About Melissa
Melissa Reighn is a licensed mental health counselor with 15 years of practice in New York. She focuses on helping people who are feeling overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, trauma, grief, and mood concerns. Melissa centers the work on each person's strengths and choices.
She aims to make the first steps toward change feel manageable and clear. Her background includes long-term clinical experience across a range of concerns. She has worked with people navigating life changes, recovery from abuse, and chronic mood challenges such as bipolar disorder.
Background and approach
Melissa also supports those dealing with ADHD, eating concerns, and issues around self-esteem. In sessions she uses practical, evidence-informed tools. She draws on approaches like acceptance and commitment work, cognitive behavioral strategies, and trauma-focused methods to address distressing thoughts and patterns.
She often pairs those tools with solution-focused steps to help people try something different between sessions. Melissa believes the client is the expert on their life. She works to create a straightforward plan that respects personal goals and values.
The therapy relationship is framed as a partnership where the client’s choices guide the pace and direction. Her practice accommodates different communication styles, including live conversations and shorter check-ins. Melissa offers therapy in English and serves people located in New York.
She holds a New York Licensed Mental Health Counselor credential (LMHC).
Therapeutic methods and online care
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and choose actions that match their values. It is useful for anxiety, stress, and situations where avoidance keeps problems in place. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on clear steps to change thinking and behavior patterns that feed anxiety and low mood. It often involves practicing new skills between sessions to reduce symptoms and build confidence.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with each person about goals and try methods that fit their needs and preferences. Decisions about techniques and the pace of change are made together so the plan stays practical and meaningful.
Online therapy offers flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video sessions allow full conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions can be a good option when bandwidth is limited or a simpler check-in is needed. Live chat and text messaging support shorter check-ins, ongoing encouragement, and a way to keep progress moving between longer sessions. These formats help people fit therapy into busy schedules and different daily routines.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Parenting issues
Also listed
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating disorders
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Guilt and shame
- Immigration issues
- Intellectual disability
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 15 years
- Licensed
- New York
- Languages
- English
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