About Melissa
Melissa Stokes supports people dealing with stress, anxiety and life changes. She also helps with grief, sleep and eating concerns, ADHD, depression, bipolar mood issues and relationship or attachment worries. Melissa works with people of all sexual orientations and gender identities and aims to make therapy welcoming and practical.
Melissa has 25 years of experience in mental health and holds AASW and AHPRA credentials in Australia. She has worked across many settings including community mental health, hospitals, youth justice, sexual assault services and public and independent practice.
Background and approach
This range has shaped a flexible, down-to-earth approach to care. In sessions she blends clear skills teaching with reflective conversation. She draws on cognitive behavioural tools to spot unhelpful thinking and on acceptance-based ideas to build values-led action.
Attachment-based and person-centred ways of working help people feel heard and understood while learning new patterns of relating. Melissa uses simple, practical exercises and psychoeducation to reduce distress and build everyday coping. She also supervises students and other clinicians and engages in ongoing professional development and research.
Her background includes work on assessment tools for first responders and a thesis on online mindfulness users. Outside work she enjoys hiking, foraging, music, board games, cooking, yoga and time with her dogs. Her style is collaborative and warm, aimed at helping people feel more capable as they navigate difficult times.
How Melissa’s approaches translate to online therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on helping people identify what matters to them and take actions that match those values, even when strong emotions are present. It is useful for anxiety, low mood and coping with change. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) looks at patterns of thinking and behaviour and teaches practical strategies to reduce distress and improve daily functioning. It works well for anxiety, sleep problems and mood concerns. Attachment-Based Therapy pays attention to how early and current relationships shape emotional responses and can help with attachment worries, communication and patterns of relating.Finding the best approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences and life circumstances and adjust methods as therapy progresses. Clients are invited to try skills, reflect on what helps, and shape sessions around their needs.
Online therapy offers practical flexibility. Video calls let people work face to face from different locations while phone sessions use less bandwidth and can suit shorter check-ins. Live chat or text-based messaging can be used for brief support, homework check-ins or when writing feels easier than speaking. These options help people fit therapy around work, family and daily life while using the chosen approaches to build coping, skills and clarity.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating disorders
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- 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-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- 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)
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English
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