Dr. Melissa McDaniel
Licensed Clinical Psychologist PSY30567
Psychotherapy for individuals
and couples
I am offering Telehealth, so that you can receive high quality, confidential treatment at home.
I am a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, in practice for over 10 years. I work with adults in treatment of anxiety, depression, grief, anger, self-esteem issues, eating disorders, psychosis, OCD, addiction, fear of intimacy, and relationship struggles. I provide therapy for couples looking to repair ruptures in their relationship. I specialize in treating trauma in its various forms, both acute, cumulative and complex. I have expertise in treating adults abused as children, identity issues, self-esteem issues, existential concerns, as well as co-dependency and people pleasing. I practice from a contemporary psychoanalytic framework and have been trained in Intersubjective-Systems theory, and Depth Psychology. Thanks for stopping by to check out my website and taking a moment to get to know me. I look forward to meeting you and helping you as you go through your healing journey.
My Approach
My clinical training is in psychodynamic and psychoanalytic therapy, more specifically Intersubjective Systems Theory, a contemporary psychoanalytic approach. This is a non-pathologizing approach that is relational in nature and emphasizes an individual's history and environment to provide empathic understanding of current feelings and experiences. Traumatic experiences, whether acute or cumulative, physical or emotional, can be treated when they find a relational space in which the painful feelings can find empathy, understanding and can begin to be tolerated through emotional processing. I will help you explore, process and begin to make bearable the painful feelings you are experiencing.
My therapeutic approach is warm, intuitive, nonjudgmental, and is rooted in my belief that in order to understand someone, you must look deeply and profoundly into their experience. My goal is to provide an emotionally safe space for you to begin processing your feelings and identifying unmet needs. The increased awareness and connection to your feelings and needs will serve to heal old wounds, and act as a new foundation to live a more authentic life, free from paralyzing emotional experiences.
I believe that we all require emotional processing of painful events, and without an empathic relationship in which to experience this processing, we develop mental heath "symptoms." These symptoms represent the ways in which our emotional pain manifests; the ways in we which we consciously suffer. These symptoms are what typically bring individuals to therapy. If we look at the term Depression, the meaning of the word depress is to push down, as in pushing down one's feelings. Often times, it is part of our conditioning to avoid emotional pain. Whether consciously or not, we push down unbearable emotional experiences to survive them. This is especially the case when we don't have adequate emotional support in which painful emotions can be felt and processed. Inevitably, this leads to alternative suffering.
Individuals may develop depression, anxiety, phobias, addictions, self-harm, eating disorders, self-sabotage, and relationship difficulties due to unprocessed emotional pain. In your psychotherapy with me, we will take time to understand your experiences, and allow old buried feelings to finally find a safe place to be felt. Ultimately, we must grapple with these feelings and begin to find emotional tolerance in order to alleviate symptoms that interfere with our life and relationships. This is how we will find you symptom relief.
You are welcome here regardless of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity, ability, immigration status, or religion.
