Maria Mellano, LICSW, CP/PAT

Maria Mellano, LICSW, CP, PAT, Maria is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW), a Certified Psychodramatist (CP), and a Practitioner Applicant for Trainer (PAT) in psychodrama. She has been practicing since 1999. She specializes in helping highly sensitive people make sense of the deep insights they receive to live purposeful, aligned lives they genuinely love. Her approach is warm, engaged, and direct—balancing emotional depth and process with pragmatic action and transformational choice. At the heart of her work is the belief that we are already whole and complete.

Maria is a trauma-informed and ontological practitioner trained in Internal Family Systems, Psychodramatic Bodywork, and transformational leadership coaching. She is passionate about helping others bloom into lives they love—starting exactly where they are. Maria leads a private therapy group practice based in Boston, MA, and a coaching practice that extends globally from her bi-coastal bases, including San Diego, CA.

.Her commitment to healing extends beyond the therapy room: she volunteers with the End Violence Project’s Another Way to Go program, offering transformational thinking and leadership tools to individuals impacted by incarceration, both inside and outside of prison walls. When she’s not working, you’ll often find her replenishing in nature with her beloved pug-zhu, Izzy.

A fun fact about Maria: she was born and raised on a flower farm in Southern California that’s been in her family for a century since my grandparents immigrated from Italy in 1925. The theme of blooming holds deep, personal meaning for her. Another part of my story is my time living in Japan for three and a half years—teaching English, studying social science at Sophia University, and immersing myself in a culture that has profoundly influenced my life and healing journey. That expansive experience and my graduate education at Smith College eventually brought me to the East Coast.

If you’re curious about working together therapeutically or through coaching, I’d love to connect. I have a special interest in supporting fellow therapists, though I welcome individuals from all walks of life. One of my favorite quotes captures the spirit I bring to our work:

"Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn't know before you learned it."

~ Maya Angelou

Contact Maria

FOCUS

PILLARS

Being Foundationally Trauma Informed:

My practice takes into account that T/trauma has a global impact on ones bio-psycho-social-cultural functioning. Therefore applying the Six Key Principles of a Trauma-Informed Approach is an essential aspect of my practice.

These dynamic principles are:

1. Safety,

2. Trustworthiness and Transparency,

3. Peer Support,

4. Collaboration and Mutuality,

5. Empowerment, Voice and Choice, and

6. and Honoring Cultural, Historical, and Gender Issues.

Additionally, I include the spiritual as an underpinning of all of this. As a trauma-survivor myself, I get this on personal and professional level.

Core Empowerment Approach, Here and Now:

My foundational life empowerment approach underlies all that I am and do. It emphasizes keen listening and ontological appreciation - meaning an appreciation for our innate beingness on this planet. It focuses on aligning with our core values, and what we truly care about and are committed to rather than creating a life based on complaints. I call this embracing a VIP formula for bloom a life you authentically love - a Values-based, Intention-aligned, Purpose-driven life. Dealing with life's circumstances in the present of the here and now is a key component of my mindful and heartful approach. This approach helps clients overcome limitations in their actual lives in the here and now, and choose to embrace their true potential as it emerges through the transformational healing journey. Creating this choice is critical to creating the life of your dreams.

The Relationships Realm (relationships with oneself, others, places, things and substances):

The quality of our life is determined by the quality of our relationships and connections. Our capacity for connection begins within ourselves and extends out from there. Knowing thyself is an essential element of this. And, relationships include those with others, food, money, sex, as well as, unhelpful patterns and ways of being. Understanding one’s wants and needs; first and foremost, within ourselves is essential to honor. From there we address concerns, connections, communication, and satisfaction in relationship with ourselves, others and life as a whole. Not just living a life out of default or drift, but consciously creating a life you love becomes available to you.

Integral Self - Well-Being, Cultivating the Basics of Being:

I stand in the assumption that we are already whole and complete, regardless of how life's happenings moment to moment may cause us to feel (which is an interpretation).

I embrace what I call the Basics of Being which is these 4 key principles of self care:

1. attending to and using the breath for being present and alive,

2. caring for the body through health and well-being practices,

3. balancing life's demands with what you truly care about, and

4. practicing boundaries that align with this.

Cultivating through this practice, what I call Integral Self and living life from this energy is essential to choosing a values-based, intention-aligned, and purpose driven life with core needs for connection and nourishment being met.

The Japanese Principle of, Yarigai, Worthwhile Life-Work:

Support around personal and professional growth; clarifying career goals and implementing steps toward building a fulfilling career and meaningful work-life balance with a particular focus on therapists and other healthcare practitioners.

The Japanese Principle of the Kintsugi Method, Living Whole and Complete:

Kinstugi is a traditional Japanese method for restoring broken pottery by using gold to repair the cracks and broken parts and pieces. Applying this as a metaphor to therapy and coaching, I use this method for restoring integrity to one's life as a whole. Without integrity, nothing works. This method embraces the power of connectivity, the beauty of authenticity and imperfection and empowering overall work-ability through integrity for a life well-lived - whole and complete, no matter the circumstance.

The Japanese Principle of Ou-Bai-Tou-Ri, We all have Unique Brilliance:

Ou-Bai-Tou-Ri shows us through example of 4 kinds of trees and fruits - the cherry blossom, apricot, peach and plum - that each kind will blossom and bloom uniquely - flowers and fruit, that are uniquely important and beautiful, so we do not need to compare ourselves to others. But, rather we should honor our unique gifts and contributions we are here to fulfill.

EXPERIENCE

My clinical journey began in 1997-1999 when I completed my MSW at Smith College. This followed living, studying and teaching in Japan for 3.5 years after graduating from California State University Long Beach with a Bachelor's degree in English Education and Marketing.

I hold a Massachusetts license as an LICSW (Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker #111055) and operate professionally both online and in person.

I have professionally extensively in settings that include all levels of adult care in psychiatry, addiction, eating disorder and infectious disease since receiving my MSW from Smith College in 1999. Throughout my career, I have worked across all levels of care with individuals, couples, and families dealing with trauma, medical illnesses such as cancer and HIV/AIDS, major mental illnesses, eating disorders, and addictions.

I have completed Intensive Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Training and Massachusetts Institute of Psychoanalysis’ postgraduate psychoanalytic training and Level 1 Internal Family Systems training. I am a trained facilitator through the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Chronic Disease Self Management program out of Stanford University. I am a Certified Practitioner of Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy with extensive training in Psychodrama, Drama Therapy and Psychodramatic Bodywork through Hudson Valley Psychodrama Institute, Omega Theater in Boston (currently closed) and Susan Aaron’s School for Psychodramatic Bodywork. I am past co-president for the New England Chapter of the American Society for Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama. I have served on the Executive Council for the American Society for Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama and am honored to be a Fellow in the organization.

Certified Practitioner and Practitioner Applicant for Trainer of Psychodrama, Sociometry, and Group Psychotherapy: I have extensive training in psychodrama from the Hudson Valley Psychodrama Institute in New York and the now-closed Omega Theater in Boston, MA. Additionally, I am a graduate of Psychodramatic Bodywork and have been integrating this modality into my work since 2005. 
Internal Family Systems (IFS) Level II Trained: I am passionate about integrating psychodrama with IFS, two powerful modalities that facilitate transformation, awareness, and healing into wholeness. 
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) Trained: I am skilled in applying DBT for skills training. 
Harvard Teaching Hospitals Training: I received training at the Cambridge Health Alliance and Massachusetts General Hospital. 
Professional Experience: I have worked in various settings, including the Cambridge Health Alliance (inpatient and primary care), Deaconess Waltham Eating Disorder Service, Cambridge Eating Disorder Center, and the Center for Eating Disorders in New Bedford, NH.