About Melissa
Melissa Hurt is a licensed clinical social worker (LICSW) based in Minnesota. She brings a social work perspective to therapy and pays attention to how systems and life circumstances shape daily struggles. Melissa speaks plainly and offers steady, compassionate support while people figure out what matters to them.
Melissa trained at the master's level in social work and pursued clinical licensure to provide hands-on care. Her experience includes years in disability services where she supported social work teams and stayed close to everyday problems people face.
Background and approach
That background keeps her mindful of how work, institutions, and community affect mental health. Her style is strengths-focused and practical. Sessions often involve noticing patterns, trying simple skills, and testing small changes between meetings.
She draws on evidence-based approaches such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people notice what gets in the way and try new responses. Melissa values mindfulness and self-care as ongoing practices rather than quick fixes. She also uses emotionally-focused ideas to help people name and understand important feelings.
The aim is to help people move toward more peace, stability, or joy - whatever matters most to them. She works with a broad range of concerns such as stress, anxiety, depression, grief, addiction, relationship and intimacy-related issues, parenting strains, compassion fatigue, and ADHD. Melissa approaches each person as an individual and helps them find practical, realistic steps forward.
Approaches that guide online sessions
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and decide what matters most to them. It uses simple exercises to increase willingness to feel difficult emotions while taking actions that reflect personal values. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying thought and behavior patterns that keep problems going and testing new ways of thinking and acting. It’s useful for anxiety, depression, and stress when people want concrete tools to try between sessions.Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. Melissa will talk with each person about their goals, needs, and preferences and suggest ways of working that fit. Together they will try strategies and adjust the plan as progress is made or circumstances change.
Online therapy offers flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video lets people see facial cues and have full conversations. Phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited or when someone prefers not to be on camera. Live chat and text are useful for brief check-ins, coaching-style support, or when someone needs to share thoughts between meetings. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, caregiving, or busy days while still using ACT and CBT tools in everyday life.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- LGBT
- Relationship issues
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 3 years
- Licensed
- Minnesota
- Languages
- English
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