About Melanie
Melanie Bannish is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 25 years of experience based in Missouri. She draws on a long career supporting people through major life changes, grief, trauma, stress, and struggles with mood and relationships. Melanie speaks English and Spanish and uses practical, down-to-earth language in sessions.
She spent time working in South America early in her career, supporting children with medical needs and learning from indigenous communities.
Background and approach
Back in the United States she coordinated a bilingual domestic violence program that served Spanish-speaking women. Those experiences shaped her interest in culturally aware care and holistic approaches. Melanie blends body-focused somatic methods with client-centered listening and cognitive tools.
She also uses techniques from dialectical behavior therapy and existential approaches when they fit a person’s needs. Her style is warm and compassionate, and she aims to help people notice both thoughts and bodily responses to stress. Sessions can include conversation, breathing and grounding practices, skill-building, and reflection on values and meaning.
She tailors each session to what the person brings and what they want to work on, whether that is anxiety, addiction, parenting strain, or relationship concerns. Melanie offers flexible online formats such as video, phone, live chat, and text messaging. People who want to begin choose the Start Therapy button, complete a short questionnaire, and schedule according to therapist availability.
How Melanie’s Approaches Translate to Online Care
Melanie uses somatic-informed practices to help people notice bodily signals like tension, shallow breathing, or racing heart. These practices often include grounding, breath work, and simple body awareness exercises that can be guided during a video or phone session.She also uses client-centered techniques that prioritize listening and following what matters most to the person. This means sessions focus on the client’s goals and preferences, and the therapist reflects and asks questions to help clarify what feels most important.
In addition, cognitive behavioral therapy offers simple, practical tools to spot unhelpful thoughts and try different responses. CBT skills can be practiced in session and applied between meetings to manage anxiety, mood, and stress.
Choosing the right mix of approaches is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss options, try methods that seem to fit, and adjust based on what is helpful. Clients and the therapist decide together what to emphasize as goals and tools.
Online therapy with Melanie is available via video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text messaging. These formats make it easier to fit sessions into busy lives, to check in between meetings, and to continue work when travel or schedules change.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Anger management
- Self esteem
- Depression
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Existential Therapy
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed
- Missouri
- Languages
- English, Spanish