Ms. Melinda Garrett is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) and a Licensed Clinical Alcohol and Drug Counselor (LCADC) in the state of Kentucky with over 15 years of experience working with children (as young as 10), adolescents, and adults in various mental health and addiction settings. Melinda started her training working at Eastern State Hospital with patients who had severe mental illness. She describes that period of time as being very challenging but also very rewarding -describing that it taught her humility and to be appreciative of the smallest things because, “our lives are fragile and can change at any moment.”

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Since then, she has continued to advance both her education and professional development. While Melinda has brought her own expertise in counseling and providing therapy to clients for many years, she describes one highlight of her career as becoming the administrative “team leader” for a community mental health center. She describes, “my favorite part was taking a group of mental health professionals, who had very little in the way of resources, and making a strong family of resourceful staff who could provide a valuable resource for the community we served.”

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Melinda eventually left the administrative side of mental health so that she could focus on what she enjoys the most - working with individual clients. She is trained in advanced/enhanced Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Sensation/Somatic focused awareness techniques, Cognitive behavioral Therapy (CBT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), Solution-Focused, and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) based interventions. She describes her approach to counseling as a collaborative process of meeting people where they are, and then using each individual’s unique strengths to help them achieve their goals. She describes that she enjoys working with people who suffer from traumatic experiences the most, “seeing someone get their life back means so much to me.”

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In Melinda’s free time, she can often be found reading books to stay updated about her work, she states, “I’m such a nerd – I really enjoy learning more about mental health and psychology.” Otherwise, she describes that she enjoys a good sense of humor, and often spends the weekends with her family and friends laughing, going to music festivals or hiking; and is especially proud of her daughter who is participating in pre-veterinary classes at EKU to become a veterinarian.

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If you would like to schedule an appointment with Melinda, please see our contact page and call us today.