Deborah Melamed, PhD

Dr Melamed, to put it mildly, changed my life. I had never really heard of behavioral/​cognitive therapy. I’m used to a good old psychotherapist. You sit there and rant about your mother and they nod sagely and give you drugs. I had an awesome psychotherapist growing up, but after a string of terrible shrinks in adulthood, I just gave up on therapy altogether.
But the truth is, I’m kind of neurotic and high-​strung and anxious (hawt, I know). And after a series of itty bitty breakdowns culminated in a kind of major breakdown, I decided that I had to do something before I broke in two.
My GP was the one who suggested Dr. Melamed. She knew I wasn’t a fan of meds, and said that B/​C therapy might be better. Wow. She was majorly right. This is therapy where you actually work on yourself. You don’t just vent to a sympathetic ear, you get tools to help you cope with things and identify and adjust your behavior/​the way you think.
Dr Melamed is immensely approachable. She is young and friendly but has buckets of experience, including teaching. She develops a repoire well and is a perfect balance of helping you take responsibility while also not making you feel like you’re to blame for everything wrong in your life.
After one session, I started having better control over how I handled situations, because I was actually using tools… not just trying to remember mantras or relying on drugs.
I had to take off a star because she does not accept insurance. This therapy set me back a very pretty penny.
If you see yourself as a self-​starter who wants to actually facilitate change in your life, working to improve yourself rather than hoping for someone to «fix» you, I recommend behavioral/​cognitive therapy. And if possible, I would say give Deborah Melamed a call!