About Melissa
Melissa McMahon is a licensed social worker in Illinois with a decade of experience helping people cope with stress, anxiety, grief, and major life changes. She supports people facing parenting challenges, compassion fatigue, ADHD concerns, relationship and intimacy issues, and trauma or abuse. Melissa approaches clients with respect and the belief that each person knows their life best.
She focuses on practical steps you can try between sessions. Conversations are collaborative and paced to your needs.
Background and approach
Melissa draws on approaches that help people identify values, tell their stories differently, and build workable solutions when life feels overwhelming. Melissa has worked with people affected by autism, adoption and foster care issues, caregiving strain, chronic illness or pain, and co-occurring mental health concerns. She also addresses concerns like obsessions and compulsions, eating struggles, low self-esteem, and career stress.
These areas often overlap, and she helps sort priorities so change feels manageable. Sessions emphasize strengths and real-life skills rather than labels. Melissa uses questions, reflection, and goal-focused tools to help clients notice progress.
Her style balances warmth with clear, actionable steps. She offers sessions by phone, video, live chat, or text-based messaging to fit different schedules. Melissa practices from Illinois as an LCSW - Licensed Clinical Social Worker - and works in English only.
If you’re taking the step toward therapy, she aims to help you build more moments of self-acceptance and purpose.
Approaches that translate well to online work
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people clarify what matters most to them and take small actions toward those values. It is useful for anxiety, stress, and moving forward after loss. Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening, empathy, and helping the client lead the conversation so they feel understood and respected.Narrative Therapy looks at the stories people tell about themselves and helps them reframe those stories in ways that open up new choices. It can be helpful for people dealing with trauma, identity questions, or patterns that feel stuck. Melissa uses these approaches in simple, practical ways during sessions to build skills and new perspectives.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and life context, and then choose or combine methods collaboratively. That way therapy fits the person rather than the other way around.
Online sessions are offered by video, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy easier to fit into busy lives. Video lets you use visual cues and longer conversations, phone can work when bandwidth is limited, live chat and messaging suit quick check-ins or ongoing coaching-style support. These options allow flexibility for scheduling, shorter or longer contacts, and standing up work between sessions.
Frequently asked questions
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What background and experience does she have?
What are her credentials and where is she based?
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Parenting issues
- Coaching
Also works with
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Eating disorders
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Impulsivity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English