Meet Melissa Fleming

Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Fleming.

Hi Melissa, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I began as a middle school teacher in 2000 and met my husband at Bailey Middle School. I learned quickly that classroom management was not my strength. I loved working with the teens and helping them work through the challenges they experienced. I decided to get my master’s degree in Educational Psychology and become a school counselor. I was a school counselor for 12 years before deciding to go into private practice. I loved my job as a school counselor, but I wanted an opportunity to help kids more consistently and be able to monitor their progress. Sandtray therapy trainings really changed how I did therapy with children and adolescents and inspired me to start my own private practice and become a licensed professional counselor and registered play therapist. When I decided to leave the school system and go on my own, I took a half-time counselor position in AISD that provided insurance and gave me a safety net while growing my practice. I also worked on Fridays at my last school Walnut Springs Elementary to check in with the kids that I had built a relationship with throughout my 10-year counseling career in Dripping Springs ISD.

By October of 2016, I was growing my practice to working as a full-time therapist and working the other two jobs helping kids. I would wake up and tell myself, “I am a machine” and work long hours at The Burke Center in my cute little office, racing from the schools seeing kids and doing groups, then back to my office at the center. I call it the year I grew my cancer and also learned what self-care is really all about. In May of 2017, I resigned from the school and was ready to just be a therapist in private practice. Unfortunately, I found a lump in my right breast and after a biopsy, was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer and it was 83% fast-growing. I was 39 and if I didn’t find the lump, I would have a different story to tell by my 40th birthday. So I put on my Wonder Woman Panties and began chemotherapy while still seeing my clients at the Burke Center. I didn’t skip a session. That December, I had reconstructive surgery and ended up have a wound that wouldn’t close for five months. In May of 2018, I went to have the wound finally closed.

Two weeks later, I had a follow-up with my reconstruction doctor, Dr. Potter and was told to go live my life. My husband and three-year-old got in the car and onto mopac. Within 5 minutes, a semi-truck slammed into our windshield. We were all okay, except I was injured on my left side of my body and due to lymphedema from the accident, I have physical therapy every week for the rest of my life. Ironically, my husband had a MRI on his back from that semi accident, which showed he had renal cancer. He had surgery and is in good health. Everything bad happens the first week of June, it seemed for about three years in a row. Until March of 2020, when a drunk driver drove into our garage at 3 am and totaled our car parked on the street in front of our house. No more June bad news anymore. Well, then Covid and now our house got struck by lightening this July 2021. I have learned how important it is to balance clients and family/friend time. I am a mom of two beautiful girls. I feel they have taught me how to be a better person and therapist. I understand what’s it like to be a parent to a special, energetic, unique child diagnosed with Autism. I love to work with kids on the spectrum, ADHD, anxiety, divorce, life transitions and build their self-confidence. I am honored to share in their journey of life and witness their worlds they build in the sand. Play therapy is therapy using toys, games, sand, and just like adults in talk therapy, the toys are the child’s words.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The challenge of being an LPC is keeping the boundary of work time and family/me time. Since my cancer journey, I feel that woke me up to make sure I balance those in a healthy way. Taking care of yourself is so important because you can’t take care of others if you don’t take good care of yourself. I know this and have worked hard to make sure I’m modeling self-care for my clients and their parents. 

Being a mom of two kids, a wife, a professional, a dog mom of two, a friend, a learner, and so many more titles, it is easy to just lose yourself and get into a routine that is giving but taking away from your own needs. Balance is key. Boundaries are key. Self-love is key. I have been so blessed throughout my life and I try to pay it forward as much as I can. I am the luckiest, unluckiest, LUCKIEST person. I’m thankful to my family and friends who have supported me through my highs and lows that life brings. I get to choose the lens I see out of and I choose to see the good and focus on that. I have to let go of the things out of my control and work on how I think about situations and see the good instead of noticing the bad. I’m blessed. I’m thankful. My lucky heart is full.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Registered Play Therapist (RPT), Clinical Certification in Sandtray Therapy-Trainer (CCST-T) I am a board member of the Texas Sandtray Association.

I build relationships with children and adolescents in order to help them reach therapeutic goals such as regulating emotions, reducing anxiety and help them challenge unhelpful thoughts. Through Sandtray worlds, I give them a place to show me without words what is going on in their life. I help them to make positive movements in their worlds. I am blessed to be a part of these children’s lives. I enjoy working with their parents as well.

How do you define success?
Success is when I see a client walk into my office and communicate their needs and know where to find their support to get their needs met. Success is any little movement in a positive direction. Looking for the little things that are good. Putting on the lens that look for the good and not the bad. Success is knowing we always have control over our thoughts and have the power to change them.

Contact Info:

• Email: melissafleminglpc@gmail.com
• Website: https://www.melissafleminglpc.com/