Stephanie Desmond is a Licensed Graduate Professional Counselor at Kismet Ketamine, Psychotherapy and Wellness. She completed her clinical training at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland — the same community where she now practices. Her path to becoming a trauma therapist was not a straight line from classroom to clinic. It was shaped by decades of work that most clinicians never do, in fields that most graduate programs never touch. That background is what makes her approach to trauma therapy distinct.

Before entering formal clinical training, Stephanie spent decades as a practitioner, teacher, and student of therapeutic bodywork, mindfulness, and meditation. She became a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) instructor — a rigorous, evidence-based program originally developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical School that has been studied extensively for its effects on chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and trauma. This accomplishment reflects a sustained, serious engagement with how the mind and body are connected — and what it actually takes to help people work with that connection rather than against it.

That foundation shapes everything about how Stephanie practices today. Trauma does not live only in memory. It lives in the body — in the nervous system, in chronic tension, in the way a person breathes or holds themselves or startles at sounds they cannot explain. A therapist who understands that at a cellular level, not just a conceptual one, brings something different into the room. Her clinical work is built on the understanding that healing from trauma is a whole-person process, and that what happens in the body is not separate from what happens in the mind.

Stephanie is trained in EMDR — Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing — one of the most well-researched trauma therapies available. She works alongside cognitive, behavioral, and relational approaches, drawing from whichever combination of tools best fits the person she is working with. Her style is collaborative and unhurried. She is not moving clients toward a predetermined outcome on a predetermined schedule. She is following the person in front of her, staying attuned to what they need, and building a therapeutic relationship sturdy enough to hold the weight of the work.

Stephanie specializes in trauma — including the kind that accumulates slowly over time rather than arriving in a single identifiable event. Adverse childhood experiences, chronic stress, relational trauma, and the long-term effects of living in survival mode are all within her scope. She works with adults who have spent years managing symptoms without understanding their source, and with people who are just beginning to name what happened to them. Wherever a client is in that process, Stephanie meets them there.

At Kismet, Stephanie’s work is part of a coordinated team that includes psychiatric medication management, ketamine therapy, and other trauma-focused clinicians. When a client is receiving care across multiple parts of the practice, providers communicate directly — with client consent — so that what happens in one room supports what is happening everywhere else. Stephanie’s deep grounding in somatic and mindfulness-based approaches adds a dimension to that team that is difficult to find in most clinical settings. She brings it to every client she sees.

For people who have tried therapy before and felt like something was missing — like the work was happening from the neck up while the rest of them stayed untouched — Stephanie’s approach offers something different. She has spent a lifetime learning how to work with the whole person. That is what she brings to Kismet, and to every client she connects with.