Therapist profile
Melissa Walters, LCSW
LCSW in Virginia - family and parenting concerns
Continue with MelissaAbout
- Stress and anxiety
- Parenting support
- Solution-focused work
About Melissa
Melissa Walters is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) licensed in Virginia with eight years of professional experience. She helps people who are facing stress, anxiety, relationship strain, parenting challenges, low self-esteem, and life transitions.
Her approach is conversational and practical. Sessions focus on what feels most pressing at home and in day-to-day life. She uses short-term strategies and skills to reduce immediate distress while also addressing longer-standing patterns that get in the way.
Melissa draws on Client-Centered Therapy to base sessions on the person in front of her. She uses Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills for managing intense emotions and Motivational Interviewing to support readiness for change. Solution-Focused Therapy helps keep work goal-oriented and concrete.
She has experience with adoption and foster care issues, caregiver stress, communication and family problems, and concerns such as guilt, shame, isolation, and jealousy. She also works with pregnancy and childbirth concerns, veteran and armed forces issues, women’s issues, and young adult struggles.
Sessions move at a steady, realistic pace. Melissa aims to help people build skills they can use between meetings. People who want straightforward tools for coping and clearer ways to handle family or parenting stress may find this style helpful.
How sessions work
How her approaches translate to online sessions
Melissa uses Client-Centered Therapy to focus sessions on each person’s concerns. That means sessions begin by hearing what matters most and shaping conversation around those issues. Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, is used to teach practical emotion regulation and distress tolerance skills that people can practice between meetings. Motivational Interviewing helps when someone feels stuck and wants to find the reasons and motivation to change.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. Melissa will work with the client to identify goals and preferences, then try methods that fit those aims. If an approach does not feel like a good match, she adjusts the plan together with the person she is seeing.
Session logistics are not listed in the biography, so confirm current online options before booking. Online work can make it easier to attend brief check-ins, fit appointments around parenting or work schedules, and use skills training in real-life settings. Therapists and licensed professionals often find that goal-focused and skills-based methods transfer well to remote sessions, and Melissa aims to help people integrate tools into daily routines.
Areas of focus
Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
8+ years
Listed in
Virginia
Languages
English
Questions
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of problems does she address?
She works with stress, anxiety, relationship strain, parenting issues, self-esteem, and coping with life changes. Additional focuses include adoption and foster care, caregiver stress, and communication problems.
How would she describe her therapeutic style?
Her style is conversational and practical. She uses short-term skills work alongside goal-focused conversations to reduce immediate stress and support change.
How much experience does she have?
She has eight years of professional experience working with adults on parenting and relationship concerns as well as related stress and anxiety.
Where is she licensed and practicing?
She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) licensed in Virginia and practices from that state.
Can I work with her if I live outside the United States?
Sessions are offered in English and she does not accept international clients at this time.
What formats are used for sessions?
Please confirm current session options before booking, as the biography does not specify session formats. The therapist can clarify available formats during the matching step.
How are fees handled?
Cost varies with location and sessions are provided through a subscription model that can be canceled at any time.
How do I begin the process?
Select the See online therapy options button, complete a short matching questionnaire, and schedule a first session to get started.
Details come from information the therapist supplied to BetterHelp. A license can be checked with the state board.
Online talk therapy is not emergency care. If anyone is in danger, use the crisis numbers.