Kelly Thompson, Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Fifteen years with teenagers, young adults, and the families holding it together around them
I am so glad you’re here
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and I work with teenagers, young adults, and parents in person in Sacramento and online anywhere in California.
Most of what I do centers around anxiety, feeling overwhelmed, and that long uncertain stretch between being a kid and feeling like an adult. It takes longer than it used to, and it comes with more pressure than it ever did, and a lot of the people I see are somewhere in the middle of it wondering why everyone else seems to have it figured out.
Much of my career was spent working in schools. For more than ten years I was a school social worker and clinician, which usually meant seeing a kid on the worst afternoon of their week, in a hallway, with no appointment and no treatment plan. Before that I worked in community mental health with children, teenagers, and families, including families without stable housing, youth in foster care, and teenagers in the juvenile justice system. My work has ranged from crisis intervention, individual and group therapy, and providing intensive support to families.
That background is a large part of why very little rattles me now, and why almost nothing anyone tells me will ever feel like “too much.”
In real life, I love to travel, spend time at the beach, have a latte at a local cafe and hang out with my family. My dog Lucy is always along for the ride and makes appearances at therapy sessions when it is helpful to my clients.
Trainings & Qualifications
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)
Pupil Personnel Services Credential,
School Social Work
Trauma Focused CBT
Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Intensive Training
Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
Certified Mindfulness Educator through Mindful Schools
Healing Centered Engagement certification through Flourish Agenda
Court Appointed Special Advocate, CASA of Sacramento County
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Intensive Training
There are a few things I lean on throughout my work.
The first is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). In plain terms, it is about making room for hard thoughts and feelings instead of building your whole life around avoiding them. Anxiety tends to shrink your world by getting you to say no to things. ACT helps us move toward things that are important to us in life, even when we are experiencing difficult emotions.
The second is mindfulness, which is actually much more simple than people think. It is the practice of being in the moment you are actually in rather than thinking about the mistake you made two years ago or worrying about something that’s three weeks away. I have maintained my own practice for about fifteen years and taught it to students in schools for many years, often to kids in the middle of a genuinely bad day, so I have seen it work in the “real world.”
I also incorporate Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) when impulsive or self destructive behavior has become a way of coping with intense anxiety or numbness. Through DBT we gain skills to handle overwhelming emotions without letting them run our lives.
Underneath all of this is the relationship I have with my clients, which is the most important part of the work I do. Clients will get to know me as a person, because that is how trust is built.
I am also the parent of two young adults, which shapes how I support families. This does not mean I assume your family looks like mine.
You are enough exactly the way you are.
Why I do this work
When I was thirteen I spent a lot of time on my bed with the door closed, because I had come to believe that my feelings were too big for other people to handle.
Too much. Too sensitive. Too emotional.
I heard it enough that I believed it, and I got very good at holding things in and taking care of everyone else instead. It took me most of my thirties to unlearn that.
One person who helped me through all of this was my Grandma Arlene. She was interested in whatever I happened to be into at the time, she listened when I was upset, and she never once seemed to find me difficult. She is a large part of what I try to be for the people I work with.
I am also the parent of two young adults, and I have raised teenagers through some genuinely hard years. I know what it is to lie awake worrying, to be the person your kid feels safe getting angry at, and to keep showing up for a conversation when letting it go quiet would be easier.
Parents who arrive worn out and isolated do not have to explain themselves to me.
What I want is simple. That people feel safe, seen, and supported here. That they leave knowing they can handle hard things, that feelings can be felt without swallowing them whole, and that not knowing where you are headed is a normal place to be rather than proof something has gone wrong.
Start with a call
Twenty minutes on the phone, just to talk. You tell me what is going on and I will tell you honestly whether I think I can help. If I’m not the right fit, I will help you find someone who is.