Meet Linda

about me.

I’m not your typical therapist. I’m real. I’m sarcastic. I love to find ways to laugh about our problems and I tend to roll my eyes a LOT. The thought of a stale, clinical therapy experience makes me feel ill. It doesn’t all have to be so serious!!! If you’re looking for something outside the box and a therapist who can dive into problems but keep the humor in the room, I might be your person.

I have a nerd-level fascination with the brain science behind why we do what we do and why we feel what we feel.  I enjoy working with clients who like to dig into problems (and by that I kinda mean “obsess”) and I really love working with people who consider themselves, or their problems, to be different than other people. (anxious-ADHD-autistic-neurotic-perfectionist types….yes, yes, yes!)

My husband and I managed to space our children out in such a way that we have 18 straight years of parenting teenagers.   (I don’t recommend this, by the way.)  By the time I was 40, I decided to go back to school, first to study chemical dependency counseling followed by an undergrad degree in psychology.  I went to graduate school where I earned a masters degree in Marriage and Family Therapy - with a specialization in Child and Adolescent Family Therapy.

The endless years of parenting teens is DIRECTLY connected to me going back to school. If you have a teen you know exactly what happened here: we were defeated, I knew it, and I was INTENT to WIN the battle. (I don’t recommend trying to win!)

I completed a rigorous grad school internship at Attachment and Trauma Specialists, specializing in treating kids with attachment disorders and other behavior issues. I have been working in social service since 2003, working in drug treatment programs, youth shelters and housing service programs as well as an adolescent residential mental health program (it was in an adolescent girls residential program that I was told repeatedly that there was no way I could be a therapist because I can’t hide what I’m thinking- it shows on my face. I’m still not quite sure how to feel about that. Gotta love teenage girls!).  

If you’re looking for a therapist who was or is a perfect person….well, that’s not me. If you’re looking for someone a little different…..schedule an appointment, let’s see if we click!

Licenses and Certifications:

Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Washington State #LH61287862

Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor, Vermont #068.0134844TELE

Licensed Mental or Behavioral Telehealth Counselor, Idaho #2161175

Certified EMDR Therapist, EMDRIA

EMDR Consultant in Training, EMDRIA

Certified Anger Management Specialist, National Anger Management Association (please note: I do not do Anger Management Assessments for court-involved situations)

Certified Crisis Intervention Specialist III, National Anger Management Association

Certified Life Coach, World Coach Institute

Certified Addiction Coach, World Coach Institute

Why I Became an EMDR Consultant — And What I Wish Every Therapist Was Trained to Do

By Linda Smith, MA, LMHC — , Directory of Operations, NWMHA

I didn't set out to become an EMDR consultant. I set out to get better at EMDR.

When I completed my basic training, I thought I understood the protocol. I had the manual. I had the theory. I had practiced with other trainees. I started seeing clients with EMDR and, by most measures, it seemed to be working.

Then I started consultation. And I realized how much I hadn't known.

What consultation revealed

My first consultation sessions were humbling in the best possible way. Presenting a case to an approved consultant and walking through what I'd done — describing my clinical decisions in real time, out loud, to someone who knew the protocol deeply — exposed gaps I hadn't been aware of.

I was moving too fast through the preparation phase. I was making assumptions about a client's window of tolerance that weren't backed by enough assessment. In some cases I was targeting memories in an order that made clinical sense to me but wasn't actually following the treatment plan protocol. Small things that, accumulated across sessions, meant my clients weren't getting the full benefit of what EMDR can offer.

None of this was catastrophic. But it was wrong. And I wouldn't have found it without someone looking at my work.

What I started seeing in consultation with other therapists

As I progress toward becoming an approved consultant myself, I began providing consultation to therapists working toward EMDRIA certification. What I heard in those sessions confirmed what I'd been seeing in a different form — through clients who came to our practice after EMDR elsewhere.

Therapists running bilateral stimulation continuously, for long sets, without pausing to process what emerged. Therapists who skipped resourcing because clients seemed stable. Therapists who ended sessions without closure because time ran out. Therapists who were applying the bilateral stimulation component of EMDR to trauma without the protocol that makes it safe — and not realizing that what they were doing wasn't complete treatment.

These weren't negligent clinicians. Most of them were thoughtful, caring therapists who genuinely wanted to help their clients. They had simply received a training that gave them the technique without the clinical judgment to deploy it correctly. And without consultation, there had been no opportunity to discover the gap.

Why the field has a problem

EMDR basic training is 5-6 days. Twenty hours of consultation are required for certification — but certification is optional. There is no mechanism that prevents a therapist from completing a training and practicing EMDR indefinitely without any further oversight or development.

For most therapy approaches, this might be an acceptable risk. EMDR is different. It's a structured protocol designed to access and reprocess traumatic material. Done correctly, it can produce meaningful change faster than almost any other approach. Done incorrectly — without proper preparation, without the correct sequencing, without closure — it can leave clients flooded, destabilized, and more reluctant to seek help in the future.

The gap between trained and competent is not trivial. And the field's current structure doesn't do enough to close it.

Why I pursued approval and what it required

Becoming an EMDRIA-approved consultant requires meeting standards that go significantly beyond basic certification. It requires a depth of clinical experience, a track record of consulting with other therapists, and a demonstrated understanding of the protocol sophisticated enough to identify errors in someone else's work.

I pursued it because I believed that the way to address the problem I was seeing wasn't to complain about it — it was to build something better. The training center at NWMHA exists because Kevin and I decided we wanted to train therapists the way we wish we had been trained: with intensive supervision, with ongoing consultation built into the model, and with a standard that asks not just "did you complete the protocol" but "did your client actually move."

If you're a therapist working toward EMDRIA certification and looking for consultation that takes your clinical development seriously — that's exactly what I do.

And if you're a client who has had EMDR before and it didn't feel right — I'd like you to know that what you experienced may not have been the full protocol. You deserve the real thing.

For consultation inquiries or new client intakes, apply at the link below. We respond within 3 business days. →