Melanie Roum
Compassionate, practical support for parents
- Credentials
- LCSW
- Experience
- 15 years
- Licensed in
- Louisiana, Virginia
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Melanie
Melanie Roum is a licensed clinical social worker who uses practical, skills-based therapy to help people move forward. She draws on approaches like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to identify patterns that cause distress and build manageable habits for change. Melanie speaks plainly and focuses on small steps that fit into everyday life.
She has 15 years of experience and is licensed as an LCSW in Louisiana.
Background and approach
Her work covers a range of concerns, including stress, anxiety, trauma and abuse, depression, addictions, grief, parenting, and relationship struggles. She also addresses issues such as attachment and abandonment, blended family challenges, caregiver stress, and family of origin issues. Sessions often include practical tools for coping with intense emotions, healthier communication habits, and strategies to manage mood and substance-related problems.
Melanie uses elements of Dialectical Behavior Therapy to teach emotional regulation and distress tolerance. Motivational Interviewing helps people find personal reasons to change when they feel stuck. Her style is straightforward and supportive.
She encourages clients to name goals and try concrete steps between sessions. Melanie emphasizes clients' own strengths and choices as the basis for progress. To begin, a typical process includes matching to a therapist and choosing a session format that fits a person’s life.
Melanie provides care in English and maintains a focus on accessible, realistic strategies for change.
Therapeutic approaches during online sessions
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people notice painful thoughts without getting stuck in them and encourages action toward what matters most. It can be useful for stress, anxiety, and making value-driven changes. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy looks at the links between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and provides practical exercises to shift unhelpful patterns; it is often used for anxiety, depression, and coping skills. Dialectical Behavior Therapy offers concrete skills for managing intense emotions and improving relationships, which can help with anger, substance issues, and emotional regulation.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what has or has not helped before. Together they will try methods that fit the person’s life and adjust the plan based on what feels useful.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to fit different schedules and comfort levels. These options let people work on skills and check in from home or another convenient place, and they make it easier to maintain consistent appointments while balancing parenting and daily demands.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Less about arguing with difficult thoughts, more about loosening their grip and acting on what matters to you anyway. Values and committed action carry the work, which suits conversation at a distance.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT looks at the link between what you think, how you feel, and what you do. You work on noticing unhelpful patterns and practising steadier responses. It suits online sessions well, because much of the work happens between appointments and can be talked through from anywhere.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Concrete skills for riding out strong emotion, tolerating distress, and handling relationships without things escalating. The skills are practised in daily life, so between-session support by message or phone fits naturally.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 15 years
- Licensed
- Louisiana, Virginia
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Melanie
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point