Meet Your Online Therapist for Anxiety, Trauma, & Life Transitions in California
Melissa Bautista, LPCC
I work with adults navigating anxiety, stress, and life transitions. My approach is thoughtful and collaborative, creating space for reflection, insight, and meaningful change. I help clients better understand recurring patterns and build practical tools that support their emotional well-being.
Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my family, especially my son, who is autistic and nonverbal. I also wrote a children’s book called Even Though You Can’t Say I Love You, which shares the many ways love can be expressed without words. I enjoy staying active through hiking and running as well.
My Methodology & Therapy Process
My approach to therapy is collaborative, individualized, and grounded in evidence-based practices. I believe that each client brings their own unique experiences, strengths, challenges, and perspectives into the therapeutic relationship. Rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach, I tailor treatment to each client's needs, goals, and readiness for change.
Training & Credentials
Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor #8904
Training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
I utilize Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Narrative Therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to help clients better understand their experiences, develop healthier patterns of thinking and coping, and process experiences that may continue to affect their emotional well-being.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on the connection between thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Together, we identify patterns that may be contributing to distress and work toward developing more balanced perspectives, effective coping skills, and healthier behavioral responses.
Narrative Therapy allows us to explore the stories and beliefs clients have developed about themselves and their experiences. I help clients separate themselves from the problems they are facing and examine how past experiences, relationships, and societal expectations may have influenced the way they see themselves. Through this process, we work toward identifying strengths, values, and alternative stories that more accurately reflect who they are and who they want to become.
EMDR therapy may be incorporated when clients have experienced trauma, distressing life experiences, or experiences that continue to affect their present-day emotional responses. EMDR can help clients process distressing memories and experiences so that they can become less emotionally overwhelming and no longer feel as impactful in the present.
My Process
Our work together begins with creating a safe, supportive, and nonjudgmental therapeutic relationship. During the initial sessions, I focus on understanding what brings you to therapy, your current concerns, your history, strengths, support system, and the goals you would like to work toward.
From there, we collaboratively develop a treatment approach that fits your individual needs. Therapy may include exploring thought patterns, building coping and communication skills, processing difficult experiences, examining relationships and life experiences, or developing a deeper understanding of yourself and your responses to stress.
When appropriate, I may integrate different therapeutic approaches throughout treatment. For example, we may begin with CBT-based coping and stabilization skills before moving into deeper trauma processing with EMDR. Narrative Therapy may be incorporated to help you explore the meaning you have made of your experiences and develop a more empowering understanding of yourself.
My goal is not simply to help you manage symptoms, but to help you develop a stronger understanding of yourself, recognize your existing strengths, process what has been difficult, and create meaningful and lasting changes in your life.
Therapy is a collaborative process. You remain the expert on your own life, and my role is to provide guidance, support, and evidence-based tools to help you move toward the life and relationships you want.
You Don’t Have to Navigate This Alone
If you're ready to begin your healing journey, I’m here to support you every step of the way. You don’t need to have everything figured out — taking the first step is enough.