Kaci Schmitt

My name is Kaci Schmitt (she/her). I am happy and honored to be able to offer counseling and therapy services to children, adolescents, and adults in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, as well as throughout the states of Oregon and Washington for teletherapy. I truly enjoy working with clients who are looking to process various experiences, transitions, and challenges in their lives, as well as gain knowledge, trust, and compassion for themselves and deepen their capacity for mental and emotional wellness.

There are times in life where we can use an empathic, nonjudgmental therapist who can be present with us as we explore our challenges and develop insight. In addition to deeply listening to you, I will hold space for your stories, history, and cultural experiences, as well as encourage you to hold compassion and curiosity for your unique challenges. I specialize in working with teens and adults with anxiety, trauma, and grief and loss. Many of the clients I work with are highly sensitive persons (HSPs) and looking for ways to cultivate wellness in their lives. I also frequently work with people in the helping fields who are experiencing burnout and exhaustion, who are ready to explore ways to process vicarious and secondary trauma and prioritize true self-care.

I truly love the work I do. I began my practice because I believe that we all have the capacity to grow, heal, and transform, and that we all have insight that we can develop and learn to trust. I also believe that working through our challenges with self-compassion and understanding can help us move from pain and frustration to peace and autonomy. We are all capable of creating meaningful lives of peace.

I deeply believe that we all have an innate capacity to heal and that each person is their own best resource and source of wisdom, and that we often need a little help allowing ourselves to access and trust our intuition. We all have many possible selves, and the stories we tell ourselves about who we are, who others are, and how life works can help or hurt our chances at being the self we want to be. I also believe that there must be space in therapy to process the things about life that are hard, painful, exhausting, and often heartbreaking, all while cultivating a gentler, more compassionate, resilient way of being in this world. Therapy allows us the opportunity to develop self-awareness and explore action steps that we can take to improve our wellbeing. I respect the process it takes to discover new things about ourselves and integrate what we have learned into our lives, and I encourage my clients to do so with great care for themselves. I consider it a privilege to be a collaborative partner in the healing and transformation process.