Melissa X. Golebiowski is an Associate Clinical Social Worker who brings a trauma-informed, person-centered approach to her work as a Primary Therapist. Social work is Melissa’s second career, following more than a decade in communications, marketing, nonprofit operations, and leadership. This experience informs her understanding of identity, career and life transitions, relationships, creativity, and the many ways people search for meaning and purpose throughout adulthood.
Melissa has experience working with young adults and transition-age youth navigating complex trauma, housing instability, substance use, family disruption, and co-occurring mental health concerns. Her background includes work with My Friend’s Place, supporting young people experiencing homelessness, and the CARE Unit at the Children’s Law Center of California, where her forensic social work experience included court advocacy and supporting youth involved in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.
Drawing from CBT, DBT, strengths-based, and trauma-informed approaches, Melissa helps clients explore how past experiences, relationships, and losses shape their present lives. She recognizes that grief extends beyond the death of a loved one and can emerge through losses of relationships, identity, family, stability, opportunities, and expected life paths. Her work emphasizes greater self-understanding, practical coping skills, connection, and helping clients build a meaningful sense of purpose.