Melissa Quackenbush, LCSW

she/her/hers

If you’re reading this, congratulations! Therapy is an incredible gift to yourself and those around you. You deserve to live your best life, and therapy can help you gain the tools and insights to do just that.

Part of the beauty—and challenge—of life is the diversity of experiences it brings. These experiences shape us to be who we are now. Whether you’re facing a specific challenge such as anxiety, depression, stress, trauma and/or grief, or you want to strengthen your personal relationships, or you simply want to understand yourself better, therapy can provide a safe, judgment-free zone to explore where you’ve been, where you are now, where you wish to be, and guide you on your journey to get there!

As a wise person once said, therapy is like taking a class, all about you. In our work together, we’ll take a look at patterns that may be getting in the way of the life you envision for yourself, dig deeply to understand what’s driving them, and collaborate to find new approaches and ways to relate to yourself, as well as the people and world around you.

My style draws from multiple disciplines, including mindfulness and neurobiology. Above all, it’s centered around your unique strengths. Together, we’ll figure out what IS working, and add skills and insights to your repertoire at a pace that’s comfortable for you. Ultimately, you’ll have a “toolkit” of internal resources you can rely on for the rest of your life.

I believe in the resilience of the human spirit and its ability to harness the strength within to heal and grow. I’ve witnessed this countless times, in others as well as in myself. In other words, I know you can do this!

A little about me: Austin has been my home base since 1990. I earned my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and since then, I’ve lived in Sri Lanka, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, in addition to New York City, where I earned my Master of Science in Social Work at Columbia University. While in New York, I was swept up by the corporate world and worked as a communications consultant for more than a decade. I’ve also worked and volunteered in settings as varied as Integral Care, Austin State Hospital, ACC, the United Nations and the U.S. State Department, with populations ranging from former prisoners to people with intellectual disabilities to immigrants and refugees. I’m an avid long-distance walker, an aspiring runner (very slow!), a writer, an animal lover, and a chocolate chip cookie monster.

If you’d like to learn more or chat about how we might work together, please reach out at 512/201-4501, ext. 245. I look forward to getting to know you!