About Melissa
Melissa Strauss is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Pennsylvania who helps people manage stress, anxiety, relationship struggles, grief, low self-esteem, depression, and ADHD. She uses straightforward, practical strategies so families and individuals can cope better day to day. Melissa writes in a warm, down-to-earth way and aims to make sessions feel approachable and useful from the first meeting.
She draws on a mix of therapies to match each person's needs rather than using one fixed method.
Background and approach
In sessions she focuses on building strengths people already have. That can mean practicing clearer communication, working on emotional connection, or learning skills to reduce worry and improve sleep. Melissa has 13 years of experience as an LPC in Pennsylvania, with prior work that included couples and family settings.
Her background covers a wide range of concerns including trauma and abuse, LGBT and gender identity matters, parenting and blended family stress, body image and eating concerns, and life transitions like career changes or fertility struggles. Her style is collaborative and straightforward. She will talk through practical steps and homework when that helps.
She also pays attention to attachment patterns and emotions, helping people notice how their past relationships affect current ones. Sessions can include short-term coaching goals or longer therapy work. Melissa offers video, phone, live chat, and text-based sessions and works with people who prefer a more structured skills approach or a more exploratory, emotion-focused process.
Therapeutic approaches and online options
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice difficult thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them. It focuses on values and small actions that move someone toward a meaningful life, which can help with anxiety, depression, and life changes.Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT) centers on emotions and bonds in close relationships. It helps people identify patterns in how they respond to each other and build safer emotional connections, which can support intimacy and relationship repair.
Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. Melissa will talk with each person about goals, symptoms, and preferences, then try methods that match those needs. She adjusts the plan as progress is made, combining skills training, emotion work, and attachment-focused exploration when useful.
Online therapy offers practical flexibility. Video calls let people work face to face from anywhere while phone sessions can be a good option when bandwidth is low or a simpler check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging work well for brief coaching, quick check-ins, or adding support between longer sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life and to try different formats to see what feels most helpful.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Grief
Also listed
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Parenting issues
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 13 years
- Licensed
- Pennsylvania, New Jersey
- Languages
- English
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