Hi, I’m Melissa short
For years, I wrestled with questions like, "What's wrong with me? Why can't I just move forward?" Learning about trauma and the nervous system changed that for me. I discovered that healing doesn't come from trying harder, it comes from learning to feel safe, connected, and compassionate toward yourself.
Today, as a Certified Trauma Support Specialist, I'm passionate about walking alongside women as they rediscover their strength, peace, and God-given capacity to heal. I believe healing happens in spaces of safety, honesty, and compassion, and it is a privilege to hold space for that process.
When I'm not working with clients, you'll usually find me outdoors—hiking, kayaking, or chasing waterfalls with my family. I'm a California girl turned Carolina girl who loves Mexican food, red velvet cake, deep conversations, and the slower pace of life.
Whether you're just passing through or you're ready to begin your healing journey, I'm so glad you're here.
—Melissa
My Story
After leaving a high-control group we were part of for 4 years, I couldn't understand why I was still struggling. The people, the place, the experience were all in the rearview mirror. But I wasn't.
I sat on the couch for 7 months. Disillusioned, depressed, disoriented. I tried all the things I knew to do. Counseling, prayer, forgiveness, trying harder to move forward. And while those things helped, something was still missing. I was still stuck, still circling the same patterns. Emotional overwhelm, avoidance, people-pleasing, over-responsibility. I was exhausted and completely burned out.
Trauma-informed care was what helped me make sense of what happened to me and know my responses made sense. It touched places other therapies, and counseling couldn’t. It helped heal the relationship with myself and my body that trauma damaged. I could be with my emotions without guilt. I could process things with less overwhelm. I was setting limits and finding a clarity I had longed for.I started getting in touch with my needs that I had been ignoring. It grounded me in ways I desperately needed..
That's why I do this work. I believe in it. I’ve experienced it actually help me untangle. I know what it's like to be stuck, depressed, and triggered and wonder if something is just wrong with you.
The truth is something happened that wasn’t my fault or yours . Healing is about reconnecting the parts of you that were wounded with love, compassion, and care again.
My Approach
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I am working from the standpoint as a fellow human who doesn’t have it all together, who still struggles herself.
I see a Therapist regularly and believe in teaching and sharing things that I practice personally, as I am doing the work of healing in my own life.
I believe that learning and growing from our pain is what helps move us towards resiliency. Making sense of our stories, in a safe and supportive way is what helps us heal and truly live the lives we want to live.
I believe that people have innate wisdom placed inside them. The client is the expert on them. My job as the coach is to help guide each person to find the capacity within to learn to listen to that inner voice. I believe that most change starts internally and naturally makes it way out into our behaviors, habits, and actions.
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Trauma is not only stored in our memories—it also affects the nervous system and body. Somatic practices help you notice physical sensations, regulate your nervous system, and reconnect with your body so healing becomes an embodied experience, not just an intellectual one.
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Is an evidence based psychotherapy model, created by Dr. Richard Schwartz. Internal Family Systems is powerfully transformative. In this model the belief is that our minds are naturally multiple, meaning we have many parts to that make up the system of who we are (not the same as multiple personalities).
In IFS we befriend these parts. We realize that protective parts of us developed as a way to help us survive or get through really overwhelming experiences.
IFS helps us make sense of these different parts of us. Often parts of us are running the show of our lives, instead of our authentic selves. These parts reveal some of the stuck places and patterns we keep repeating.
Through parts work we can safely and gently process emotions, offload false beliefs, and help reintegrate the parts of you and your story that trauma and painful past experiences may have impacted.
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Healing from religious trauma often involves untangling fear, shame, and harmful beliefs from your sense of self and spirituality. Whether you're rebuilding your faith, questioning long-held beliefs, or choosing a different path, you'll be supported with compassion and without judgment.
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If you are a Christian and would like to integrate your faith into our time together, we can absolutely do that. I follow your leading in this and will ask you questions early on in our initial sessions to see what kind of support you are looking for.
This is a non-judgmental space to share anything in regards to your faith journey. Anger, doubt, questioning, lament, and fears are a normal part of being human and our faith journeys. When you are given room and space to be where you are at, without religious pressure, beautiful healing work can unfold.
This work is in my bones.
Formal training. Real healing. Both matter here.
