Melissa Reighn, LMHC

Melissa Reighn is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) practicing in New York with 15 years of experience. She focuses on practical support for people under stress, feeling anxious, or recovering from trauma and abuse. Melissa emphasizes each person's strengths and works so they can take steps toward a more satisfying life.

Melissa listens first and helps clients name what matters to them. She aims to make sessions straightforward and goal oriented. Conversations cover everyday challenges like parenting pressures, mood swings, attention differences, eating concerns, and managing bipolar symptoms.

Her background includes work with people facing long term health issues, caregiving strain, chronic pain, and aging concerns. She also addresses relationship strains such as communication problems, separation, and codependency. Melissa brings experience helping people cope with addiction, immigration stress, first responder issues, and feelings of guilt or shame.

In sessions she uses several commonly known approaches to guide the work. That can look like noticing and changing unhelpful thoughts, focusing on personal values to guide action, brief problem-solving to handle urgent issues, or trauma-focused methods to process painful memories. The pace and tools follow what each person needs.

Her style is collaborative and down-to-earth. People who want concrete steps and steady encouragement tend to find this approach helpful. To begin, clients are asked to complete a short questionnaire and then schedule a session based on availability.

Online approaches and how they work together

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, helps people clarify what they care about and take small steps toward those values even when emotions are strong. It can be useful for anxiety, stress, and chronic health challenges. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on identifying unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns and testing new ways of responding to reduce distress. It suits anxiety, mood concerns, and problem-solving around daily routines. EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is a trauma-focused method aimed at reducing the intensity of painful memories through structured processing and can be part of work on past trauma.

Finding the right approach is often a team effort. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, what has helped before, and which methods feel like a good fit. Together they will try an approach and adjust as needed so the work stays relevant and manageable.

Session formats are not listed in the biography, so confirm current session options before booking. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life by removing travel time and offering more flexible scheduling. It also allows for shorter check-ins or sessions that don't require being on camera, which can help people keep regular appointments while balancing caregiving, work, or medical needs.