Holistic OT Practitioner Directory

Biographical Info

Melinda is an occupational therapist, yoga teacher, and health coach with a passion to facilitate transformation and healing using a variety of integrative and holistic treatment options. She has spent the majority of her career focusing on learning different treatment modalities to get to the root issue that is causing difficulties in patients’ lives, rather than addressing the symptoms. With a strong focus on sensory integration and healing modalities, it is Melinda’s goal to help patients to overcome barriers that have been present since birth or triggered by an event at any point in the patient’s lifespan. A big focus in her treatment involves making dietary and lifestyle changes necessary for the body to heal, as well as facilitating the nervous system to relax to a point necessary for the body to heal. Melinda specializes in treating children with sensory processing dysfunction. She thrives on treating more challenging cases and figuring out “pieces of the puzzle” that will allow for greater success with treatment.  ​

Melinda spent her childhood and early adulthood dealing with sensory defensiveness and poor immune functioning. This put and kept her body in a state of high stress (functioning primarily in the sympathetic nervous system) or “fight or flight” which lead to significant issues in her teenage and young adult years. Eventually this turned into anxiety and depression, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, hypothyroidism (Hashimoto’s thyroiditis- an autoimmune condition), and digestive issues. During OT school, Melinda realized that her sensory defensiveness was a root cause of her issues and began to treat it herself using sensory integration techniques with significant improvement of symptoms. While this significantly helped, it didn’t undo the damage her body had experienced through years of being on high alert, which eventually led to her autoimmune condition. She then started to explore holistic modalities of healing including Craniosacral therapy, yoga, nutrition, lifestyle changes, and other methods which have led to significant healing and resolution of most symptoms. Her personal experience with these issues gives meaning to her work and she strives to help others dealing with similar issues. She knows that it can be very scary to do it alone or to find someone who understands, but she can understand on a personal level and she wants to help you through it.