Melissa Foster , BACP

Melissa Foster is a counsellor who helps people manage stress, anxiety, relationship concerns, parenting strains, career questions and grief. She works with individuals facing life changes, low self-esteem and family-related problems. Melissa is a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, BACP, and has five years of practice experience.

Her style is warm and straightforward. Sessions focus on what matters to the person in front of her. She listens without judgement and helps clients make sense of difficult feelings and situations. Practical steps may be introduced alongside reflective conversation.

Melissa draws on a mix of approaches rather than one fixed method. She uses client-centred principles to follow each person’s priorities, cognitive behavioural ideas to spot patterns of thinking, and psychodynamic thinking to look at repeated life patterns. Solution-focused techniques are used when clients want brief, goal-oriented work.

In practice she helps people identify manageable actions, test new ways of relating, and build routines that reduce overwhelm. For relationship and family concerns she emphasises clearer communication and understanding patterns that cause conflict. For grief and life transitions she supports pacing the process and finding small ways to cope.

Sessions aim to be practical and humane. Melissa encourages questions about how therapy will work and adjusts pace to suit each person. She offers appointments from the United Kingdom and conducts sessions in English.

How Melissa's approaches work online

Client-Centred Therapy focuses on listening and following what matters most to the person. The counsellor offers empathic reflection and supports you to find your own solutions, which suits those needing to be heard and to clarify values and choices.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, helps identify unhelpful thoughts and behaviours and replace them with more helpful alternatives. It is practical and useful for anxiety, stress and getting unstuck from repetitive thinking.

Psychodynamic ideas look at patterns that repeat across relationships and over time. This can help people understand why certain situations feel familiar and change long-standing responses.

Choosing the right approach is part of the work. Melissa will discuss your goals, preferences and what feels most useful, and then tailor a mix of techniques to suit you. The process is collaborative and may shift as your needs change.

Online formats make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation, phone sessions can be used when bandwidth is limited, and live chat or text-based messaging suit shorter check-ins or those who prefer writing. These options offer flexibility for different rhythms and practical circumstances, while still allowing meaningful therapeutic work with registered or accredited professionals.