About me
Hi, I'm Melissa
Do you ever find yourself wondering why you keep ending up in the same relationships, struggling with self-doubt, feeling overwhelmed, or carrying a sadness you can't quite explain?
Many of the people I work with come to counselling feeling stuck, exhausted, anxious, burnt out, or disconnected from themselves. Often, together we discover that current struggles are linked to earlier experiences, whether that's father absence, emotional neglect, difficult family relationships, grief, or feeling different from those around you.
I have a particular interest in working with women affected by father absence, abandonment wounds, low self-worth, relationship difficulties, ADHD, and late-identified neurodivergence.
ADHD is often talked about positively on social media, with entrepreneurs, business owners, and high achievers describing it as their superpower. Whilst that may be true for some people, many others experience ADHD very differently. For some, it can feel exhausting, overwhelming, frustrating, and at times debilitating. If that's your experience, you're not doing ADHD wrong.
ADHD can affect relationships, self-esteem, emotional regulation, organisation, focus, work, parenting, and everyday life. It can leave you wondering why things seem harder for you than they do for everyone else.
If your needs weren't consistently met as a child, it's possible your neurodivergent needs weren't either. Perhaps you were labelled as dramatic, sensitive, lazy, difficult, too emotional, too loud, too much, or told you simply needed to try harder. Over time, those messages can become part of how you see yourself, even when they were never an accurate reflection of who you are.
Many of the women I work with have spent years adapting to other people's expectations, becoming people-pleasers, perfectionists, or constantly striving to prove their worth, whilst feeling misunderstood underneath it all.
As someone who is estranged from my own father, a mum, and neurodivergent myself, I understand that life isn't always straightforward. Whilst your experience is unique to you, I know how important it can be to feel genuinely understood.
Alongside private practice, I spent five years working within bereavement services at Southampton General Hospital, supporting individuals and families through loss. This included sudden deaths, suicide, road traffic collisions, and other forms of grief that can feel difficult to talk about or misunderstood by society. I also developed an understanding of the unique challenges faced by those experiencing losses that may feel marginalised, complicated, or overlooked. I believe there should be space for every type of grief and every story.
My approach is warm, relational, and collaborative. I don't believe in fixing people because I don't believe you're broken. Instead, I offer a space where we can explore your experiences together, understand the patterns that have shaped you, and help you build a stronger relationship with yourself.
Whether you're struggling with anxiety, burnout, grief, ADHD, relationships, low self-worth, or simply feeling lost, counselling can help you gain clarity, self-understanding, and a greater sense of control over your life.
If this resonates with you, I'd love to hear from you.
Feel free to take a look around my social media, I'm most present on Facebook and Instagram details of which you will find under the section 'Social' on my profile.
Email: info@melissanoyce.com
Training, qualifications & experience
Experience:
- 1 year within a drug and alcohol service, counselling men & women with alcohol addictions.
- 2 years within a young peoples service, counselling those aged 11-26 with a wide variety of problems. The most common issue was around parents divorcing.
- 5 years in a large acute NHS trust, supporting families at the time of a bereavement.
- 7 years in private practice, counselling men & women, with abandonment related issues. More specifically to those who have absent fathers.
Training:
- ADHD & Women with Dr Anneka Tomlinson (Seed Talks)
- Practical Tools when working with Neurodivergent Clients
- Disenfranchised Grief: The Grief That Does Not Speak with Sally Pendreigh
- 8 Things Every Therapist needs to know about Family Estrangement Workshop with Karl Melvin
- What is an Absent Father in the Current Era: Emotionally, Physically and Culturally? Workshop with Susan Schwartz
Qualifications:
- DipHe in Humanistic Counselling (Gestalt)
Member organisations
school Registered / Accredited
Being registered/accredited with a professional body means an individual must have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by their member organisation.
BACP is one of the UK’s leading professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy with around 60,000 members. The Association has several different categories of membership, including Student Member, Individual Member, Registered Member MBACP, Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Accred) and Senior Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Snr Acccred). Registered and accredited members are listed on the BACP Register, which shows that they have demonstrated BACP’s recommended standards for training, proficiency and ethical practice. The BACP Register was the first register of psychological therapists to be accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). Accredited and senior accredited membership are voluntary categories for members who choose to undertake a rigorous application and assessment process to demonstrate additional standards around practice, training and supervision. Individual members will have completed an appropriate counselling or psychotherapy course and started to practise, but they won’t appear on the BACP Register until they've demonstrated that they meet the standards for registration. Student members are still in the process of completing their training. All members are bound by the BACP Ethical Framework and a Professional Conduct Procedure.
Accredited register membership
The Accredited Register Scheme was set up in 2013 by the Department of Health (DoH) as a way to recognise organisations that hold voluntary registers which meet certain standards. These standards are set by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
This therapist has indicated that they belong to an Accredited Register.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Other areas of counselling I deal with
- Abandonment
- Absent fathers
- Absent mothers
- Divorced parents
Therapies offered
Fees
Concessions offered for
Health Insurance/EAP
Additional information
Working Hours:
Monday: 09:00 - 18:00
Tuesday: 09:15 - 15:00
Wednesday: 09:30 - 12:30
When I work
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