Hi. I'm Melissa.
I am a wife, daughter, sister, aunt and friend.
I am a coffee drinker, a book lover, a mountain top climber and an embracer of the messy parts of things. I live in Durham with my husband Andrew, our extra large dog Lily and extra spunky cat Tywin.
I am also a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. As a North Carolina native, I graduated from Appalachian State University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a master’s degree in social work.
Both personally and professionally, I have had the privilege of coming alongside others as a support, in many different seasons of life through all sorts of circumstances and challenges.
My clinical social work experience thus far has including supporting patients and families adjusting to life altering illness/accidents at Wake Med Rehabilitation Hospital, providing crisis assessments and interventions at UNC Psychiatry Crisis Clinic and counseling families and individuals with diverse mental health needs in community mental health settings. In 2015, I took a new step in my career and began to practice privately as a psychotherapist in Chapel Hill, NC.
At this time, I am most experienced and interested in serving adults facing major life changes/adjustments, searching for meaning and purpose or working through anxiety and worry, mood disturbances and emotional dysregulation, past hurt or trauma, grief and loss or guilt and shame. As a certified FOCCUS premarital counseling facilitator, I also appreciate the opportunity to counsel dating and engaged couples through this unique season of their relationship.
I am also interested in the intersection between mental and spiritual health. Just as our bodies can experience physical distress, so can our mind and spirit. Spiritual distress is often caused by the inability to find sources of meaning, hope, love, peace, comfort, strength and connection in life or when conflict occurs between our beliefs and what is happening in our lives.
I believe that often at this intersection people can experience spiritual/religious dissonance, when emotional, intellectual and/or social dispositions conflict with your spiritual/religious awareness or expression. Therapy that allows for the exploration of both mental and spiritual wellness provides opportunities to find deeper meaning and insight into those discrepancies and encourages bridges to be built between them.