About Melissa
Melissa Brierley is a licensed clinical social worker with ten years of experience helping people navigate stress, anxiety, trauma, and life changes. She works with clients on self-esteem, career concerns, and building motivation. Melissa takes a straightforward, respectful approach and focuses on practical steps people can use between sessions.
She believes each person knows their story best and brings strengths to the work. Sessions center on clear goals and small, manageable changes that add up over time.
Background and approach
Melissa offers steady support while people try new ways of coping and problem solving. Her background includes a decade of clinical work in New York where she has focused on trauma, abuse recovery, and post-traumatic stress. She also addresses body image, guilt and shame, and workplace or communication struggles.
That range helps her tailor interventions to what matters most to each person. Melissa uses several approaches to meet different needs. She draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to shift unhelpful thoughts and habits, Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills for emotion regulation and distress tolerance, and Trauma-Focused Therapy to process painful events.
She also uses psychodynamic ideas to look at recurring patterns that affect current life. In sessions people can expect a collaborative tone. Melissa works with clients to set concrete aims, practice new skills, and track progress.
Her style is practical and compassionate, aimed at helping people feel more able to handle stress and move toward the life they want.
Using CBT and Trauma-Focused Care Online
Melissa commonly uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people identify and change unhelpful thoughts and habits; this approach breaks problems into small steps and teaches practical techniques for daily life. She also incorporates Trauma-Focused Therapy when past events keep affecting current emotions and behavior, helping people process those memories at a pace that feels manageable.Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. Melissa will talk with clients about their goals, preferences, and history, then recommend or blend approaches that fit. The plan can change as progress is made so the work stays focused on what matters most to the person.
Online therapy formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging, which offer flexibility for different needs. Video sessions allow face-to-face conversations and visual cues, phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited, live chat is useful for quick check-ins, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between sessions. These options make it simpler to fit therapy into a busy life while keeping the collaborative, skills-based work consistent.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- New York
- Languages
- English