Hi! I’m Melissa. I am glad you’re here.

I am a former therapist turned writer and helper. Let me explain…

I started out as a therapist, earning my Master’s of Science in Social Work from the Columbia University School of Social Work. I worked for 10 years as a child and family therapist at The Puerto Rican Family Institute, The New York State Psychiatric Institute, Bonnie Brae, and The Wheeler Clinic. I completed two years of training in Structural Family Therapy through the Minuchin Center. At the Wheeler Clinic, I transitioned to a Research Associate position, where I learned how to interpret data from research tools and scholarly articles.

Along the way I started to realize all of the ways that growing up with a parent who cheated affected me that I had never really dealt with. I loved to write, so I started a memoir (still in progress!) about it. Click here for an excerpt.

While researching my memoir, I realized how few resources there are available for children of infidelity, so I started my blog. As more people reached out to me through this website, I realized that there was huge a lack of support for women growing up with cheating parents that needed to be filled.

Through dozens of interviews I have come to understand that these people feel deeply emotionally neglected by their parents, and often their family. I also learned that therapy is not what everyone needs. Exploring the history of what happened in your family is helpful, but only to a point. To move on and actually achieve the peace you deserve takes practical skills, and the support to practice them.

People coping with a parent’s affair need skills and encouragement to help them trust themselves, set boundaries, find a chosen family, and come to truly accept their family of origin as it is. Those are the skills that I used to establish a peaceful, low contact relationship with my family. To build a chosen family that includes my husband of 25 years. To trust myself deeply enough to always be able to find my true north.