In-Person in Carlsbad, CA 92008
Online in California
You’ve spent years being the strong one—the helper, the steady presence, the one who keeps it together while carrying so much inside.
Lately, maybe your body feels tense, your heart heavy, and your relationships harder than they should be. You may long for rest, connection, or simply someone who truly understands.
Therapy with me isn’t about “fixing” you. It’s about creating space to listen to the parts of you that have been silenced, to heal old wounds, and to finally feel safe being your fully authentic self.
If you’re ready to stop overextending, quiet the inner critic, and begin living with more ease and authenticity—I would be honored to walk alongside you.
🌿 Let’s start from the roots, and grow upward—together.
At our core, we are all motivated by a desire to connect—both with others and with ourselves in ways that feel honoring. But often, in our upbringing, we learned “rules” for connection that no longer serve us in our friendships, families, or intimate relationships. My work is about helping you recognize those patterns and move toward earned-secure attachment, so your connections can feel mutual, safe, and deeply nourishing.
If this resonates, I invite you to schedule a brief, complimentary 15-minute phone consultation. It’s a chance to see if my presence and approach might be the right support for your journey. You can schedule directly here: melanie-goetz.clientsecure.me
Client Focus
Session Format: Couple, Individual sessions.
Age Specialty: Adult, Young Adult
Languages: English
Treatment Approach
- Existential / Humanistic Therapy Encourages people to explore meaning, freedom, and authenticity in their lives. It focuses on personal growth and living in alignment with one’s values.
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) A structured therapy that uses guided eye movements to help process traumatic memories. It is widely recognized for treating PTSD and trauma-related conditions.
- Gottman Method Couples Therapy Based on decades of research, this method gives couples tools to improve communication, manage conflict, and strengthen intimacy.
- Integrative Therapy Combines techniques from multiple approaches into a customized plan. It adapts to each client’s unique situation and needs.
- Internal Family Systems (IFS) Helps clients heal by working with different ‘parts’ of themselves, like inner critics or wounded children. It fosters harmony within the self.
- Narrative Therapy Encourages people to view problems as separate from themselves and reframe their life story. It helps build resilience and self-identity.
- Relational Psychotherapy Emphasizes the healing power of the therapist-client relationship. It uses trust and safety as a foundation for change.
- Somatic Therapy Helps clients notice how emotions are stored in the body. It uses breath, movement, and awareness for healing trauma and stress.
Approach Description: I use an attachment-oriented, trauma-informed, integrative approach with all my clients. Basically what that means is that we'll gently explore your strengths and the natural resources you already have working for you in your day-to-day life and key relationships. I'll then introduce new tangible and intangible resources, such as guiding you through the imagery of having your most influential people close by, or being in a peaceful location. From there, we'll explore deeper roots to bring healing towards the relational wounds that continue to plague your interactions with self and others currently. Finally, we'll consider future experiences that would likely call for old habits to return, ensuring that you will have access to these new resources practiced in therapy for when those experiences do occur. We'll go through this process in your timing, together with curiosity and tenderness.
To be clear, we are able to still have beautifully effective somatic and EMDR sessions over Zoom. The main difference is that you're choosing your environment for sessions, so we get to use different sensory tools that work for you from your own space, rather than the options I have in an office. Certification in both EMDR and DARe incorporated adjustments to best support Clients in their environment, whether meeting in person or Zoom. I continue to consult and train in additional methods for adapting EMDR and somatic attachment work to meet Client's present needs and circumstances. I am also in a three-year Somatic Experiencing certification program now to continue advancing my ability to work with chronic pain and chronic illness that results from decades of stored fight-flight-freeze energy.
Education & Credentials
Melanie Goetz LMFT
- Female
- License # LMFT #128217
- Licensed in CA
- Practicing Since 2016
Education: MA in Marriage and Family Therapy, MA in Christian Apologetics, BA in Psychology with a minor in Leadership. I studied in Denver, Western Europe, and New Orleans, and, have traveled extensively all with the intention of learning about family dynamics from diverse people across the country and world.
Finances
Fees
- Average Session Fee $195
- Affordable sliding scale therapy: apply if you may be eligible.
- My sliding fee policy asks you to identify the highest fee on the scale that you can pay without the financial burden leading to increased stress or potentially ending therapy before meeting your therapeutic goals. The fee adjusts as your financial situation improves.
- Out of Network
- Automatically, all of my clients receive a Superbill on the first of every month to submit for reimbursement if you have a PPO plan.
Melanie Goetz Practice Details
Therapy Sessions
- Available In-Person in Carlsbad, CA 92008
- Available Online for residents of California
- Online Therapy Details: Sessions are offered on Zoom to all California residents living in California during the time of session
I work with California residents seeking to work through relational injuries from past generations' traumatic experiences, to your own traumatic experiences, to difficult relationships from childhood through the present. Sessions are catered to your current needs and longings. We are able to schedule weekly 50-minute sessions, 90-minute sessions, or multi-hour intensive sessions. Additionally, the feel of sessions is customized. In some sessions, I'll be an engaged, empathic listener, while in others, I may be a guide for meditation and imagery. The range for how we use our time to honor your needs truly is countless.
Each session and our work in general, will be organized in a way that is most catering to your felt-sense of safety within both our connection and your environment for living. I want to help you find your sense of empowerment to identify, seek, and truly flourish in relationships and in the structure of your life. We'll share leadership in setting our goals and in identifying the direction of our work in each session. I like to say, "I'll always have a Plan B for our sessions, but if you have a different Plan A, then we'll honor your more urgent need." My Plan B is to prepare you for and support you in the discovery and healing of painful roots of unhelpful patterns of relating to others in your present relationships. That's my heart: to live a life of connecting in mutually honoring relationships with the freedom to be our most genuine selves. It's my personal goal for living, and, it is the heartbeat of my therapeutic work with others. I look forward to discovering and honoring your truest expressions of yourself in our therapy meetings.
I work in-person on Tuesdays in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, and, on Fridays in Carlsbad Village. Monday, Wednesdays, and Thursday all of my sessions are on Zoom, working with clients from all around California.