Dr. Melinda Lawless Coker, LMFT

Dr. Melinda Lawless Coker is a licensed marriage and family therapist and a licensed psychologist who completed her graduate studies in Miami, Florida. She holds the LMFT credential, which denotes a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and brings 32 years of clinical experience to her work. Her practice emphasizes relational healing and multigenerational family systems, with techniques that help people understand patterns across generations and make different choices in relationships.

She integrates psychodramatic and sociometric methods into her therapeutic approach, using enacted and relational processes to explore emotional experience and interpersonal dynamics. Central to her work is establishing clear boundaries and identifying emotional needs so clients can make healthier decisions and find greater stability. Her practice addresses a wide range of concerns, including trauma from sexual abuse or domestic violence, anxiety, stress, depression, borderline personality disorder, addictions, relationship and family difficulties, grief, and intimacy-related issues.

Dr. Coker’s background includes work in diverse clinical settings such as private psychotherapy, inpatient drug treatment, high school counseling programs, county drug treatment, outpatient psychotherapy, women's prisons, and drug court treatment. Her clinical approaches include attachment-based work, client-centered therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), existential and psychodynamic methods, mindfulness techniques, and trauma-focused interventions. She welcomes questions that might improve the relevance and usefulness of therapy and looks forward to beginning collaborative work with new clients.