About Melissa
Melissa Sonthonax is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) practicing in Florida. She brings ten years of experience helping people navigate stress, anxiety, depression, relationship strain, and struggles with self-esteem. Melissa focuses on practical steps people can use day to day to feel steadier and more capable.
She favors an approach that centers the person in the room. Sessions focus on identifying goals, building small habits, and shifting unhelpful thoughts and behaviors.
Background and approach
Melissa blends conversation, practical tools, and mindfulness to help clients manage panic, cravings, or overwhelming emotions. Clients can expect straightforward planning and measurable steps. Melissa often works on communication skills, boundary setting, and coping strategies for life transitions.
She also helps people address issues like codependency, abandonment feelings, and problems with intimacy or loneliness. Therapy may include short-term solutions as well as deeper narrative work when people want to understand patterns from their past. Motivational techniques are used when someone needs help finding momentum for change, such as with substance use or career shifts.
Sessions are adapted to each person’s needs and goals. Melissa offers video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to fit different schedules. She uses a subscription model for sessions that can be canceled at any time.
Sessions are conducted in English and are offered to people located in Florida.
Therapeutic approaches that work online
Melissa commonly uses Client-Centered Therapy, which focuses on listening and building a trusting, nonjudgmental relationship so people can explore what matters most to them. This approach helps with low self-esteem, feelings of emptiness, and relationship struggles by centering the person's own goals and experiences.She also uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, to identify unhelpful thought patterns and replace them with clearer, more helpful thinking. CBT is often useful for panic attacks, social anxiety, depression, and daily stress because it yields concrete exercises and coping strategies.
Finding the right approach is a collaborative effort. The therapist will work with each person to choose or combine methods based on their goals, current challenges, and what feels most comfortable. Plans are adjusted over time so techniques match progress and changing needs.
Online therapy offers practical flexibility. Video calls allow for face-to-face conversation when visual connection matters. Phone sessions can fit a work break or reduce bandwidth needs. Live chat and text-based messaging are useful for quick check-ins, brief coaching, or support between sessions. These options make it easier to keep therapy consistent around busy schedules.
Frequently asked questions
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Which languages are offered and can she work internationally?
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Career difficulties
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Money and financial issues
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- Florida
- Languages
- English