About Melissa
Melissa Herceg is a licensed clinical social worker with 25 years of professional experience in California. She focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, depression, and career challenges. Melissa also supports those facing life transitions like becoming a parent and navigating changes at work.
Her approach is practical and straightforward. She listens first, then works with each person to build clear, achievable goals. Conversations are tailored to what matters most to the individual, whether that is building confidence, improving coping skills, or working through relationship and family challenges.
How Melissa works
Melissa has a background addressing adoption and foster care concerns, attachment issues, and blended family dynamics. She also supports caregivers dealing with ongoing stress, and people experiencing isolation or social anxiety. Her experience includes helping those with postpartum depression and stresses around pregnancy and childbirth.
In sessions she draws on methods that promote motivation, focus on solutions, and address trauma when needed. That mix lets her adapt to short-term problem solving or deeper work over time. She keeps things collaborative and plainspoken so clients understand each step.
Melissa aims to help people find workable strategies for day-to-day life. She emphasizes respect, sensitivity, and compassion while tailoring plans to each person’s needs. Taking the first step can feel hard, and she recognizes the courage it takes to start.
Melissa lists 3 ways of working on the entry:
What Melissa works with
The areas below are the ones Melissa selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Self esteem
- Career difficulties
Also listed
Training and background
| Register | LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 25 |
| 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 Melissa's Approaches Work Online
Motivational Interviewing helps people find their own reasons to change. In short conversations the therapist asks questions that clarify values and increase motivation, which can help with career shifts, habits, and readiness for new steps.Solution-Focused Therapy focuses on small, practical steps toward goals. Sessions prioritize what is already working and build on those strengths to produce quick, manageable changes for stress, anxiety, and life transitions.
Trauma-Focused Therapy addresses the impact of past events on current feelings and behavior. It uses careful, paced work to help reduce distress and increase coping when trauma affects daily life.
Finding the right approach is part of the process. Melissa works together with clients to choose methods that match their needs, goals, and preferences. She tailors conversations and plans and checks in regularly to see what is helping and what should change.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to connect. Video calls let people meet face to face from different locations, phone sessions work well when internet bandwidth is limited, live chat is useful for quick check-ins, and text-based messaging supports ongoing brief contact between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy schedule and to choose the format that feels most comfortable.
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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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