Tamalyn Meller

Licensed Professional Counselor Candidate|Clinically Supervised

My first career was in the arts. I went to a conservatory in NYC and then worked as a performer. However, with the arrival of a little one, I needed stability, so I completed a degree in psychology, planning to go straight to grad school to become a clinical psychologist. After graduating, I realized I needed to support my family, so I fell into the healthcare/pharmaceuticals consulting space, ultimately landing a role as an executive at an agency. While the science fascinated me, and I enjoyed the people on my team, I felt unfulfilled. I realized that establishing relationships and coaching people were by far the most rewarding parts of my job, but as I rose in the ranks, that became an increasingly limited part of my role, so I knew I needed to make a change. I returned to my first love and went back to graduate school to become a therapist. I have seen firsthand the impact of therapy in myself and in many of my loved ones. For so many, it can be a lifeline, and I'm so grateful to be able to give back.

When you walk (or dial) into my office, my motto is, "You are the expert." You may feel like you don't know what is happening; you just know you need to make changes or address an issue. My role as your therapist is to help you identify what is in your way and address the root of the barriers because you are the only one who knows the full story. You get to define how you want to feel and what you want your life to look like during and after your therapeutic journey. Therapy is a collaborative partnership because growth and healing are best cultivated in the context of a relationship. Together, we'll establish goals and markers of growth in an iterative process. As you grow, you may find adjustments are needed, and that's completely normal and a part of the process. I'm here to support your discovery and explore areas you may feel reticent to address on your timetable and in your unique way.

Absolutely! Making treatment decisions using an evidence-based approach is foundational to my professional ethics code because I want to ensure our work is effective and grounded in science. This requires a tailored approach. I start with you and your goals and then build a treatment plan using multiple research-backed therapeutic interventions. For example, most recently, I presented a psychoeducational workshop in NY using neuroscience, narrative therapy, and IFS entitled, "It's Not You, it's Neuroscience, Using Biology and Compassion to Befriend Your Creative Block." Essentially, our biology is such that we should know approximately 150 people, just the people in our community, as we did back in tribal days. But with social media and international news, we are flooded with news, mostly bad from around the world, and every time we log in to our phones or tune in to the media, we get a flood of dopamine, so our bodies try to correct that, resulting in a crash, which triggers us to log in again. Ultimately, we have limited access to natural dopamine, which we need for creative expression and problem solving, so we feel a block or that blah feeling. When I have clients present in my office complaining of depression, anxiety, or lack of productivity, I have that discussion with them, and we talk about how to have compassion for the part of us that feels panicked because of the state of the world or a story that we read that may or may not be true. Additionally, I often use Flash therapy for individuals with PTSD as an alternative to EMDR because recent research suggests it is just as effective, but the process is less distressing for those who do not need or want to recount each detail of a traumatic event. The technique is being used with some clients at the VA as an alternative to PTSD with promising results. Because the client doesn't have to relive the event to reprocess it. In my practice, the challenge of trauma therapy is helping my clients stay grounded while reprocessing very painful memories. The process can be slow and painful. With this research-backed option, I provide clients with an alternative to EMDR for those who do not wish to discuss the details of thier trauma.