Starting therapy often begins with a massive sigh, an exhaustion of looking for help, for relief, for change. I welcome your curiosities and hope that you will begin to find answers to your unsettled questions on the pages of my website.
Below are answers to the most common questions I am asked about working with Upward Roots, including services, fees, trauma-informed care, couples therapy, and EMDR intensives.
For any additional questions or longings for a deeper understanding of how I work or how to choose what therapy may most benefit your needs at this time, please reach out so I can support your next step of growth.
Getting Started
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Upward Roots is a trauma-informed, relational therapy practice based in Carlsbad, California, serving adults and couples in North County San Diego. I’m here to help you heal attachment wounds, navigate challenging relational patterns, and feel more connected to yourself and others. My approach blends evidence-based techniques with heart-led care, creating a safe and supportive space to process, release, and rebuild connections.
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Upward Roots offers trauma-informed therapy, EMDR, attachment-based individual and couples therapy, and EMDR intensives.
- Individual Trauma Therapy (C-PTSD & PTSD)
Sessions are oriented toward helping the nervous system process and release stored trauma that continues to show up as anxiety, chronic stress, emotional reactivity, or shutdown. EMDR is integrated with parts work and somatic psychotherapy to address developmental, relational, and situational trauma, as well as body-based trauma responses. - Individual Attachment Therapy
Early and ongoing relationships shape how we protect ourselves, connect with others, and navigate closeness. This work begins by identifying your unique attachment style and reflecting on relational patterns such as people-pleasing or hyperindependence. Mind-body approaches, including imagery, inner child healing, parts work, boundary setting, and nervous system regulation, support greater security and flexibility in adult relationships. - Couples Therapy
Relational distress often emerges from repeated patterns rather than isolated conflicts. Using evidence-based, attachment-focused frameworks such as PACT, the Gottman Method, Attachment Core Pattern Therapy and EMDR for couples, therapy focuses on slowing these cycles, strengthening communication, understanding each partner’s internal worlds, and repairing relational injuries while remaining mindful of the impact of past trauma. - EMDR Intensives
For some individuals, extended in-person sessions allow for deeper focus and momentum than traditional weekly therapy. EMDR Intensives range from half-day to multi-day sessions in Carlsbad, California, and are designed for accelerated, immersive trauma processing, integration, and nervous system regulation. - Support for Therapists and Clinicians
Holding space for others can make it easy to neglect your own internal landscape. Individual and group settings offer room to explore personal patterns, countertransference, and burnout within a supportive, trauma-informed, relational context.
- Individual Trauma Therapy (C-PTSD & PTSD)
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- By scheduling a free 20-minute phone consultation. I want to make sure both of us feel confident in our ability to meet your therapy goals together before we start unpacking your history in sessions. We can decide together if weekly sessions, twice a week sessions, or an intensive is the right therapy container for you at this time.
- We will choose the day and time that works best for your emotional availability for this deeper therapeutic work. Consistency is a key ingredient in felt-safety and trust. We will build safety within predictability, knowing that each week we will meet and attune to your inner world together, on the same day, at the same time, whenever possible.
- In our first sessions, we’ll explore together the influences on who you are today–the significant people and places that leave you feeling your most confident, secure, and calm self. We will begin with resourcing through imagery, resource tapping, and somatic movement to encourage felt-safety in your attachment and nervous systems.
- Together, we will set your goals and direction for your healing. We will discuss which formal diagnosis makes the most sense if you are seeking reimbursement on a PPO insurance plan.
- Healing takes time and trust. We’ll unpack the stories and, with time, find the freedom to move your body and find the flexibility to think more kindly of yourself–past, present and future.
About Melanie
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The Journey Behind My Work as a Therapist
- Began assisting in DARe trainings, 2025
- EMDR Intensives, Scaling Up, 2025
- The Dance of Attachment: An Introduction to Relational EMDR Therapy℠, 2025
- Somatic Experiencing, Beginning I, 2025
- Advanced EMDR for Acute Trauma and Ongoing Traumatic Stress (ASSYST, EMDR-PRECI, and the EMDR-IGTP), Scaling Up, 2024
- Dynamic Attachment Repatterning experience (DARe), 2019-2022; Certified, 2024
- Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Certified, EMDRIA, 2024
- Integrating Parts Work and Attachment Repair (IPAR) EMDR, 2023
- Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy (PACT), Level 2, 2023
- EMDR Group Protocol Series (GTEP, C-GTEP, GPEP & The Parenting Wheel), Agate Institute, 2023
- Somatic Attachment Therapy Certificate, The Embody Lab, 2022
- Started Upward Roots in October 2021
- Licensed (LMFT #128217) in September 2021
- Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy Certificate, The Embody Lab, 2021
- Counseled children, teens, individual adults, and couples at two separate group private practices, 2018-2021
- Developmental Needs Meeting Strategy (DNMS), Trained, 2020
- EMDR Child Specialist, Level 1, Agate Institute, 2019
- Gottman Method Couples Therapy, Level 3, 2017-2019
- Counseled youth in the Juvenile Detention Center, 2016-2018
- Counseled children, couples, and adult individuals at a community center, 2016-2018
- Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): Basic Training, EMDR Support Network, 2017
- Trust-Based Relational Intervention, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Modality Course, 2015
- Began counseling college students, and, women at a rehab in 2015
- ABA Therapist, 2013-2015
- Interned at a foster agency, 2012
- Caretaker and Event Coordinator Assistant at a retirement and assisted living, 2009-2010, 2012
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MA in Marriage and Family Therapy, Spring 2018
MA in Christian Apologetics, Fall 2018
BA in Psychology with a minor in Leadership, Fall 2012
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.
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PATH ONE I am a rule follower and appreciate the safety offered by guidelines and accountability for myself and clients. So, I would choose the therapist route again.
- A 3-year Somatic or Integral Counseling Psychotherapy degree at Naropa Bounder, CO, or CIIS in San Francisco, CA
- While enrolled in practicum, I'd recommend finding one organization for specialized EMDR that resonates with you. For me, it would have been Laurel Parnell's AF-EMDR. Staying in one organization will help you filter other models through the lens and provide you with a sense of community as you grow as a clinician, perhaps one day as a consultant and trainer. I would also learn Ego States or IFS integration for EMDR early on.
- After graduation, complete an attachment-somatic training that requires a 3-year somatic program as a prerequisite. There are several options, including Kathy L. Kain's Touch Skills for Therapists or her co-author Stephen Terrell, PsyD's Transforming Touch.
PATH TWO If you're in or graduated from a graduate counseling program that did not emphasize somatic psychotherapy, I would jump into Lisa Mortimore, PhD, and Stacy Addam Jensen, MEd's 2-year Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy Certification Program promptly after graduating. If you want something shorter, I've heard amazing things about Dr. Abi Blakeslee, an SEP with her own training program for therapists. If you feel you want more self-mapping nervous system skills, I'd lean into Deb Dana's Polyvagal Teachings. And if you're already licensed, consider Diana Fosha's AEDP certification program.
PATH THREE For someone who doesn't feel the need for an ethics board and all that comes with having an MA and being an licensed social worker or therapist, this would be a different route with a similar result.
- Become an Adult Chair Coach working with clients through a simplified parts model
- Complete the 3-year Somatic Experiencing program to become an SEP
- Then pursue, Kathy L. Kain's Touch Skills for Therapists or her co-author Stephen Terrell, PsyD's Transforming Touch, and Dr. Diane Poole Heller's DARe.
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My personal self-care, grounding habits include: tech-free quiet time, nature walks, listening to birds or the ocean waves crashing, self-massage, painting my nails, enjoying a cup of tea, deep breathing, co-regulating hugs, creative plant-based cooking, dancing freely, gardening, playing my hangpan drum, and practicing basic tai chi and qigong movements.
Fees & Insurance
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- Individual therapy: 50 minutes – $200 | 80 minutes – $320
- Couples therapy: 50 minutes – $200 | 80 minutes – $320 | 110 minutes – $440
- Extended or deep work sessions: 3 hours – $720 | 4 hours – $960
- EMDR intensives: Half day – $900 | Full day – $1,700
Extended sessions and intensives are prorated. Sliding fee options may be available. Upward Roots is out-of-network for insurance, but Superbills are provided for PPO reimbursement for standard sessions.
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At this time, Upward Roots is out-of-network with all insurance providers. If you plan to seek reimbursement, you can contact your insurance company to ask about your out-of-network benefits. Sharing the billing codes used in sessions will help them provide clear and accurate information about your coverage:
- 90791 - All first sessions
- 90834 - 50-minute individual sessions
- 90837 - Individual sessions, 53-60 minute sessions
- 90847 - 50-minute couples session
Trauma Therapy
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As a trauma-informed therapist, I understand how past experiences can shape your thoughts, emotions, and even behaviors. Working together in a safe, supportive space, we focus on healing at your pace, helping you feel seen, heard, and understood. My approach to trauma empowers you to reduce stress, navigate difficult emotions, and build lasting resilience and self-trust.
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Trauma work at Upward Roots addresses the mind and body connection, especially in connection to patterns and relationships. I combine gentle, somatic informed approaches including EMDR, parts work, and nervous system regulation to help you process stored trauma safely. Your body holds onto emotions, it keeps the score, and together we can plant the seeds of releasing what isn’t yours to hold onto. The goal is to reduce the impact of triggers, reclaim safety, and build resilience in your life and relationships
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It depends. Now that I've moved into offering Intensive Weekends for Trauma Recovery, I know it's possible for huge life shifts to happen in hours to a few days time. And, in the weekly 50-minute rhythm of therapy, my hope is that multiple times in each session there is a breath or stretch or thought that pops up that feels a little better than when you came in.
For single event trauma, we might work intentionally and with a narrow focus for several weeks or a few months. For a lifetime of small-t traumas, we might work for 6 months to multiple years to a point where while it feels weird for us to stop working together because I've seen so much of your life at that point, when you do leave therapy, your life is one that you could not have imagined possible when we first began. You're confident, assertive, setting boundaries, connecting deeply with friends, and you understand how to navigate your family relationships without feeling like you're a kid every time you go home. You're sleeping well, exercising, and balancing a social life, work, and solo time as well. Whatever your dream is for after therapy, a version of it is possible, and we will find it together as we listen and attune to what arises in our work.
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That is 100% okay. I have heard this said many ways in different trainings. Some experts say we don't need to know anything about what we're working on, just that there is change happening. I ask for a snippet, and whatever that means for you that feels safe and perhaps even good to share, to have someone listen with care and interest, I'm all heart ears open. And whatever stays quiet inside, that's okay too.
As someone who freezes and loses my voice on occasion, I might check in if you're trying to share and if there's another part that is scared of what might happen if you say the thing, like if that would make it seem real again in the present. My checking in doesn't mean you have to share, I just want to get to know what/who is deciding what and what not to share.
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Yes, mostly. When you have a diagnosed physical ailment with a structural explanation for the pain, we cannot make a broken bone or a clogged artery heal themselves through therapy, and we cannot cure an Autoimmune Disease. However, we can work to reduce the physical pain that is caused by the anxiety and frustration towards the primary pain.
And, if there is no known reason for your physiological pain, then perhaps it is stuck fight-flight-freeze energy, in which there may be a major reduction in symptoms such as less bloating, milder to no headaches, reduced insomnia, return of appetite, weight loss if the gain was a protective strategy.
We'll be open and curious, and when something becomes clear, we'll gently work with whatever shows up as it is willing and able.
Couples Therapy
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Couples therapy focuses on patterns, attachment wounds, and communication difficulties. Using research based and relational frameworks, I help partners reconnect, repair relational injuries, and build sustainable intimacy. This journey of growth and healing is tailored to each relationship and is not appropriate in cases of active domestic violence or substance abuse.
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I start every therapy relationship with a free 20-minute phone consult call. During that time, the three of us can explore any limits that may require a referral to a specialist. Some of the things outside of my therapy scope are addictions and active domestic violence. In these instances, I encourage you to continue your search for couples therapists with the specific expertise to meet your current needs. I have provided a list of recommended referrals for clients who would be better served with another therapist.
EMDR Intensives
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EMDR intensives are focused therapy sessions ranging from a half day to multiple days. They are designed for individuals seeking deep, accelerated healing. These intensives are ideal for individuals with single-incident trauma, persistent symptoms despite regular therapy, or those seeking an accelerated and concentrated format. They typically include a thorough assessment, resourcing, multiple hours of EMDR reprocessing, regulation tools, and individualized integration support, making them a convenient and effective option for people looking for accelerated healing.
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Taking a few steps to prepare for your EMDR Intensive can help you feel safe, grounded, and fully supported.
- Limit technology use to help you stay present, grounded, and connected to your inner world.
- Avoid interactions with stressful or triggering people so you can maintain a sense of emotional safety throughout your intensive.
- Nourish your body with balanced meals, plenty of water, and minimal caffeine or processed sugar to support your nervous system.
- Bring items that provide comfort, such as soft, comfortable clothing, a favorite blanket or cushion, or meaningful personal items like photos.
- Pack reflective or creative tools, such as a journal, sketchbook, or art materials, to help you process insights between sessions.
- Bring photos of yourself at the different developmental stages (infant, toddler, elementary school, puberty, adolescents, early adulthood, and representative of the milestones in your life during adulthood).
Incorporate gentle movement or time in nature, such as a morning walk or an evening visit to the nearby beach, to support grounding and restoration.
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Carlsbad’s coastal setting provides a calm and restorative environment for your EMDR Intensive. For suggestions on accommodations, dining, local beaches, nature walks, and nearby hikes, visit our Local Guide to help make your time in Carlsbad as restorative and grounding as possible.
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- Half day: $900
Full day: $1,700 - A 50% deposit will be required at the time of scheduling. The remaining 50% of each day's balance will be charged at the end of each session.
- Sessions can be paid for with a HSA/FSA account, Credit Card, Zelle, Check (deposited immediately upon receiving), or Cash
- Half day: $900
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EMDR intensives require dedicated time and preparation, often outside of typical business hours. Because of this, for cancellations made 30 days or more in advance, a $1,000 scheduling fee will be retained and the remaining deposit returned. Deposits become nonrefundable within 30 days of the intensive. Rescheduling more than 30 days out has no fee, while rescheduling within 30 days incurs a $250 fee per intensive day.
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We’ll begin by clarifying your goals and creating a grounded, supportive space for the work. Your intensive may include a combination of resource building, parts work, EMDR bilateral stimulation, and somatic practices to ensure you feel safe, prepared, and supported throughout the process.
Before your session, it’s helpful to be well rested, stay hydrated, and bring anything that helps you feel safe and comfortable: such as a journal, water, or other grounding items. If you have already done parts mapping exercises, we can get started by reflecting on your drawings or viewing photos that inspire your awareness of the needs we aspire to meet, appropriately for your life as an adult in today’s world. Come as ready as you can to welcome all of the parts of self to share their stories, their concerns, their dreams, and their needs from us during our intensive.