About Melissa
Melissa Fernald is a licensed clinical social worker with 25 years of experience in mental health and addiction. She practices from Maine and works with adults facing stress, anxiety, depression, ADHD, addictions, and relationship or intimacy concerns. Her style is calm, direct, and down-to-earth, and she aims to make sessions practical and productive for busy people.
Melissa believes therapy can be focused and useful without dragging on. She uses a strength-based, solution-focused stance to help people build on what already works.
Background and approach
Sessions emphasize small, attainable steps so clients leave feeling a bit lighter and more capable. Her background includes work in hospitals, community programs, and independent practice, which shaped a practical approach to care. That experience informs how she supports people coping with trauma, caregiving stress, and life transitions.
Melissa also addresses complex issues like co-morbidity, addiction, and problems with impulsivity. In session she is calm and nonjudgmental and values honesty and a bit of humor when it fits. She helps clients get unstuck, gain clarity, and develop new skills for everyday challenges.
Treatment plans are collaborative and tailored to each person’s goals. Therapy with Melissa focuses on clear, usable strategies from approaches such as cognitive behavioral work, acceptance-based tools, and attachment-informed thinking. She offers video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to fit different schedules and needs.
How Melissa’s Approaches Translate to Online Care
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and move toward valued living through small, practical actions. It is useful for anxiety, stress, and life transitions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying thinking patterns and changing behaviors with concrete techniques for mood and anxiety management. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at patterns of relating and can help people improve connection and communication in relationships.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist and client will review goals, preferences, and what has or hasn’t worked before. Together they adjust methods over time so the work stays relevant and useful.
Online sessions offer flexibility for different needs. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation when deeper interaction is helpful. Phone sessions can be a good fit when bandwidth or camera use is an issue. Live chat and text-based messaging are useful for brief check-ins, coaching-style support, or when a shorter touchpoint fits a busy day. These options make it easier to keep therapy consistent around work, caregiving, and other life demands.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating disorders
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed
- Maine, New Hampshire
- Languages
- English
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