What are the opening hours?

Tuesday 9am - 5pm Wednesday 9am - 5pm Thursday 9am - 5pm

Melissa Goldsmith PhD, LLC

Home
United States
Solon, OH
Melissa Goldsmith PhD, LLC

Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Melissa Goldsmith PhD, LLC, Mental Health Service, Solon, OH.

Therapy for PTSD + Anxiety ☀️ | Ohio Based
Deep, evidence-based therapy to find lasting change ➡️ CPT, PE and CBT
Find peace, reclaim your strength 👇
https://melissa-goldsmith.clientsecure.me

07/09/2025

You don’t have to feel 100% ready to begin trauma therapy. You just have to be willing.
⠀
This post shares 6 signs you may be more ready than you realize to begin trauma-focused therapy like Cognitive Processing Therapy or Prolonged Exposure Therapy for PTSD —first-line, evidence-based therapies for PTSD that go deeper than coping skills to help you truly recover.
⠀
If you’re feeling stuck in survival mode, holding emotions at bay, or looking for something beyond symptom management, this may be your next step.

If you’re curious or quietly wondering, schedule a free 15-minute consultation.
You don’t have to commit—just start the conversation.
🔗 melissagoldsmithphd.org/contact/

🔗 Read the full blog post here: https://melissagoldsmithphd.org/signs-ready-for-trauma-therapy/

07/02/2025

Recovery from past trauma is about reclaiming your life. On your terms. You get to recover without minimizing or forgetting what happened.

Greater clarity, renewed self-worth, and moving forward with a greater sense of control are still possible. You don’t have to earn them through forgiveness either.

Evidence-based therapy for PTSD can help you rebuild with lasting change.

Whether you’re looking for a PTSD specialist or looking for trauma therapy, I’m here to help. The transformations I’ve seen from Cognitive Processing Therapy and Prolonged Exposure Therapy - and the 30+ years of research showing their lasting results - are what matter to me.

Ready to take the next step? You can schedule a free 15 minute consultation at www.melissagoldsmithphd.org/contact/

06/27/2025

PTSD isn’t just about what happened in combat zones. It’s also about what happened in homes. The places that were supposed to be safe.

You deserve a space where you can finally take a deep breath and let your guard down. Here, you can start to unpack the heavy load you’ve been carrying for so long, knowing you’re not alone in this and are taking steps to no longer be haunted by it.

Whether you’re looking for a PTSD specialist or looking for trauma therapy, I’m here to help. With over 15 years of experience treating PTSD, including 8 years in a specialized PTSD treatment clinic and now in my own private practice, they provide me with a deep well of knowledge and hands-on expertise in addressing various PTSD cases.
🕊️ First-line, evidence-based therapy for PTSD, like Cognitive Processing Therapy and Prolonged Exposure Therapy can help you move forward, not just cope, and can deliver lasting change. You deserve to recover.

06/18/2025

It’s normal and understand for you to feel scared at the idea of doing trauma therapy. The thought of revisiting your past traumas is daunting, but you want to believe healing is possible.

Through specialized therapies like Cognitive Processing Therapy and Prolonged Exposure Therapy, I can help you peel back the layers of your traumas, validating your journey and empowering you with the tools you need for healing, not just ‘coping’. These therapies can deliver lasting change.
Readiness doesn’t mean feeling brave all the time. It means being willing to start.

05/21/2025

Trauma-focused therapy, like Cognitive Processing Therapy and Prolonged Exposure Therapy, can feel like reopening an old wound. I understand it can be difficult to trust the process, especially when you’ve tried other therapies before.

Here’s an insider’s guide into various signs of progress to look for when doing Cognitive Processing Therapy or Prolonged Exposure Therapy. Consistent practice of the therapy skills between sessions builds progress and clears a path for true recovery.

The transformations I’ve seen as a result of these treatments - and the 30+ years of research showing they deliver lasting change - are what matter to me.

Whether you’re searching to find a trauma specialist or looking for trauma therapy, I’m here to help. Ready to take the next step? You can schedule a free 15 minute consultation at www.melissagoldsmithphd.org/contact/

04/24/2025

I’m here to help you navigate through your emotions about your past with care and understanding. With over 15 years of experience treating PTSD, including 8 years in a specialized PTSD treatment clinic, it provides me with a deep well of knowledge and hands-on expertise in addressing various trauma cases. I specialize in providing Cognitive Processing Therapy and Prolonged Exposure Therapy for PTSD, which have demonstrated long-term results.

04/16/2025

Evidence-based therapy for PTSD is more than just about reducing and managing symptoms. It’s about helping you rebuild with lasting strength and confidence. I understand how difficult it can be to trust the process, especially when you’ve tried other therapies before. I’m here to guide you with a gentle and direct approach that truly addresses your needs.

A recent study from Kehle-Forbes et al. (2025) shows how evidence-based therapy for PTSD - specifically Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE) - can positively impact quality of life up to 3 months after treatment.

In my private practice in Northeast Ohio, I specialize in CPT and PE. I’m here to help you navigate through the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors with care and understanding.

Check out the link below to the study for heart-warming quotes on the impact of CPT & PE on Veterans’ quality of life!

Link to study: Kehle-Forbes, S.M., Baier, A. L., Ackland, P. E., Spoont, M., Polusny, M. A., Schnurr, P. P., Galovski, T., & Meis, L. (2025). “It made me feel more alive”: A qualitative analysis of quality of life improvements following completion of trauma-focused therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 38(1), 158-164. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.23091

04/11/2025

You’re looking for a therapy approach that doesn’t just skim the surface, but dives deep into the roots of your past trauma to create lasting change. The fear of facing your past trauma is real, but so is the desire to break free from it.

You deserve a life that isn’t defined by your past. In my practice, I am trained to get to the root of those deep experiences and uncover how they have impacted your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Through specialized therapies, like Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE), I’ll help you peel back the layers of your trauma(s), validating your journey and empowering you to recover, not just “cope.” Sometimes peeling back those layers will hurt and stink (like an onion), but once we have it cleared out, then true recovery can begin.

Importantly, studies have found that civilians and veterans have reported improvements in quality of life after completing CPT or PE (Bosch et al., 2020; Kehle-Forbes et al., 2024; Le et al., 2018):

Links to those studies:

Bosch, J., Mackintosh, M., Wells, S., Wickramasinghe, I., Glassman, L., & Morland, L. (2020). PTSD treatment response and quality of life in women with childhood trauma histories. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, & Policy, 12(1), 55–63. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000468

Kehle-Forbes, S.M., Baier, A. L., Ackland, P. E., Spoont, M., Polusny, M. A., Schnurr, P. P., Galovski, T., & Meis, L. (2025). “It made me feel more alive”: A qualitative analysis of quality of life improvements following completion of trauma-focused therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 38(1), 158-164. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.23091

Le, Q. A., Doctor, J., Zoellner, L., & Feeny, N. (2018). Effects of treatment, choice, and preference on health related quality-of-life outcomes in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Quality of Life Research, 27(6), 1555–1562. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-018-1833-4

04/02/2025

You deserve to move forward with confidence and a greater sense of control over your life. I’m here to help you uncover the inner strength within yourself to overcome the challenges you’re facing. Using evidence-based trauma-focused treatments, like Cognitive Processing Therapy or Prolonged Exposure Therapy, we work step by step so you learn and practice the skills that provide a path to recovery. That way, you can focus on living your life in the present, doing what’s important to you.

03/26/2025

To Gen X and Millennial women busy balancing multiple roles and feeling overwhelmed by anxiety stemming from past traumatic experiences: You deserve to move forward with confidence and peace.

Our thoughts have a lot of power - more than we often realize - in how we feel and what we do. Let’s make sure the thoughts are realistic and helpful. Try replacing the word “control” with “influence” in your thoughts about yourself. It can be a step towards getting unstuck from your past and living more in the present.

Here’s what I mean:

“I must have total control of the situation” or “I don’t have control of the situation” ➡️
“I have some influence in the situation.” OR “I can influence my thoughts/behaviors in the situation.”

Why replace control with influence?

Control gives the impression of all or none. Either you have control (implying it’s 100% complete control) of the situation or you don’t (implying it’s 0% - no control).

Realistically, it’s not 100% or 0%. It’s somewhere in between.

That’s where influence comes in. It gives the impression of a range. You can have influence in the situation - somewhere between 0 and 100. The key is that the word influence provides a more balanced and helpful view that helps you toward recovery. It’s important to recognize what you do have influence over as well as what you do not have influence over in a situation.

03/19/2025

Women in the United States disproportionately experience PTSD. Women are at higher risk than men for experiencing certain types of traumatic events, specifically interpersonal violence and childhood abuse, which are usually associated with higher risk for PTSD.

As a woman, you’re juggling multiple roles every day—caregiver, professional, community member, and more. It can be overwhelming. You’re constantly balancing the present while planning for the future.

If your days are frequently interrupted by intrusive memories of past traumas, and you find yourself thinking, “I should be over this by now. I don’t have time for the past,” while pushing away guilt and discomfort, it can feel like you’re losing control of both your past and present.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

I’m here to support you in processing those past traumatic experiences, so they no longer hold you back. You deserve to move forward with confidence and a greater sense of control over your life.

If you’re interested, here are the articles cited in the post:

[1] Goldstein, R. B., Smith, S. M., Chou, S. P., Saha, T. D., Jung, J., Zhang, H., Pickering, R. P., Ruan, W. J., Huang, B., & Grant, B. F. (2016). The Epidemiology of DSM-5 Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the United States: Results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions-III. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 51: 1137–1148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00127-016-1208-5

[2] Lehavot, K., Katon, J. G., Chen, J. A., Fortney, J. C. & Simpson, T. L. (2018). Post-traumatic Stress Disorder by gender and veteran status. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 54, e1-e9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2017.09.008

[3] Davis, L. L., Schein, J., Cloutier, M., Gagnon-Sanschagrin, P., Maitland, J., Urganus, A., Guerin, A., Lefebvre, P., & Houle, C.R. (2022). The economic burden of posttraumatic stress disorder in the United States from a societal perspective. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 83: 21m14116. http://dx.doi.org/10.4088/JCP.21m14116

03/07/2025

Had a wonderful time yesterday at the Solon Chamber of Commerce’s 4th annual “Cocktails & Conversation” to celebrate International Women’s Day!

Address

Solon, OH

Opening Hours

Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm

Telephone

+14403063467

Website

https://melissagoldsmithphd.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Melissa Goldsmith PhD, LLC posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Practice

Send a message to Melissa Goldsmith PhD, LLC: