Emma Melo, LMFT

10/21/2024

I’m excited to announce that I’m offering a group for folks who are experiencing long-COVID. Please see post for details!

09/22/2024

I'm in network with Aetna, Optum, and United Healthcare for CA based clients. I can also provide super bills for out of network services.
I’m in the processing of getting paneled with several OR insurance companies and getting paneled with Medicare in CA.

09/21/2022

Hey everyone, I'm excited to announce that in addition to the group practice that I'm apart of, I am also taking a great big leap and starting my own private practice. My practice is trauma-informed, neurodivergent affirming, and somatic-based. My areas of specialty include support LGBTQ+ folks heal from trauma. I'm excited for this new chapter in my career. emmamelotherapy.com

11/04/2021

Found this beautiful piece of art walking at the beach this week. It reminded me to slow down, be kind to myself, and engage in some mindful self-care. It’s November and a few things have been on my mind. The holidays are coming up, which can be a stressful time of year. We may spend time with our families of origin and this can be challenging for those of us who have experienced trauma. It can be especially difficult for those of us in the LGBTQ+ community who have unsupportive families. Money can also be a challenge/stressor during this time, with the expectation of spending related to holidays (gifts, travel, meals, etc.) The days are also shorter this time of year which means less sunlight and vitamin D, which can impact mood. One of the challenges specific to this year is that we continue to be impacted by the pandemic. Some of us may be unable to gather with community and loved ones in the ways that we have in the past due to COVID. If we do gather our nervous systems continue to be on high alert searching for the invisible threat (COVID). This makes it challenging to experience regulation and settling within our systems. These are all reminders to us to continue to be kind to ourselves and others. Having a gratitude practice can feel good and be rewarding (find something each day to look forward to or that you’re grateful for). Be extra gentle with yourself and others, especially for those of us who aren’t experiencing things as being back to normal.

09/30/2021

Who is your empathetic witness? Is it a friend, partner, or therapist? Trauma is a funny thing because events are not inherently traumatic. Whether or not an event is traumatic is based upon an individual’s experience and how their body/nervous system experience it. An event that I experience as traumatic, may not be so for someone else and vice versa. Therapy is a great place to process through traumatic events, and somatic experiencing tools are an important part of this process, allowing the individual to release the trauma that is stored in the body/nervous system.

09/27/2021

I often think about how much to share in therapy as a therapist. It’s important to have appropriate boundaries, be professional, and it’s also important for clients to feel comfortable with you. One of the important topics that often comes up in therapy is issues around identity. In my work with youth and families, I was often asked, “Are you a parent?” Parents wanted to know if I had lived experience informing my work. They wanted to know if they could trust me to have knowledge from having lived experience. I always answered their questions with complete honesty, while engaging them in further exploring what the information meant to them and how it informed their experience. Over the years as I’ve met with and worked with various therapists for my own mental health support, I’ve also asked them if they have experience working with q***r identified folks. I wanted to make sure that the Clinician understood my identify. I’ve been met with a variety of response from tokenism, to the therapist self-disclosing their own q***r identity. The conversation has always informed my decision to meet with the Clinician. At times in therapy I have had therapists mis-label me or forget important elements of my identity and experience. This has been painful and has left me feeling unseen and unheard. In these instances I’ve addressed the mistake and have it has provided an important opportunity for repair in the therapeutic relationship. Therapists are human too, we make mistakes. What’s most important is that we educate ourselves, listen to our clients, apologize for mis-steps, and that we keep on trying. When we have good intentions, meet our clients with respect, give our clients our full attention, and take these opportunities to repair, we are able to have these important conversations that take the therapeutic work to a deeper level. ***rtherapistsnetwork ***rtherapistcalifornia

09/27/2021

Just started this book over the weekend. So far it’s been pretty interesting, although there is a lot of gendered language referring to “women” that could potentially trigger the reader’s feelings of gender dysphoria. I appreciate the idea that we shouldn’t be medically pathologizing folks for variations in their behaviors, brains, etc. be that around neurodivergence, neurodiversity, or any other differences (insert various DSM diagnoses here). Would love to here what other folks think of this book and some of the information shared in it! ***rtherapistcalifornia

09/23/2021

I’ve been thinking a lot about what growth feels like and looks like in therapy. When we start therapy there is always the disclaimer that we might feel worse before we start to feel better. It can be triggering to discuss past traumas, it can feel like opening up an old wound. Therapy also takes work and can be uncomfortable. When working somatically with the nervous system and with activation, this is absolutely the case. We work with the activation as part of the healing process and that can make for some difficult sessions and even difficult days. So what does growth feel like in our bodies and nervous systems? For me, indicators of growth are feeling more settled in my nervous system, feeling more like myself, and having a greater capacity to manage activation in my daily life. Growth is widening the window of tolerance. Growth is also having a greater awareness of what’s happening in my body/nervous system by tracking specific physiological sensations and having more awareness of when I am feeling dysregulated vs. regulated. What does growth feel like in your body? ***rtherapistcalifornia ***rtherapistsnetwork

09/14/2021

What are some areas that feel off limits for you? Often times when we have experienced trauma, it can feel too painful and difficult to talk about it in therapy or with the people we love. However, without addressing the trauma, we may be unable to make progress or move forward. Trauma occurs when we experience an event as being too much, too fast, too soon. I recently listened an interview of Gabor Máte in which he described trauma as being a wound that is painful to touch and also scabs over and feels numb. When we utilize somatic experiencing techniques to address trauma we work directly with what is happening in the body and nervous system now, as if it were then. Throughout the work the participant is supported in accessing resources and a sense of safety in order to facilitate healing. The practitioner supports the participant in completing physiologically what needs to be completed in order for the participant to reduce/resolve their symptoms. This important work can’t be done if we keep our difficult experiences hidden or off limits. ***rtherapistsnetwork ***rtherapistcalifornia

09/05/2021