Anxiety therapist in Arlington Heights, IL
Melissa Martin, LCPC
Hi! I’m Melissa!
I help clients explore the thoughts, feelings, and experiences that may be contributing to their challenges with anxiety and related challenges. I am especially passionate about helping clients better understand where their anxiety comes from, how it affects their lives, and how to manage it in ways that feel more sustainable and empowering. I believe this allows clients to feel empowered and take appropriate action for the changes and growth they desire.
Why this work matters to me: I know what it’s like to feel stuck in your own mind, to have anxiety and trauma keep you from your potential, and to fight for a healthy relationship with food and body only to fall back into the same unhealthy patterns. Just because these things are challenges for you, doesn’t mean they always have to be. Recovery and healing is more than possible.
For over ten years, I have worked with adults who are struggling with anxiety, eating disorders, and the effects of trauma. I have helped many overcome these inner battles and find true freedom within themselves. My hope is that you’ll feel supported as we work together to better understand yourself, build new tools, and create meaningful change at a pace that feels right for you.
I value authenticity, collaboration, and connection within the therapeutic relationship and make those things a priority in my work with clients. With authenticity, collaboration, and connection being prioritized, my clients and I are able to work together to figure out which evidenced based interventions and approaches are the best fit for the type of healing and progress they are looking for.
I have a passion for helping clients implement interventions that help them fully process their emotions, increase their ability to manage and cope with distress, overcome life-long barriers, and identify the values and motivation behind committed action for change.
If your functioning is being negatively impacted by anxiety, trauma, or a challenging relationship with food and body, I would love to help you create lasting change and find the peace you deserve.
Therapy Services
Anxiety Therapy
Learn coping skills that allow you to live a life that is guided by your goals and values, not your anxiety.
Quiet ruminations and worry less, especially about things that are out of your control.
Defuse from thoughts that keep you stuck in the past or the future so that you can be more present.
Decrease mental and physical symptoms of anxiety that negatively impact your functioning.
Feel more peaceful on a daily basis.
Eating Disorder Therapy
Incorporate things such as health, peace, and freedom to your relationship with
Unlearn diet culture based myths about food and body.
Explore and apply topics such as body neutrality and body acceptance.
Identify all or nothing patterns with food and exercise and replace them with balance.
Identify and cope with contributing factors to binge eating and restricting.
Understand how your past is impacting the present and learn how to fully process what is keeping you stuck.
Learn and understand the physical and mental impact of trauma on your brain and body.
Develop coping skills to manage trauma responses.
Feel empowered to make decisions and engage with others confidently.
Define what healing and safety look and feel like to you.
Trauma Therapy
Some of my frequently used therapy interventions for anxiety, eating disorder, and trauma therapy:
Somatic experiencing
As humans today, we often live in our minds and can be very disconnected from our bodies. This intervention allows me to help clients learn how to fully process experiences as they are happening. Whether we are talking about something in the past or something in the present, we can use the identification of physical sensations, thoughts, and emotions to better process how we are feeling and what we need.
Exposure response prevention
Sometimes the only way out of something is through it. Exposure response prevention allows me to help clients live more meaningful lives. We do this by planning for how to cope with uncomfortable situations ahead of time so clients can practice managing and overcoming their fears.
Acceptance and commitment therapy
Suffering often comes from living a life that is not in accordance with our values. Using clients’ identified values as our guide, we work together to create committed action toward goals and healing.
Cognitive behavioral therapy
The beliefs we have about ourselves and the world can have a lot of impact on how we think and feel. Sometimes these beliefs need to be challenged or changed for true inner peace and freedom. I help clients identify these beliefs and explore how they are impacting how they think, feel, and behave for better or worse.