We process personally identifiable information ("PII") and personal health information to conduct our business and provide you with effective service as described in our Privacy Policy. Some data processing and sharing is required for our product to function and cannot be disabled. If you click 'I Agree', we may also share PII with third party advertising partners to deliver more relevant ads and with analytics partners to improve our services. To learn about who we share your data with and why or to opt out, go to Sharing Settings.
I've been working as a counselor for over 15 years. My primary areas of focus are disability issues, workplace issues, and military/veteran issues. I have experience with:
* Adjusting to a disability (recovering from accident, chronic pain, depression, unsure of what to do now)
* Coping with changes caused by a disability (career change, change of work tasks, use of reasonable accommodations)
* Workplace stress (conflicts with peers/supervisors, unhappy with career, etc)
* Readjusting to civilian life after military service (home and/or work, stress from working with the VA for help)
* Working through combat-related traumas
My approach to counseling is to help you find value and meaning in the experience as you navigate a way forward. We create a safe space for you to share your feelings. I like to provide an assignment between sessions for you to complete to help reinforce a new change or skill or to assign a writing exercise to help you explore your feelings, but these are not required. We'll work to figure out how you'll benefit the most from our time together.
I'm a liberal person who is comfortable working with people of all sexual orientations.
Additional areas of focus:LGBT, Relationship issues, Family conflicts, Trauma and abuse, Intimacy-related issues, Sleeping disorders, Anger management, Self esteem, Coping with life changes, Coaching, Aging and Geriatric Issues, Cancer, Caregiver Issues and Stress, Chronic Pain Illness and Disability, Communication Problems, Coping with Natural or Human-Caused Disaster, Emptiness, Expats, Family of Origin Issues, Family Problems, First Responder Issues, Forgiveness, Guilt and Shame, Hoarding, Hospice and End of Life Counseling, Intellectual Disability, Isolation / Loneliness, Life Purpose, Midlife Crisis, Military and Veterans Issues, Money and Financial Issues, Mood Disorders, Panic Disorder and Panic Attacks, Phobias, Post-traumatic Stress, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), Self-Harm, Self-Love, Social Anxiety and Phobia, Traumatic Brain Injury, Visually Impaired, Women's Issues, Workplace Issues
These quotes represent just a few of the many positive reviews that we have received for Melissa Kaekel. We don't pay anyone to provide their review and they are all made voluntarily. Some people's experience receiving therapy with BetterHelp might be different.
I love her, she is so kind and ask all the right questions and offers potential reasons why some things happen or how to go about different scenarios. I can tell she truly supports me and my path to healing and growth.
Written on Jan 23, 2023 after therapy with Melissa for 1 month on issues concerning stress, anxiety, and trauma and abuse
This is my first experience with therapy and I am so happy I was matched with Melissa. She makes me feel comfortable, heard and validated and she’s been a huge help through the most difficult time in my life.
Written on Aug 28, 2022 after therapy with Melissa for 2 weeks on issues concerning relationship issues
I like her and it has been a good match for me to have her as my there
Written on Aug 22, 2022 after therapy with Melissa for 2 weeks on issues concerning stress, anxiety, relationship issues, family conflicts, grief, and coping with life changes
Melissa has been the most supportive, encouraging, guiding, and truly best therapist I have ever worked with. I cannot express how much her work has helped me in my recovery
Written on Jul 07, 2022 after therapy with Melissa for 8 months on issues concerning grief
Melissa has been fantastic for me, she's encouraged me and helped me through my recovery of a bad breakup. She's offered me a different perspective on things that is greatly appreciated. She's awesome!
Written on May 24, 2022 after therapy with Melissa for 2 weeks on issues concerning depression, relationship issues, and sleeping disorders
Shows compassion and empathy and support
Written on May 23, 2022 after therapy with Melissa for 2 months on issues concerning depression, stress, anxiety, eating disorders, and self esteem
Melissa is caring and supportive. She has helped me through the most challenging time in my life.
Written on Apr 10, 2022 after therapy with Melissa for 2 months on issues concerning stress, anxiety, family conflicts, grief, and intimacy-related issues
She has been amazing & patient with me. Has always been prompt and helpful. Amazing experience.
Written on Mar 23, 2022 after therapy with Melissa for 8 months on issues concerning depression, stress, anxiety, relationship issues, and family conflicts
Melissa is a great therapist and listener and is helping me face my obstacles. She is easy to talk to; she has constructive and supportive advice to keep me motivated and consistent in making good changes in my life. I would highly recommend her to anyone looking to do some inner work.
Written on Feb 09, 2022 after therapy with Melissa for 2 weeks on issues concerning stress, anxiety, and self esteem
Melissa Kaekel has been a great help. I was new to the whole therapy experience, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I felt like I was reaching a point where I couldn’t keep working through my thoughts and feelings by myself. But Melissa has been able to make so many recommendations about various things that I could change and do, that could help me with my life. Because of my experience with Melissa’s therapy, I have been recommending BetterHelp, and therapy in general, to everyone I meet.
Written on Jan 08, 2022 after therapy with Melissa for 5 months on issues concerning depression, stress, anxiety, self esteem, career difficulties, and coaching
I have been talking with Melissa for 3 weeks and she has been incredible in letting me work through my own thoughts and being incredibly supportive.
Written on Dec 22, 2021 after therapy with Melissa for 2 weeks on issues concerning relationship issues, and grief
I like working with Melissa. She is accommodating and light hearted. She respects my feelings and does not invalidate them. I like sharing with her. Thank you, Melissa for your time, effort and listening.
Written on Nov 11, 2021 after therapy with Melissa for 2 weeks on issues concerning stress, anxiety, self esteem, relationship issues, and coping with life changes
Melissa is awesome! She’s smart, patient and caring. I’m blessed to have had her on my side during a very difficult time. Thank you so much!
Written on Nov 09, 2021 after therapy with Melissa for 2 months on issues concerning depression, stress, anxiety, self esteem, career difficulties, and coaching
Melissa made me feel very safe and understood during our sessions. She provides a crucial objection view that I often don’t see and it’s helped me immensely. She’s also very kind and warm so I felt comfortable sharing my emotions with her.
Written on Oct 23, 2021 after therapy with Melissa for 3 weeks on issues concerning relationship issues, family conflicts, self esteem, career difficulties, coping with life changes, and compassion fatigue
Melissa is so easy to chat with an open up to. She is such a great listener and really remembers the details. She gives very thoughtful answers and is helping me to navigate some challenges I am facing currently. I am so happy I signed up and that I was matched with her!
Written on Oct 12, 2021 after therapy with Melissa for 2 weeks on issues concerning stress, anxiety, relationship issues, family conflicts, and sleeping disorders
Melissa was so lovely! I was going through a very stressful transition in my life and she helped me to see my situation in a completely different and more positive light.
She gave me the tools to cope with my changing situation and was an excellent listener. I will definitely go back to her if I find myself in a difficult situation again; highly recommend :)
Written on Sep 05, 2021 after therapy with Melissa for 3 weeks on issues concerning stress, anxiety, relationship issues, and coping with life changes
Melissa is very friendly and easy to talk to, she provides a variety of techniques that work well in the real world to help deal with issues and have more control in stressful situations. She was always quick to respond even while on vacation which I greatly appreciated!
Written on Sep 05, 2021 after therapy with Melissa for 4 weeks on issues concerning stress, anxiety, self esteem, anger management, and coping with life changes
Amazing and really friendly
Written on Sep 03, 2021 after therapy with Melissa for 3 days on issues concerning depression, stress, anxiety, relationship issues, and sleeping disorders
Melissa is very empathetic and intelligent. She really listens to your concerns and actively helps you find solutions. It feels like she is on your side the entire way through and she makes it easy to open up.
Written on Jul 06, 2021 after therapy with Melissa for 2 weeks on issues concerning stress, anxiety
We use our own and third-party technology, including cookies and web beacons, to connect you with therapy services, personalize your experience, improve our services, monitor and analyze usage, deliver a faster and safer experience, comply with laws, and for advertising purposes. To learn more, please visit our Privacy Policy. To learn more about the third party advertising partners we share data with when you opt in and why please see our Third Parties List.
To opt in to these uses, please 'Allow All' or update your settings for each category here and click 'Confirm my choices'.
You may choose to opt out at any time by choosing 'Do Not Sell My Information' at betterhelp.com, updating your settings here, and clicking 'Confirm my choices'.
Manage consent preferences
Necessary OperationsAlways Active
We process data we consider necessary for the website to function and operate, regulate and monitor user experience, assess attribution internally, control data ingress, comply with laws and your indicated preferences, and provide security. You cannot opt out of this processing. We share this data with trusted service providers but not with third party advertisers or analytics companies.
Analytics
We also may share your data for analytics reasons with service providers. This allows us to work with service providers to process data related to traffic sources, visits, and site interactions to provide analytics. If you opt in to Analytics, we may share certain data with service providers. This information includes but is not limited to analyzing traffic sources, visits, and site interactions. If you opt out of Analytics, we may have less information to be able to make improvements to our products and services.
Advertising
We also may process your data for personal advertising and measurement of advertising effectiveness. These external companies may use this data to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant advertisements on other sites. If you opt in to Advertising cookies and web beacons, your IP address, Third Party identifier (if applicable), and some Visitor Data, excluding activity when you're logged in and have started therapy, may be shared for advertising purposes. If you opt out of Targeting, you may experience less personalized and useful advertising. You may find the specific third parties, why we share this information, and what each third party may do with this information in our Third Parties List.
Third Party Advertisers
The following describes the categories of information that are shared with Third Parties and the result, purpose, and benefit of doing so if you opt in to Advertising.
Our Purpose for Sharing this Information: Sharing this data allows us to measure and optimize the effectiveness of our ads. This enables us to reach more people who may be looking for mental health support while minimizing our advertising costs, which helps us reduce downstream costs to our members.
According to the "How do we use your information?" section of Meta's Privacy Policy, Meta may use information to provide a personalized experience to you, including ads, and other purposes, which include: promoting safety, security, and integrity; provide measurement, analytics, and business services; communicate with you; and research and innovate for social good. For some purposes, Meta uses information across its products and across your devices.
According to the "How do we share information with Partners, vendors, service providers and Third Parties?"
According to the "How We Use Your Information" section of TikTok's Privacy Policy, TikTok uses this information to: support its products and services; customize the content you see when you use TikTok; send promotional material from TikTok or on behalf of TikTok's affiliates; to improve and develop TikTok; measure advertising effectiveness; provide a customized ad experience; support social functions of TikTok; and to facilitate analytics, research, communications, marketing, inferences, security, identity, sales, purchases, and as otherwise consented to.
According to the "How We Share Your Information" section of TikTok's Privacy Policy, TikTok may share personal data with service providers and business partners to help them perform business operations.
Additionally, TikTok's Privacy Policy states that TikTok may share information with a parent, subsidiary, or other affiliates of their corporate group, data in connection with a substantial corporate transaction, for legal reasons, and may share your information for additional purposes with your consent.
Would you like to write a review for Melissa Kaekel?
Your review of Melissa Kaekel would be greatly appreciated.
We will share your review with Melissa Kaekel, and it may be posted on our website and Melissa Kaekel's profile. To protect your identify, your name will not be associated with the review. Posts may be edited to remove identifying information.
Please provide a review for Melissa Kaekel
Thank you for submitting a review
Your feedback is very important, and we'll carefully review it to continue improving the therapy experience for everyone who uses BetterHelp.