Mary Beth Schmalbach, LGPC, N.C.C.
Mary Beth earned her Master of Science degree in Pastoral Counseling from Loyola College in Maryland in 2006. She is a Licensed Graduate Professional Counselor in the state of Maryland and a National Certified Counselor. Mary Beth is a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors and the American Counseling Association.
Prior to joining the Safe Harbor practice, Mary Beth was a member of the Grace Fellowship Church staff, serving as the Associate Director of the Lay Counseling Ministry. In this position, Mary Beth maintained a busy counseling clientele in addition to conducting all in-person intake appointments, placing clients with lay counselors and supervising the lay counselors individually. Mary Beth began her counseling career many years ago as a Grace Fellowship lay counselor herself. Mary Beth received three years of intensive lay counseling training from Grace and, several years later, obtained training in marriage counseling through one of Grace Fellowship’s pastors, who is also a trained counselor.
After serving as a lay counselor for 11 years, Mary Beth discerned God’s voice calling her to earn her graduate degree in counseling through Loyola College’s Pastoral Counseling program so that she might be equipped with the clinical counseling skills and experience necessary to help His people who struggle with serious mental-health and relationship issues. Through her professional training and internship experiences, including a year as a counselor on the staff of a private girls’ high school, Mary Beth acquired the knowledge and skills she needed to begin her professional counseling career.
In her counseling, Mary Beth employs a variety of sound psychological theories and techniques, such as Cognitive-Behavioral techniques, Adlerian psychotherapy and Attachment Theory. As a pastoral counselor, Mary Beth meets her clients where they are and creates a safe place where they feel accepted and cared for. She works to establish a counseling relationship that is based upon empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard, viewing each client as created in the image of God. Her experience of God’s comfort in her life has profoundly affected how she relates to her clients, for she has clearly heard God’s call to comfort others as He has comforted her. Paul’s words to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 resonate within Mary Beth and serve as the foundation of her identity as a pastoral counselor.
Mary Beth has been counseling couples for over 11 years and is especially passionate about working with them. She is a skilled mediator and enjoys enabling each partner to see the situation from the other’s perspective. From this understanding springs hope, and from hope, the possibility for healing and growth. She is also experienced in counseling adolescent girls. Mary Beth also has extensive experience counseling individuals who struggle with anxiety disorders (including Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, PTSD and Panic Disorder), depressive disorders (including Bipolar Disorder), eating disorders, trauma and personality disorders.
Mary Beth and her husband Rick have been married for 25 years and are members of Grace Fellowship Church in Timonium. They have two daughters.