Hi! I’m Melissa. I am glad you’re here.

I am a former therapist turned writer and coach. Let me explain…

I started out as a therapist, earning my Master’s of Science in Social Work from the Columbia University School of Social Work. I worked for 10 years as a child and family therapist at The Puerto Rican Family Institute, The New York State Psychiatric Institute, Bonnie Brae, and The Wheeler Clinic. I completed two years of training in Structural Family Therapy through the Minuchin Center. At the Wheeler Clinic, I transitioned to a Research Associate position, where I learned how to interpret data from research tools and scholarly articles.

Along the way I started to realize all of the ways that growing up with a parent who cheated affected me that I had never really dealt with. I loved to write, so I started a memoir (still in progress!) about it. Click here for an excerpt.

While researching my memoir, I realized how few resources there are available for children of infidelity, so I started my blog. As more women (yes, with two exceptions, everyone who has contacted me has been female) reached out to me through this website, I realized that there was huge a lack of support for women growing up with cheating parents that needed to be filled.

Through dozens of interviews I have come to understand that these women feel deeply emotionally neglected by their parents, and often their family. I also learned that therapy is not what everyone needs. Exploring the history of what happened in your family is helpful, but only to a point. To move on and actually achieve the peace you deserve takes practical skills, and the support to practice them.

Emotionally neglected women need skills and encouragement to help them trust themselves, set boundaries, find a chosen family, and come to truly accept their family of origin as it is. Those are the skills that I used to establish a peaceful, low contact relationship with my family. To build a chosen family that includes my husband of 25 years. To trust myself deeply enough to always be able to find my true north.