Melissa Jarvis

About Melissa

Melissa earned a masters degree in Applied Psychological Science from Pacific University and a Bachelors degree in Criminal Justice from Eastern Washington University. She is a licensed in the State of Washington as a Mental Health counselor.

Melissa ascribes to an integrative theoretical approach to working with clients. She blends CBT, ACT and DBT with elements of humanistic theory to create a trauma-informed approach to working with clients. She creates a a safe therapeutic space for her clients to not only understand themself better, but also be gently challenged. Melissa provides psychoeducation on why our brains do the weird things they do and how having this neurological information can help us change behaviors and mindsets. She works her clients to understand the chaotic transition of change and the best way to work through the unknowns of this process. She uses analogies and metaphors to create visual representations of the clinical information she provides to assist in understanding.

Melissa's areas of specialty are:

• Anxiety
• Codependency
• Coping Skills
• Depression
• Emotional Disturbance
• Grief
• Life Transitions
• Peer Relationships
• Relationship Issues
• Self-Harming
• Self-Esteem
• Sleep or Insomnia
• Stress
• Suicidal Ideation
• Trauma and PTSD
• Women's Issues

A Message from Melissa

As human beings we have a unique ability to think existentially and philosophically about the world around us. The human race has come a long way from hunters and gatherers, and made huge advancements in technology and science, and yet, we also have torn the world apart with how we treat others or are treated ourselves. We are crammed into a box and told how we are supposed to think, feel or even just exist in the world and those that stand out are criticized for it. Children are human sponges that soak up all this information around them to be molded into these boxes, yet when we reach adulthood we realize there is more to what were told. There becomes this tug-of-war inside of us on what we are raised with versus the morals and values we understand as adult and being true to ourselves. We start to experience anxiety, depression, and trauma and not know how to handle them.

This is where I enter the picture. I create a safe place for you to release and talk through these experience of what life has thrown at you and challenge your viewpoint to expand and see the full picture. We will work on understanding our realm of control and use mindfulness to ground ourselves in the moment and let go of things we cannot change. I will provide psychoeducation on why our brains do the weird wacky things they do and help you take this information to better understand the change process. Through understanding your perspective of life we will then work on the outward communication to help others understand us a bit better as well.

Change is hard but there is sweetness through difficulty!