Melissa is a licensed mental health counselor and expressive arts therapist with a Master's degree from Lesley University’s Mental Health Counseling and Expressive Arts Therapy program. She is deeply passionate about self-exploration through the arts, mindfulness practices and therapy. She seeks to collaborate with her clients using the tools of person-centered therapy, mindfulness, meditation, trauma-informed body-oriented psychotherapy and expressive arts therapy (through music therapy, art therapy, and poetry/writing therapy). Melissa also employs CBT and motivational interviewing to help you transform your life. She prefers a holistic, eclectic and interdisciplinary approach to addressing client concerns. 

 

Melissa was a faculty member at the Expressive Therapies Summit in New York City and taught a masterclass on songwriting with a substance abuse population. As a musician and artist, Melissa brings these creative selves to her healing work. She has training in expressive arts therapy beyond graduate work to include various related techniques and interventions in songwriting, sound healing, body-oriented art therapy, clay work, Jungian psychotherapy, narrative therapy, gestalt drama therapy, and much more every year at the Expressive Therapies Summit.

 

As a meditation practitioner, Melissa has studied under Rick Heller and Priyadarshi Khare at the Humanist Hub and Harvard University. She went on to develop her own adapted mindfulness-based curriculum for Bournewood Hospital’s partial hospitalization programming. She currently pursues an independent study of the works of Thich Nhat Hanh and will offer mindfulness-based group programming and individual practices to her clients at Looking Glass Counseling.

 

Melissa’s clinical experience spans working with clients who seek support for active addiction/ongoing recovery, anxiety, depression, PTSD, grief, loss, major life events/disruptions, LGBTQ+ issues and for those living with HIV/AIDS. As a bisexual woman who carries that lived lens through her life and clinical experiences, Melissa loves helping people in the queer community feel comfortable in a therapy space who may not feel comfortable with non-affirming practitioners. Her main goal is to help you feel safe and comfortable in therapy, allowing for a connection and the opportunity for growth and change.