Melissa Averett
Calm guidance for practical family challenges
- Credentials
- LPC
- Experience
- 14 years
- Licensed in
- Louisiana
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Melissa
Melissa Averett is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) based in Louisiana with 14 years of clinical experience. She earned her master’s degree in education counseling and has worked in both residential and outpatient settings. Her background includes supporting adults through addiction recovery and a range of mental health concerns.
Melissa approaches sessions with warmth and straightforward guidance to help people take practical steps forward. She favors a person-centered style that focuses on building trust first.
Background and approach
That approach helps people clarify what they want from counseling and set realistic goals. Melissa also uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which includes identifying unhelpful thoughts and replacing them with healthier ones. In sessions she teaches concrete skills like setting boundaries, improving self-esteem, and using assertive communication.
She also works on coping strategies for stress, sleep problems, and emotional regulation. Clients learn to recognize choices and consequences and practice new behaviors between meetings. Her practice addresses a wide range of concerns including anxiety, depression, trauma and abuse, grief, parenting struggles, relationship and family problems, addictions, ADHD, bipolar symptoms, and compassion fatigue.
Melissa helps people begin healing after difficult life events and offers tools for lasting change. She aims for a practical, empathic tone in sessions. The focus is on small, manageable steps that lead to clearer thinking and better daily functioning.
Many clients find the direct teaching and consistent encouragement helpful when facing hard decisions or big transitions.
How her approaches translate to online therapy
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening closely and creating a supportive relationship. In practice this means the therapist reflects concerns, asks simple questions, and helps the client decide goals and next steps. It is useful when someone needs understanding and a clear path forward.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, works by identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing them against real-life evidence. The therapist teaches practical exercises and thought records to change patterns that fuel anxiety, depression, or unhealthy behaviors. This approach is especially helpful for stress, sleep issues, and managing mood swings.
Deciding which approach to use is a shared process. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, preferences, and what feels most useful. If the plan needs adjusting, the therapist and client change course together until sessions feel helpful.
Online sessions are offered by licensed professionals through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. These formats make it easier to fit counseling into a busy schedule and to continue work between meetings. Many people find the flexibility helpful for practicing skills in real life and keeping momentum while managing family and work demands.
Client-Centered Therapy
The direction comes from you rather than from a set programme. The therapist offers a warm, non-judgemental space to think out loud and work at your own pace. Online, this rests on the relationship rather than on being in the same room.
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.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-love
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 14 years
- Licensed
- Louisiana
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Melissa
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point