Melissa Reighn, LMHC

Melissa Reighn is a licensed mental health counselor in New York with 15 years of clinical experience. She helps people who are coping with stress, anxiety, trauma and abuse, grief, and depression. Melissa focuses on practical steps that make daily life easier and more manageable. She approaches work believing each person knows their story best. That perspective shapes short-term goals and longer plans. Sessions often center on building strengths and using what already works in a person’s life. Melissa draws on several evidence-informed methods to guide sessions, including cognitive behavioral techniques and trauma-focused work. She also uses acceptance and commitment ideas to help people live with difficult emotions rather than be driven by them. People come for many reasons beyond mood and trauma. Melissa has supported those facing parenting strain, ADHD, eating and bipolar concerns, chronic illness and pain, caregiver stress, and relationship communication problems. She also offers help with substance issues, domestic violence impacts, and immigration-related stress. Her style is straightforward and collaborative. She aims to create a space where someone can try new ways of coping and practice different responses between sessions. The overall focus is on realistic change that fits into busy lives.

How Melissa’s Approaches Translate to Online Care

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, helps people notice painful thoughts without letting those thoughts control their behavior. It’s useful for anxiety, chronic health struggles, and for moving toward values-based goals. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking and testing new actions to change mood and behavior. It often helps with anxiety, depression, and stress by using clear steps and practice between sessions. EMDR is a trauma-focused method used to process difficult memories and reduce their emotional intensity; it can be part of work with trauma and abuse. Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, what has helped before, and what feels manageable now. That collaborative process guides whether ACT, CBT, trauma-focused techniques, or a mix will be used. Confirm current session formats before booking so you know how sessions are offered. Online therapy can make it easier to fit care into a busy routine, reduce travel time, and allow shorter check-ins when schedules are tight. Some people find text or audio less demanding than video, while others prefer face-to-face conversation. The practical aim is to choose ways of meeting that match daily life and therapeutic goals.