris is particularly passionate about empowering women in midlife to acknowledge and honor their acquired wisdom while creating an encouraging therapeutic space where they can continue to explore and grow. 

Kris received her undergraduate degree in Child and Family Development from the University of Georgia and a Master’s of Social Work from the University of South Carolina. While completing her Master’s, she worked as a child life specialist in a bone marrow transplant unit in Columbia, South Carolina. This experience greatly shaped her future work in the fields of grief/loss and parenting. 

Upon graduation and moving back to Atlanta, Kris worked as a hospice social worker.  Following her hospice work experience, Kris pursued working with children and teens as a child and adolescent counselor in a community mental health clinic.  Following this rewarding experience, Kris joined Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta in the AFLAC Cancer Center as the leukemia and lymphoma social worker where she provided supportive counseling to children, teens, and their families as they navigated a childhood cancer diagnosis and treatment. 

In recent years, Kris has worked in private practice and also served as the Middle School Counselor at Christ the King in Atlanta, GA. This position gave Kris the ability to support adolescents and their parents during the challenging middle school years by teaching about mental health to increase knowledge, normalize struggles, teach healthy coping skills, and decrease stigma. 

Kris believes in the value and power of a strong collaborative relationship between a client and therapist to create positive changes that align with personal values.  One of Kris’s favorite quotes is, “Do the best you can until you know better.  Then when you know better, do better” by Maya Angelou. This quote speaks to the promising power of our ability to change and grow. Deep-rooted patterns of behavior can be disrupted, and new neural pathways can be created! 

Kris acknowledges the role of movement in caring for her own mental health. She enjoys walking while listening to podcasts and doing yoga. Kris savors going on weekend coffee dates with her husband and connecting with her two teenage daughters. She loves an iced doughnut and adores Dolly Parton.