Tri-Cities counselor accused of murder permanently stripped of mental health license

The Washington state Department of Health has permanently revoked the mental health counselor and radiologic technologist licenses of accused murder Michael Thomas Smith.

Based on a finding that Smith can never be rehabilitated or regain the ability to practice with reasonable skills and safety, the Department of Health determined that a permanent revocation of his credentials was essential to protect public safety, according to state documents.

Smith, 38, has been in the Benton County jail since July 14, 2023, accused of strangling his longtime girlfriend, Jenna Olafson, 38, at an East Reata Road home south of Richland six days earlier. The couple, who were both counselors, lived in the basement of the home that Olafson’s mother owned.

After Smith allegedly committed the murder, police said he tried to die by suicide, which led to a five-day stay at a Tri-Cities hospital.

He was charged with second-degree murder, and is being held in lieu of $1 million bail. If he is convicted of that charge, he faces a potential prison sentence between 10 and 18 years.

His trial is scheduled to start June 24, but trial dates are often delayed.

According to Washington state Department of Health documents, he allegedly confessed to murdering his girlfriend and said he “wanted to check out of life.”

Smith did not respond by a Jan. 18 deadline to a Department of Health statement of charges for alleged unprofessional conduct issued December 2023, according to state documents.

The Washington State Department of Health found him in default, and Wednesday announced the decision to revoke his licenses.

It considered aggravating factors, including the heinousness of his alleged action and ill repute upon the health professions, according to state documents.

Smith had been licensed as a radiologic technologist in Washington state since May 2012. His mental health counselor license in Washington state was issued in April 2021.

According to his Psychology Today profile and his website, he spent two years working for the Seattle Indian Health Board, where he said he learned to see trauma through a historical lens. He said his focus was patients with trauma, PTSD, anxiety and substance use issues.

“We are all the experts of our own lives and we innately have what we need to heal,” he wrote in his profile.

“Due to life experiences on a personal, community, and generational level, sometimes this process can get ‘stuck.’ My job as your therapist is to serve as a guide to help you identify where this process is being interrupted and collaborate together to remove the barriers preventing natural healing from continuing.”

Online records show that Olafson and Smith worked as counselors out of the Reata Road home, according to public records.

The couple both received their master’s degrees from the same small Pasadena-based Saybrook University in California.

The two graduated within a year of each other, Smith in 2016 and Olafson in 2017.

Olafson spent seven years as a counselor working with adolescents and adults. She had a focus on addressing trauma, depression, ADHD and LGBTQ+ issues, according to her profile on the Psychology Today website.

“Each individual’s story and experience are sacred and it is my belief that they should be honored as such,” she wrote.

The murder shocked friends and colleagues that span the state, some who continue to reach out to the Tri-City Herald to express their disbelief.