Flavia Melo

Flavia Melo is a counsellor registered with the BACP and has seven years' experience supporting people with stress, anxiety, depression and life changes. She works with relationship and intimacy concerns, body image and eating issues, parenting strains and career uncertainty. Sessions are offered in English and Portuguese and Flavia accepts international clients.

Flavia approaches problems by looking at how the body and mind interact. She uses somatic work alongside talking therapies to notice physical patterns linked to emotion. This can mean paying attention to breath, posture and sensation as part of understanding difficult memories and automatic responses.

She also draws on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and mindfulness techniques to help people spot unhelpful thinking and build new ways of coping. Internal Family Systems ideas may be used to help a person recognise different parts of themselves and how they relate. Practical tools from these approaches are brought into sessions so people can practise them between meetings.

In the first appointment Flavia explores current difficulties, past experiences that matter, and what the person hopes to change. From there she and the client agree on ways of working that fit the person’s goals and day-to-day life. Sessions may include guided body awareness, short mindfulness exercises and conversational reflection.

Her practice also considers themes such as life purpose, postpartum and pregnancy-related concerns, panic, seasonal mood shifts and self-harm thoughts. Flavia aims to help people find clearer ways to manage symptoms and to make decisions about next steps in work and life.

How her approaches translate to online sessions

Flavia uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to help people identify unhelpful thoughts and test new responses. CBT sessions often focus on practical strategies and short exercises that can be practised between meetings to reduce anxiety and improve mood.

She also draws on Somatic Therapy, which pays attention to bodily sensations, breath and movement. Online work with somatic material can include guided grounding, breath exercises and mindful attention to sensation to help people notice and shift body-based patterns linked to stress or trauma.

Finding the right approach is part of the process. Flavia will work collaboratively to select methods that match the client’s goals, preferences and day-to-day life. That might mean combining short CBT tasks with somatic practice and mindful exercises over several sessions.

The practical benefits of remote sessions include fitting meetings around work or family schedules and reducing travel time. Confirm which session formats are currently offered before booking, as the profile does not list them. Many people find online therapy makes it easier to keep regular appointments and to practise techniques in the environments where they actually live and work.