Melisa Maling
Compassionate, experienced social worker guiding recovery
LCSW, CSW Colorado
- Experience
- 33 years in practice
- Focus areas
- Trauma and abuse, Grief, Parenting
- Approaches
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Client-Centered Therapy
- Languages
- English
About Melisa
Melisa Maling is a licensed social worker in Colorado with 33 years of professional experience helping people recover from trauma, process grief, and manage compassion fatigue. She brings a respectful, sensitive, and compassionate stance to clinical work and adapts the therapeutic dialogue to each person’s unique circumstances.
Background and approach
Her background includes executive and professional coaching alongside clinical practice, which informs a practical, goal-oriented approach to client concerns. Her practice supports those coping with trauma and abuse, parenting challenges, self-esteem struggles, and workplace stress, and she addresses related topics such as attachment, forgiveness, guilt and shame, and life purpose.
Melisa draws on methods that include cognitive behavioral techniques, trauma-focused interventions, motivational interviewing, client-centered care, and solution-focused strategies, tailoring these to the needs presented in sessions. She frames the therapeutic process as a collaborative effort and aims to help clients move toward greater self-love, clarity, and resilience.
Approaches in Online Care and What They Do
Melisa commonly uses cognitive behavioral techniques and trauma-focused methods as part of her practice. Cognitive behavioral approaches help identify and shift unhelpful thinking patterns and behaviors to reduce distress and build coping skills, which can be useful for issues like low self-esteem, workplace stress, and grief. Trauma-focused work attends directly to the effects of past harm and supports processing and symptom reduction through structured interventions tailored to traumatic memories and their impact.She also draws on client-centered principles, which emphasize listening, validation, and collaboration so the person’s values and goals guide the work. Finding the right combination of approaches is part of the therapeutic process, and the therapist will work together with clients to decide which methods fit best based on needs, goals, and preferences.
Online sessions can be scheduled as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to provide flexibility for different lifestyles and comfort levels. These remote options make it easier to access consistent care from Colorado, accommodate busy schedules, and continue work between sessions using brief messages or chat when useful.
Frequently asked questions
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Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
33+ years
Licensed
Colorado
Languages
English