What Colleagues Are Saying

“Lucia is a very enthusiastic and caring therapist! She’ll help put you at ease and tackles huge issues! “
— Lynn Dorner, Dorner Health

“Lucia is a caring professional who seeks solutions to help individuals become their best selves.”
— Brenda Payne Whiteman, Writer/Editor

“Lucia is highly compassionate and dedicated to providing quality care to clients dealing with mental illness and other related issues.”
— Joseph Kasamba, Lifetouch Behavioral Health

“Lucia Smith has all the qualities you’d want in a counselor: warmth, empathy, vast experience, and humor.”
— Joey Serim, Earthfire Pottery

“A marvelous resource for those facing anxiety and stress in their lives!”
— Ted de Villafranca

Treatment specialization includes:

• Anxiety

• Panic attacks

• Social anxiety

• Phobias

• Exposure Therapy

• Depression

A bit more about Lucia…

Lucia has specialized training in the most researched, highly effective, and lasting treatments for anxiety disorders, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Values-based Therapy, and Systematic Desensitization. She has the expertise and experience to apply a combination of this multitude of techniques in a way that reaches and helps each patient as an individual. She has worked with clients from the corporate world, independent professionals, and students at all levels.

One of her strong interests is in cross-cultural studies. She has traveled in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean and has lived in England and France. Lucia is trained as a cross-cultural therapist and has studied with cross-cultural communications experts extensively. In New Jersey, Lucia enjoys working with immigrants and first-generation Americans and their families to help them to explore how some of their feelings of stress and anxiety may stem from unresolved conflicts between their culture of origin’s values and Western or U.S. values.

Lucia has also worked in Educational Therapy. Before she opened her practice, she worked as a therapist/instructor for several area schools for students with average or higher IQs and language or math-based learning disabilities and/or ADHD. These include The Lewis School of Princeton and Newgrange School. In 2003 Lucia was one of the founders of The Bridge Academy in Lawrenceville and was the school counselor there for 13 years. The school remains the first choice for placement for New Jersey Case Managers.

Her work with the learning-disabled students at these schools motivated her to open an anxiety therapy practice. Researchers have noted that anxiety and low self-esteem are highly correlated with having learning disabilities. Anxiety, panic, and low self-esteem were the predominant issues among Lucia’s learning-disabled counseling students. Their anxiety seemed to be higher when their LD diagnosis was delayed, and they continued to be in schools with no support and accommodations, where they were bullied by peers and inappropriately told they were lazy by their teachers. She has considerable experience with the issues common to people with learning disabilities and ADHD and can help with compensation strategies.

For the entirety of Lucia’s career, she has focused on working closely with individuals and helping them with their behavioral, emotional, mental health, or learning difficulties. Her life’s passion is supporting people and helping them make positive changes in their lives.