Betsy Smith, LPC-S

Licensed Professional Counselor and Supervisor

Betsy Smith is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Board Approved Supervisor (LPC-S) with over 16 years of experience, founder of Bellaire Family Counseling, specializing in OCD in children and adults using Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), with additional expertise in adult attachment, adult ADHD and executive functioning, and impulse control disorders, serving Bellaire, TX and the greater Houston area.

Focus Areas & Specialties

• OCD in children, teens, and adults, using Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
• OCD Intensives for children, and separately for teens and adults
• Adult attachment and relationship concerns
• Adult ADHD and executive functioning support
• Impulse control disorders.

Education & Training

• Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin
• Master of Education in Counseling, University of Houston
• Licensed Professional Counselor and Board Approved Supervisor (LPC-S), fully and independently licensed in Texas – License #66232
• Completed Pediatric Behavioral Therapy Training Institute (BTTI) through the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF), including supervised clinical experience in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) for pediatric OCD
• 70+ hours of training in clinical supervision
• 50+ hours of training in ERP and OCD treatment including topics such as functional assessment, inhibitory learning theory, OCD subtypes, co-occurring anxiety disorders, assessment, pharmacotherapy, and childhood OCD
• 20+ hours of advanced training in treating trauma
• 20+ hours of training in DBT
• 6 hours of Psychological First Aid training
• Extensive play therapy training including topics such as play therapy themes, children in families affected by addiction, sandtray, Child-Parent Relationship Therapy, parent coaching, recognizing abuse and neglect, developmentally
  appropriate practice, sibling rivalry, and social skills support
• Continuing education in the Gottman Method, Emotionally Focused Therapy for Individuals and Couples, Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorders, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, Behavioral Activation, and Trauma-Focused CBT

Experience & Background

Betsy is the founder of Bellaire Family Counseling. Before opening her private practice, she served as the Social and Emotional Program Director for Small Steps Nurturing Center, a multi-site nonprofit serving at-risk families in inner-city Houston, where she supervised clinical staff and provided individual and group therapy to students as well as training to parents, teachers, and volunteers. She later served as Clinical Training Director for the Clinical Mental Health Counseling graduate program at the University of St. Thomas.

Betsy has been published as a topic expert on GoodTherapy.org on bullying, emotional abuse, and non-suicidal self-injury, and has contributed many articles to Bellaire Family Counseling’s blog, including Recognizing Signs of OCD in Children: Reassurance Seeking, What is an OCD Intensive?, and Executive Functioning, Anxiety, ADHD, or Perfectionism? Understanding What’s Actually Happening With Your Child. She has provided professional trainings for BFC’s own therapists, Pines Presbyterian Preschool, University of St. Thomas graduate students, KidConnect, A Children’s Village, Harris County Juvenile Probation Officers, Small Steps Nurturing Center, and The Harris Center for Mental Health and IDD. She co-presented the webinar “I Think My Client Has OCD, Now What?” for other mental health professionals, and has given community-facing presentations at Herod Elementary, T.H. Rogers School, and St. Luke’s United Methodist Church.

Approach

Betsy specializes in treating OCD and related disorders in children, teens, and adults, using Exposure and Response Prevention as her primary framework for OCD and anxiety-spectrum concerns. For families and individuals who want to make significant progress in a condensed timeframe, she offers OCD Intensives for children as well as for teens and adults. Beyond OCD, she works with adults navigating attachment and relationship patterns, ADHD and executive functioning challenges, and impulse control disorders. Betsy moves past surface-level conversation quickly, and clients often notice she sees what’s underneath before they’ve fully said it themselves. She works well with highly intelligent clients and those who tend toward avoidant attachment, and she brings a dry wit and genuine sense of humor into sessions rather than a purely clinical tone.

Areas Served

• In-person at Bellaire Family Counseling, 5909 W Loop S #490, Bellaire, TX 77401, serving Bellaire, Meyerland, West University, Westbury, River Oaks, Memorial, Piney Point, and the greater Houston area
• Telehealth available for anyone in the state of Texas

Practical Details

• Language: English
• Session Days: Monday-Friday