Weeknight Appointments Available!
Melanie is ready to help with many issues, including: Abuse and Neglect Recovery (including sexual abuse)
Anger Management
Anxiety
Child and Adolescent Behavior
Depression
Family Conflict
Grief and Loss
Internet Addiction (Certification)
Life Transitions
Oppositional Defiance
Parenting
Peer Relationships
Perfectionism
PTSD and Trauma
Secondary Trauma Experienced by First Responders and Health Care Professionals
Stress
Survivors of Suicide Loss
Women’s Issues
About Melanie: I have over twenty years of experience helping adults, teens and children deal with challenges successfully. Let us find out what didn't work before and do something new that might--together. I have been recognized in the mental health field since 1990 in parent education, family dynamics, family violence, and cultural diversity. Licensed since 1998, I've worked extensively with children, adolescents, adults, couples and families.
Family violence, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, abuse and neglect in all forms, anxiety and depression, stress and anger, and surviving suicide loss are her specialties. LGBT+ are welcome for individual and couple work.
Melanie has worked extensively with children in foster care and is a Certified Adoption Specialist. She also is certified in treating internet addiction. Her work experience also includes hotline support, drug and alcohol treatment, group therapy, and intensive home-based services with court-mandated families.
Therapy Process and Benefits
1. At your first appointment, Melanie will take a full psychosocial history, and may recommend assessments during your care. Melanie will also make a recommendation of how many visits you might need, which may change with outside factors or new stressors you encounter.
2. Melanie will give you exercises to complete on your own and/or with your family and friends. These might feel awkward and not give immediate results, but many interventions can bring great results with time.
3. Better relationships make happier lives! When therapy is working, you can tell by:
Improved coping skills
Fewer fights
Better communication
Higher confidence and life satisfaction
Costs
A 45-minute session is 150.00
Insurance filing through in-network or out-of-network benefits may reduce your fee (ask your plan about your mental health benefits)
Employee Assistance Programs offer a limited number of free sessions
To The Therapy Skeptic
Everyone experiences stress or difficulty in life. Not everyone has to have counseling to function, but most people can benefit at some point in their lives from counseling. Counseling has the ability to make you more aware of your own patterns, prevent you from feeling isolated, bring you into greater psychological fitness, and strengthen your understanding of yourself. Counseling, if used conscientiously, can help repair relationships, bring clarity of thought and vision, and resolve long-standing problems. Counseling can engage your brain, your heart, and often your sense of humor. It is important for both the counselor and the client to respect this process and commit to it.
OK, let’s just say you bought none of that. You are one of those rugged individualists that think psychotherapy is for losers, looking to blame others for their problems, whining about how your mama didn’t hold you enough and punching pillows. These people should just build a bridge and get over it, right? Well, you are half-right. What if old habits, defeating thoughts and patterns are holding you back from accomplishing something you really want in your life? What if a short-term, targeted therapy “tune-up” was just what you needed to get your engine humming?
Maybe you have been seeking help and trusted a therapist who wasn’t serving you well, which can be very painful. Unfortunately, this happens and people start to generalize about the whole therapeutic process. I invite you to a conversation where we can map out a plan that works for you, as short or long a time you feel ready for.