About Melissa
Dr. Melissa Chovan is a licensed clinical professional counselor who brings 13 years of therapy experience to her work in Alabama. She focuses on anxiety, stress, trauma, and mood concerns while helping people manage life changes and difficult reactions.
Her approach is practical and down-to-earth, aimed at people who want clear steps and steady support. Dr. Chovan uses familiar therapy methods like cognitive behavioral techniques and client-centered care.
Sessions often include skills practice, straightforward feedback, and collaborative goal-setting.
Background and approach
She tailors each plan to what the person wants to change and how they prefer to work. Her background includes work in community mental health, correctional settings, residential programs, and teaching both online and in person. That variety shaped her ability to adapt to different concerns and to recognize how social and family issues affect mental health.
She has also supported people coping with domestic violence, sexual assault, and post-traumatic stress. Dr. Chovan is pursuing further specialization in trauma and has recently trained in several trauma-focused techniques.
She pairs those newer tools with long-standing approaches such as dialectical behavior therapy, mindfulness, and motivational interviewing. The result is a flexible set of options for managing symptoms and building coping skills. In sessions she aims to be warm, respectful, and interactive.
She places emphasis on hope, education, and a strong working relationship. People who want to be heard, learn skills, and make steady progress will find a practical, supportive presence in her work.
Practical approaches for online anxiety and trauma care
Dr. Chovan frequently uses cognitive behavioral therapy to help people identify unhelpful thoughts and test new behaviors. CBT sessions often include homework tasks and step-by-step skill building that target anxiety, phobias, and mood problems.She also draws on client-centered therapy, which focuses on listening, validation, and helping a person set their own goals. This approach is useful when someone needs space to process feelings and make decisions at their own pace.
Finding the right approach is a shared process. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, preferences, and what has or hasn’t worked before. Together they decide which methods to try and adjust the plan as progress is made.
Online sessions can be scheduled as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging, which gives flexibility for different days and needs. Video calls are useful for longer therapy work and visual cues, phone sessions can fit a break at work or require less bandwidth, and messaging or chat are helpful for brief check-ins and ongoing skill practice between sessions.
Questions people ask
What concerns does Dr. Chovan address?
How would you describe her therapy style?
What kinds of settings has she worked in?
What are her credentials and where is she located?
Are sessions available in other languages or internationally?
What session formats are offered?
How is cost handled for sessions?
How do I begin working with her?
What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Anger management
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Intimacy-related issues
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 13 years
- Licensed
- Alabama, Georgia, Illinois
- Languages
- English
We will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you.