Melissa Fernandez, PhD(c)
Senior PhD Candidate in Psychology
“I welcome clients with warmth, curiosity, and consistency. The therapeutic space can serve as a safe resting ground to share your story, navigate experiences and life’s challenges, better understand underlining patterns and dynamics, and/or identify and work toward strategies and supports for greater wellbeing. With formal training and experiences in various therapeutic modalities, I adopt an integrative and collaborative approach with a wide age range of clients.”
Expertise
Melissa specializes in:
- Anxiety disorders
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
- Depression
- Emotion regulation disorders
- Parenting skills
- Personal growth
- Identity formation and exploration
- Other neurodevelopmental disorders
Melissa can also help with:
- Coping with medical illness
- Coping with major life changes and stressors
- Improving assertiveness and communication skills
- Improving family communication
- Improving parent/child relationships
- Increasing self-confidence and self-worth
- Managing relationship stress
- Navigating grief and loss
- Navigating community resources and social programs
- Perfectionism
- Performance anxiety
- Stress management
- Suicidal thoughts and behaviours
- Behavioural difficulties
- Social skills and social relatedness difficulties
- Executive functioning difficulties (e.g., problems with planning, organizing, initiating tasks)
- School adjustment and refusal challenges
- Preschool children
- School age children
- Adolescents
- Young adults
- Families
- Art/play-based therapy
- Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally focused family therapy
- Family-based treatment (FBT)
- Family systems therapy
- Motivational interviewing (MI)
- Psychodynamic therapy
- Relational therapy
- Solution-focused therapy
Learn More About Melissa
Education & Credentials
Melissa is in the final stages of her Doctorate degree at McGill University, with a concentration in School/Applied Child Psychology. She holds a Master of Arts in Educational Psychology from McGill University (2017) and a Bachelor of Arts in Honours Psychology from the University of Prince Edward Island (2013).
Training & Experiences
Melissa has been the recipient of national and international awards for her academic excellence and scientific contributions to the fields of child and adolescent psychology. Most recently, Melissa served a two-year term as a PhD(C) leadership awardee to support the Transforming Autism Care Consortium, a nationwide research network funded by the Fonds de recherche du Quebec. Melissa has presented her work at over 20 national and international conferences and seminars, and in peer-reviewed scientific journals and monographs. She has also sat on multidisciplinary steering committees for private schools and research networks in Montreal, and contributed to provincial efforts to advance community-partnered research for young people with mental health and neurodevelopmental disorders, educators, and families.
In her various clinical positions, Melissa has worked with children, youth, young adults, and families across Prince Edward Island and Quebec. Her areas of expertise include evaluations, consultation, psychotherapy, parent coaching, and group services for children, youth, and young adults. Melissa has also supervised and mentored graduate-level students in providing specialized mental health services. Her experiences are informed by diverse positions in public and private schools, medical centers, hospital in-patient treatment programs, non-profit organizations, and private clinics.
Current Work
Melissa provides consultation and evidence-based psychotherapy (child, teen, young adult, or family therapy) at Elevate Psychotherapy and Wellness Clinic, under supervised practice. She works collaboratively with clients to help them understand their experiences, areas of difficulties, and set goals that can lead to greater wellbeing. Melissa is trained in various therapeutic modalities and has worked with a wide age range of clients seeking support for mood, emotional, behavioural, and neurodevelopmental disorders, life transitions and adjustment, trauma, grief, identity exploration, school transitions, family- and peer-relations, and more. She adopts a person-centered, collaborative, and strengths-based approach with clients. Melissa is an active member of the Registrar for Students and Candidates with the Order of Psychologists of Quebec (OPQ), to provide psychological services under the supervision of a licensed psychologist.
