Melissa Foster, BACP

Melissa Foster helps people cope with stress, anxiety, relationship strains, self-esteem concerns and major life changes. She also supports people facing grief, parenting pressures and career uncertainty. Melissa works in a calm, straightforward way so conversations feel manageable when things are hard.

She is a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, BACP, and has five years of practice experience. That experience includes helping people with family problems, communication breakdowns, separation and infidelity, and issues linked to attachment and abandonment.

Sessions are shaped around each person’s needs. Melissa draws on client-centred work to make space for what matters to the client, and uses cognitive behavioural tools to develop practical coping strategies. She also uses psychodynamic ideas to look at patterns that keep repeating.

Therapy with Melissa tends to be collaborative and down-to-earth. She will listen, reflect what she hears, and help set clear goals or small experiments to try between sessions. The aim is to build clarity and easier ways of coping rather than stay stuck in worry.

People often come for specific problems such as fertility or fatherhood issues, blended family challenges, work stress, or feelings of emptiness. Melissa offers video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging so people can choose what fits their life. To start, there is a short matching questionnaire and scheduling step.

How Melissa’s approaches work online

Client-Centred Therapy places the client’s experience at the heart of sessions. The counsellor listens deeply and follows what the client brings, helping them feel understood and gradually clearer about their choices. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, focuses on practical skills. It helps people identify unhelpful thoughts and try new behaviours to reduce anxiety or improve mood.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Melissa will talk about different ways of working and choose methods together based on the client’s goals and preferences. That collaborative process helps make sessions feel relevant and tailored rather than starting with a fixed plan.

Online therapy makes those approaches more accessible. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions use less bandwidth and can be easier during a busy day. Live chat and text-based messaging suit short check-ins, quick reflections or people who prefer writing to speaking. These options give flexibility for fitting therapy into work, family and other routines while keeping the therapeutic focus on progress and practical change.