Ring the bells that can still ring. Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.- Leonard Cohen
Melissa is not accepting new clients at this time. Please feel free to take a look at other available counsellors. You can see the complete list here.
Though sometimes difficult, reaching out for support is a powerful first step toward empowerment, resilience, and growth. I am happy you are here. I am passionate about the powerful relationships that are built in the therapeutic space. As a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC) with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, I am privileged to work with children, youth, adults, and families, helping to cultivate intrapersonal insight and positive interpersonal experiences.
My Approach
Grounded in humanism, I believe that people naturally want to be well, do well in life, and realize their full potential. Using an integrative and flexible approach, therapy is an opportunity for collaboration and unique goal development. By curiously walking alongside people as they move through their current experiences and towards something different, I help to highlight new perspectives, meanings, and possibilities.
Background
I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a Master’s in Counselling (Applied Psychology). I have spent my career supporting the unique needs of children and families while fostering growth in early education in the school setting. More recently, I have worked with adults across the lifespan, most notably with university students. I am honoured to work in a clinical environment continuing to support individuals through counselling.
Using empirically informed and client-centred approaches that consider our broader social context, I work with clients in ways in which they are most comfortable. My work draws largely from post-modern, relational approaches and integrates additional therapeutic techniques where fitting.
Therapies currently informing my work include:
- Narrative Therapy (NT): A non-blaming approach where the client is seen as the expert of their experience and problems are viewed as separate from people. Narrative therapy uses respectful curiosity to explore stories and uncover the skills and values clients already have to reduce the influence of problems in their lives.
- Solution-Focused Therapy (SFBT): A short-term, future-oriented, and goal-directed model of therapy that works with client preferences. Through collaboration, clients become motivated to achieve and sustain new experiences.
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): A behavioural approach to mindful psychotherapy, engaging self-awareness, acceptance of difficult experiences, and committed movement towards a value-driven life.
- Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT): A humanistic, developmental approach that is focused on reshaping internal and external patterns of relational engagement by preferencing emotional experiences.
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): A widely used behavioural model of psychotherapy that focuses on recognizing and shifting problematic patterns in thinking, behaviour, and emotions.
Recent Training
- Foundations of Narrative Practice (Certificate)
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Beginners
- Emotionally Focused Therapy: Attachment Science in Practice
- Trauma-Informed Care
- Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST)