About Melissa
Melissa Harris is a licensed professional counselor in Tennessee with eight years of clinical experience. She focuses on helping people handle stress, anxiety, grief, trauma, ADHD, and relationship challenges in practical ways. Melissa aims to make therapy straightforward and approachable for people who feel stuck or overwhelmed.
Her style is warm and direct. She listens first, then helps clients set clear goals they can work toward between sessions. Melissa uses techniques that teach new skills for managing intense feelings, improving communication, and coping with life changes.
Background and approach
In sessions she blends problem-solving with emotional support. That can mean learning skills from cognitive behavioral therapy to change unhelpful thinking patterns. It can also mean using acceptance and commitment ideas to clarify values and take small, value-driven steps.
Melissa also draws on attachment-based and client-centered approaches to strengthen close relationships and increase self-awareness. She helps people understand how early relationships shape current patterns and how to make different choices in relationships today. Clients often work on practical issues like workplace stress, parenting strain, intimacy and communication problems, substance use concerns, or recovery from past abuse.
Melissa focuses on tools people can use right away to feel more steady and more capable in daily life.
Therapeutic approaches and online care
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people notice difficult thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them, and then take small steps toward what matters most. It can be useful for anxiety, stress, and life transitions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on spotting and changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors to relieve symptoms of depression and anxiety and improve daily functioning.Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will work with each person to match methods to their goals and preferences, adjusting techniques as progress is made. Clients can expect a mix of skill practice, gentle reflection, and clear action planning as part of that teamwork.
Online sessions are offered as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to fit different needs and schedules. Video calls are helpful for deeper conversations and face-to-face interaction. Phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited or a camera isn’t convenient. Live chat and text messaging can be used for brief check-ins, reminders, or ongoing support between full sessions. These options make therapy more flexible and easier to fit into busy lives.
Questions people ask
What concerns does she help with?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How much experience does she have?
What credentials and location are listed?
Which languages and international options are available?
What formats are used for sessions?
How is cost handled?
How do I begin working together?
What this counselor works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trichotillomania
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Gottman Method
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Systemic Therapy
- Experience
- 8 years
- Licensed
- Tennessee
- Languages
- English