Founder
My name is Dr. Rachaud Smith and I obtained my Doctorate of Psychology from Nova Southeastern University in 2006 with a concentration in Health Psychology. I was licensed to practice psychology in Washington State since 2009 and have been providing psychological services to adults suffering from a variety of mood disorders including, but not limited to depression, anxiety disorders, and PTSD. I also have a passion for working with individuals struggling to manage chronic medical ailments, such as cancer, diabetes, and chronic pain. I grew up in Miami, FL and was raised with my parents and three younger siblings. My upbringing taught me the importance of valuing and empathizing with others, especially when being raised in such diverse area as South Florida. This ultimately led me to pursue a career in the field of psychology. Also, growing up in South Florida provided me with the opportunity to interact with individuals from diverse backgrounds, which is something that I place great value on. During my doctoral training, I received great experience treating various mood disorders, as well as providing therapy in various treatment settings to individuals struggling to manage acute and chronic medical ailments. As a result of my training and subsequent experience as a practicing clinical psychologist, have become very proficient in working with individuals with traditional mental health conditions, as well as individuals with co-occurring mental health and medical conditions. I founded Intuitive Wellness because of the understanding that I have gained on the mind/body connection and the important role that mental and emotional wellness has on physical health and vice verse. As a clinical health psychologist I understand the role that the mind and body have on each other and have learned/fine tuned the mental and emotional strategies to not only improve emotional and mental well-being, but also have some positive effects on improving physical well-being.
The Intuitive Wellness Therapeutic Approach
Mental and emotional health and wellness are just as important as physical health and wellness. If one’s mental and emotional health and well-being are unhealthy, it will negatively affect one’s physical health and functioning and vice versa.
The intuitive Wellness Therapeutic Approach is guided by the following principles:
- Every client deserves to be treated with the upmost respect and dignity.
- Every client deserves to be provided the most clinically and ethically appropriate treatment possible.
- Every client is capable of learning tools and strategies to improved their overall level of functioning and enhance his/her quality of life.
- Counseling is a collaborative process in which the client and counselor work together to help the client achieve his/her stated goals. In order to ensure that this process takes shape the following is considered:
- Clients’ past experiences
- Clients’ identified values and strengths
- Cultural Factors
- Current emotional and mental responses/tools to manage stressful situations
- Motivation to achieve the stated goal(s) of counseling.
- Utilization of various evidenced based treatment approaches such as: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT); Existential Therapy; Motivational Enhancement approaches; Exposure Based Therapy; Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
Counseling with Intuitive Wellness will provide clients with tools to bring one’s mental, emotional, and physical state into a healthy balance that promotes the most optimal level of functioning possible.