About Melana
Melana Serka is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 14 years of clinical experience. She focuses on helping people who feel overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, relationship strain, parenting pressures, or big life changes. She speaks plainly and helps clients find manageable steps forward.
Melana draws on practical, evidence-informed approaches to help people get unstuck. Sessions focus on clear goals, skills you can use between meetings, and real changes you can notice.
How Melana works
She blends client-centered conversation with tools from cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness so sessions feel both warm and focused. Her practice pays attention to everyday struggles like low self-esteem, depression, eating and food issues, anger, and career stress. Melana also supports people navigating ADHD, bipolar concerns, trauma and abuse, and LGBT-related challenges.
She addresses family-of-origin issues, blended family dynamics, fertility stress, caregiver strain, and communication or commitment problems. Melana works with people who want practical coaching alongside therapy. She uses motivational interviewing to help clarify values and solution-focused strategies to set short-term goals.
The aim is to create clearer choices and more manageable routines that fit each person’s life. Sessions are offered from California and conducted in English. She offers video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging so people can pick the format that fits their schedule and needs.
Melana lists 6 ways of working on the entry:
What Melana works with
The areas below are the ones Melana selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Trichotillomania
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LMFT |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 14 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | California |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How Melana’s Approaches Work Online
Melana often uses client-centered therapy to create a respectful, nonjudgmental space where the person’s priorities guide each session. That approach focuses on listening, reflecting, and helping people notice their own strengths to shape change.She also uses cognitive behavioral therapy, which breaks down problems into patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions. CBT gives clear, practical strategies for managing anxiety, depression, and stress by testing thoughts and trying small behavioral changes.
Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Melana will collaborate with each person to choose methods that match their goals, needs, and personal style. She checks in about what helps and adjusts techniques as progress unfolds.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging so people can pick what fits their day. Video is useful for fuller conversations and skill practice, phone works well when bandwidth is limited, live chat can be a quicker check-in, and text messaging supports brief updates and reminders. These options offer flexibility for busy schedules, caregiving demands, and those who prefer shorter or more frequent touchpoints.
Start online instead of waiting
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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