Malissa Monaghan , LMHC

Malissa Monaghan is a licensed mental health counselor with 25 years of experience supporting people facing stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, and women's issues. She works with individuals coping with relationship strain, grief, sleep problems, parenting stress, workplace challenges, and mood concerns. Her approach is straightforward and focused on practical steps people can use right away.

She favors a person-centered stance that puts the client's goals first. Sessions prioritize clear communication, building coping skills, and boosting self-esteem. Malissa also draws on cognitive behavioral methods to identify unhelpful thoughts and replace them with more helpful patterns.

Dialectical behavior ideas are used when emotions feel overwhelming, helping people learn grounding and emotion-management skills. She integrates psychodynamic thinking to look at long-standing patterns that may affect relationships and behavior. Solution-focused tools help set concrete, short-term goals and track progress.

Malissa has extensive experience with young adult issues, social anxiety and workplace stress, and supports people dealing with co-occurring conditions and isolation. Her work also includes attention to autism and Asperger syndrome, communication problems, and fatherhood issues when they relate to a client's goals.

People can expect a calm, direct style that balances skills practice with reflective conversation. Malissa aims to help clients notice strengths, try manageable changes, and find clearer ways to handle life’s challenges.

Therapeutic approaches and online care

Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes listening and shaping the work around what matters to the person. It helps people clarify goals and feel heard while they try new ways of handling problems. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on the link between thoughts, feelings, and actions and teaches concrete strategies to change unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns. DBT, or Dialectical Behavior Therapy, adds skills for managing strong emotions, reducing reactivity, and improving interpersonal effectiveness.

Choosing the right approach is often collaborative. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, symptoms, and preferences and suggest a mix of approaches tailored to those needs. Together they review how methods are working and adjust the plan as progress is made.

Online therapy offers flexible ways to connect. Video calls let sessions feel similar to in-person visits, while phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited or for shorter check-ins. Live chat and text-based messaging are useful for quick skill coaching, daily check-ins, or when writing feels easier than speaking. These options make it simpler to fit therapy into work and family schedules and to access licensed professionals from New York without traveling.