About Dr Melissa Vella

Melissa is a down-to-earth clinical psychologist. She works to make sense of why you have your symptom, and why now.

Melissa sees that most symptoms are the result of old coping mechanisms that once were likely to have been effective, but are now working against you and bringing you distress.

She works to understand the reason for your symptom or that of your child (and there always is one), and helps you meet that valid human need in another, more adaptive, and less stressful way.

She will coach you in how to regulate your emotional states, while thinking, feeling and remembering, to help you take charge of your biology and reduce distress.

Melissa has a keen interest in working with trauma disorders, simple and complex, and is absolutely mad about EMDR treatment to change the way your brain has encoded past distressing experiences to bring you relief.

Melissa has over 22 years experience making sense of symptoms that arise in children and their families, with special interest in relationship patterns that might be causing distress.

Are you…

Angry, hurting and lashing out
Not coping
Feeling guilty and caught up in the past
Stressed out and anxious about the future
Depressed and feeling overwhelmed
Feeling inadequate
Frequently disappointed and hurt by others
Grieving a loss the hard way
Feeling trapped in your choices
Feeling unable to let go of something painful

Is your child...

Struggling with the pain of separation
Sad
Anxious and worried
Having trouble with separation anxiety
Bed wetting
Angry and argumentative
Unable to accept limits
Stealing
Lying
Self-harming
Bullying or being bullied

Or are you struggling to cope with the kids and are just not enjoying parenting anymore?

Do something about it now.

Therapeutic Approach

Melissa will assess your symptoms and help you understand why you are feeling what you are feeling, what is happening in your body and how that effects your feelings and ability to cope, and plan your treatment with you.

She uses a range of powerful techniques to teach you how to run your body when you think and feel and remember. These skills borrowed from Mindfulness, CBT, and DBT will help you feel calm, clear and in control of your emotions.

She will help you explore your past to understand what events have significantly shaped your view of yourself and others, and how these continue to effect your life for better or worse today.

She will determine whether Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprogramming (EMDR) might be helpful to the treatment of your symptoms. EMDR is an amazingly powerful technique that reduces the memory of and effect of negative past events.

She will use cognitive techniques to help you problem solve and find your way to more adaptive behaviours.