Melissa Newman

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) with a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. With over 23 years of experience working with individuals and families struggling with a wide variety of obstacles, my ideal client is a parent or couple who is struggling to parent their children in a way that feels both effective and enjoyable. This might be due to behavior health struggles in the family, grief and loss, trauma or family conflict. My passion revolves around helping others to develop to their fullest potentials and I believe that utilizing individuals' strengths and personal experiences is the best way to help them successfully make positive, lasting changes in their lives and the lives of their families.

My approach is built upon establishing a collaborative working relationship with each person who decides to see me for therapy. I use a solution-focused approach where I respect each individual as the expert on their own life and experiences. I lend my experience in working with a variety of people from a variety of backgrounds to develop a plan that will allow each individual to reach their fullest potential. I specialize in grief and loss, stress management, anger management, parent/caregiver support, employment-related issues, and issues related to attachment and family of origin. With a background in structural-strategic family therapy, I am able to zoom in to help each person explore their own internal experiences as well as zoom out to inspect the external forces that act upon them to address seeking solutions to life's challenges in a holistic way.

In my first session with clients, I prefer to discuss current struggles or places where they feel stuck as well as where they would prefer to be and times in their lives when clients felt less stuck or was able to overcome these struggles. These often become the goals that are the focus for the initial stages of therapy. I typically complete a full biopsychosocial assessment in the first session to ensure that all areas of the client and their life is included when identifying strengths, limitations and goals. Within the first 1-2 sessions, I work with each client to develop a treatment plan to follow throughout treatment as the client and I work to find solutions to the problems that brought them in for therapy.