Diana Frances Smith, MS, RMFTI
Registered marriage and family therapist intern
Video visits across Florida · in person in Lakeland
Couples Therapy · Telehealth for Florida residents
Online couples therapy for Florida couples
Secure video sessions together or from two locations, with a marriage and family therapist.
- Accepting new couples
- Video sessions for Florida residents
- In person in Lakeland if you prefer
You’ll see Diana Frances Smith, MS, RMFTI.
Start here
Request a video visit
Tell us how to reach you. We confirm your coverage before your first visit.
Quick answer
Online couples therapy at Ascend Mind and Body is with Diana Frances Smith, MS, RMFTI, a registered marriage and family therapist intern, by secure video for couples in Florida, from the same room or from two locations. In-person sessions are at our Lakeland office. We work with many major commercial plans and offer self-pay options. Coverage varies by plan and service. Our team will confirm with you.
How it works
Request a visit
Send the form or call (863) 510-2624. A care coordinator calls you back, usually within one business day, and confirms your coverage before your first visit.
A first session together
Meet Diana Frances Smith, MS, RMFTI, by secure video, from the same room or from two locations in Florida.
Practice between sessions
Sessions focus on how you talk, argue and repair, with things to try between sessions.
Book with your clinician
The clinician who will see you.
Call the office to book, or use the form and a care coordinator will call you.
What happens by video, and what needs the office
By secure video
- Joint sessions from one room or two
- Sessions that fit around work and childcare
Telehealth visits are for patients who are physically in Florida at the time of the visit. Florida residents only.
At our Lakeland office
- In-person sessions at our Lakeland office
- Any session you would rather have in a room
What a video session actually looks like
A session with Diana Frances Smith, MS, RMFTI, lasts 50 minutes and usually happens once a week. On the day, a secure video link arrives by email or text. There is no app to download and no account to create.
From the same roomSit side by side in front of one screen, close enough that Diana can see both of your faces. A laptop or tablet set at eye level works better than a phone held in one hand.
From two placesEach of you joins on your own device. This helps when shifts, a commute or separate homes make one room impossible. Headphones keep each end of the call private.
Either way, each of you has to be physically located in Florida while the session is happening. Choose a room with a door that closes, out of earshot of children and anyone else in the house. If you are in separate rooms of the same home, agree beforehand that neither of you will listen in on the other.
The work itself is the same as it would be in an office: paying close attention to how the two of you speak to each other when something matters, and to what happens in the moment it starts to go wrong.
The first few sessions
Couples come to video sessions for many of the same reasons they would come to an office: arguments that loop, rebuilding trust after an affair, getting ready for marriage, the strain of a new baby, a move or a retirement, or parenting disagreements. Early sessions are mostly about understanding where you are before trying to change anything.
What brought you here
You talk about what is happening now, what each of you would like to be different, and how long the current pattern has been going on.
Both versions, heard
Each partner gets room to describe the problem in their own words. You may not agree on the story yet, and that is expected. Hearing both sides is how the pattern between you starts to come into focus.
Goals you can both notice
Instead of a loose aim like communicating better, you and Diana agree on specific changes that the two of you can actually see from one week to the next.
Something to try
You leave with something to practice before the next session, so progress does not rest entirely on the hour you spend on camera.
How many sessions you need depends on what you are working on. Diana gives you a realistic sense of the timeline early, rather than leaving it open-ended. If one partner is not ready to join, you can still begin on your own. Our guide to couples therapy for one explains what that can and cannot do.
Emotionally Focused Therapy, by video
Diana holds a Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy. Her training in Emotionally Focused Therapy includes the EFT Externship and the complete set of EFCT Core Skills courses, and she is pursuing EFT certification. Trained and certified are different steps: training means that coursework is done, while certification adds supervised casework and a review of recorded sessions. As a registered marriage and family therapist intern, she practices under the supervision of a licensed clinician.
EFT grows out of attachment research. It treats the argument you keep having as the visible part of a cycle: one partner reaches out, often in a way that sounds like criticism, the other pulls back to protect themselves, and each move sets off the next. Neither person is choosing the cycle, and both usually feel the other one started it.
The model moves through three stages:
- De-escalation. Naming the cycle, so it becomes something you are both caught in rather than something one of you does to the other.
- Restructuring the bond. Putting words to the need or fear under each partner’s usual move, and learning to answer it.
- Consolidation. Using the new pattern on old problems until you can catch the cycle on your own.
None of this requires sitting on a couch across from your therapist. A cycle shows up on a video call the same way it shows up in an office. For more on how the model works, read our plain-English guide to Emotionally Focused Therapy.
When couples therapy by video is not the right fit
Joint sessions only work when both partners can speak honestly without paying for it afterward. If your relationship involves physical violence, threats or coercive control, couples therapy is not a safe place to start, on video or in person.
Video adds its own concerns. A therapist can only see what the camera shows. If your partner could be listening from the next room when you are meant to be alone, or if you are worried about what happens once the call ends, that is a sign to set joint sessions aside for now.
The safer first step is support for you on your own, along with a safety plan.
- The National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/7 at 1-800-799-7233.
- If you are in immediate danger, call 911.
- If you are in crisis, call or text 988.
Sometimes video is the wrong format for simpler reasons. One of you will be outside Florida during sessions, or there is no private space at home. In those cases, sessions in person at our Lakeland office, or individual therapy to start, may be the better place to begin. Diana also works with families through family therapy when the strain reaches beyond the two of you.
Where you can be seen
By secure video anywhere in Florida, or in person at our office.
By video
Anywhere in Florida, from home
- Same clinicians as our office visits
- No drive and no waiting room
- For Florida residents, on a phone or laptop
In person
Lakeland office
Ascend Mind and Body832 Florida Ave S Ste 1, Second Floor
Lakeland, FL 33801
Insurance and cost
We work with many major commercial plans and offer self-pay options. Coverage varies by plan and service. Our team will confirm with you.
Insurance questions go to our care team, who confirm your coverage with you before your first visit.
Common questions
Can couples therapy work over video?
For many couples, yes. Sessions follow the same structure as in the office, and you can join from the same room or from two locations in Florida.
Do we both need to be in Florida?
Yes. Both partners need to be physically in Florida during the session.
What if my partner will not come?
You can still start on your own. Call us to talk through how sessions would work, and read couples therapy for one.
Can we come in person?
Yes. In-person sessions are at our Lakeland office, 832 Florida Ave S Ste 1, Second Floor, Lakeland, FL 33801.
Does insurance cover couples therapy?
We work with many major commercial plans and offer self-pay options. Coverage varies by plan and service. Our team will confirm with you. Insurance questions go to our care team, who confirm your coverage with you before your first visit.
Ready when you are.
Send a request and a care coordinator will call you back, or call us now. Insurance questions go to our care team, who confirm your coverage with you before your first visit.