Kaci Schmitt (she/her)

My Approach to Helping

I am a strengths-based, relational and compassion-focused therapist in Portland, Oregon. I love working with adolescents and adults with anxiety, depression, and difficulty adjusting to change and indecision, as well as helping clients process and integrate grief and loss into their lives. My approach to therapy is guided by my belief that through our work together, we can create a safe space where you can find peace, develop your own intuition and wisdom to make your own choices about what's right for your life, and create new meaning to live in a more balanced, free, and gentle way. Therapy is a safe place where we can process your life together. I believe that you are your greatest source of wisdom and that in our work together, we can uncover what is keeping you stuck and find the resources you need to move forward. I believe that compassion and warmth are essential to therapy, and I prioritize creating a strong therapeutic relationship with my clients.

More About the People I Treat

I help my clients explore their unique challenges and life situations so that they can uncover joy, contentment, and ease, as well as find solutions to unresolved issues and process and manage trauma and pain. I encourage my clients to look within themselves to find their own strengths, resources, and inner wisdom. And because being a human is not always easy, I encourage my clients to develop deep self-compassion and curiosity about themselves and their lives. This process is complex, and each person is unique, so I approach each client individually and with care and compassion. Many of the clients who find me (or whose parents find me) tend to be highly sensitive individuals who are empathic, attuned to their environments and other people (and often had to be beginning in childhood due to trauma), and want to live happy, meaningful lives but who are overwhelmed by their current challenges or find themselves “stuck” in certain emotional, relational, or life patterns.