Melody Munro-Wolfe - MM Wolfe Psychotherapy PLLC

“I've always loved psychology. I wanted to understand what makes people tick and how to help solve some of society's problems. I'm actually of retirement age, but I opened this practice just right before I was going to retire. When COVID hit, I saw such a huge need for counseling and mental health services. It just knocked people for a loop in so many different ways.
For someone to be able to take care of their relationships, their families, their job, and their lives, they have to take care of themselves. I've been in the field for 45 years, and what we're recognizing is that many people have a lot of trauma in their background, and if we don't recognize and address that, we won’t understand why they behave the way they do or why they struggle with the issues they struggle with.
One of my newest specialties is a wonderful program called Prolonged Exposure Therapy. It was designed by the federal government for our returning servicemen in treating PTSD, but they found it very effective in the general population as well, maybe even more so. It’s a short-term program, and often we get quick and lasting results. The theory is that you can't push down all these feelings and emotions that are happening because of a trauma, because it's like a tea kettle—the steam is going to come out sooner or later and you're just going to blow.
So in the program, you relive your experience and you tell it over and over again until it becomes not so scary. We say that you’re bringing your trauma out of the shadows to face it in real life. While we do that, we learn ways to understand and cope with that experience until you can master it.
Here’s an example: let’s say you were assaulted on the street in a city one night leaving a bar. Right off the bat, you're never going back to that bar. Then pretty soon, you don't want to ever go back to that city. After that, you don't ever want to go to a bar or want to go out after dark, and your world just gets smaller and smaller.
In Prolonged Exposure Therapy, we might start with just looking at a picture of that bar on the internet. When we’re feeling good about that, we might go to a bar or even just sit across the street from one with a friend. After you feel comfortable with that, you might go back to that city. Then when you’re feeling confident, you might sit in that bar for five minutes. After a while, they'll just come in and say, ‘Melody, that doesn't bother me anymore at all.’
Our body does not get cut off at the neck. Our head is part of our body. If you're going to go to your family doctor when you've got the flu, they’re going to give you the medication to help you get over that quicker. So, why would you not seek out a specialist for your brain? Your brain is a very important part of your body and it affects so much of what you do.”
—Melody Munro-Wolfe, MM Wolfe Psychotherapy

“When people come to therapy for the first time, I tell them, ‘I'm glad you're here.’ We start with where you're at, even if you’re not ready to discuss anything specifically. I'll bring it up every so often and ask, ‘Are you ready to deal with that issue?’, but I'm going to wait until you tell me you're ready. I will gently urge you to, but we're going to start with whatever you're most comfortable with.
I also tell people that there are treatments that work. Talk therapy is effective. It depends on the person and why they’re at therapy, but often the most effective treatment is combining talk therapy with medication. Just not medication alone, or not talk therapy alone, but usually both. I also have many clients that come to a private therapist because they don't want to be put on medication and I'm okay with that. If I see three months down the road, you're still severely depressed and you're crying every time you come to see me, I'm going to push you to go see that doctor and get on something mild. But if you don't want to, we'll continue to work on it and if we can help you without it, that's what we'll do.
Nobody deserves to feel that kind of hurt or live with that kind of pain. Depression and anxiety are painful, and that pain is very real. It's hard to understand if you've never been through an intense depression or anxiety, how very difficult it can be to get out of bed and get motivated, or how painful every little critical thing somebody says to you feels, or how it hampers your success in life.
Therapy is going to relieve your suffering. It's going to give you more confidence. It's going to teach you some coping skills, and it's going to improve your relationships. Usually your sleep is improved, your appetite, it really impacts everything.
What’s interesting is that depression shows itself differently in men. We think of women as being very anxious, or not able to sleep and maybe they stop eating or they overeat. With men, they tend to show it with anger. So, that's my first sign if you're having some anger issues, to look a little deeper underneath that. At first guys don't want to admit that they're dealing with depression, because there's a shame factor and stigma with it. Luckily, a lot of that is going away.
Taking care of your mental health and therapy is going to improve your overall quality of life. It will help improve all areas of your life like at work, in your relationships, at home, even your hobbies. You're going to have more energy and you're going to feel like doing things.”

“Lapeer is a wonderful community for raising a family. We have a son who is developmentally disabled, and we knew that when he was growing up he would need to have friends close by with lots of activities and opportunities. That was one reason we stayed. Then thanks to people like Jim, I was one of the founding members on the Lapeer Community Theatre board. We have a thriving arts community here, which has always been really important, and for a small town, I think we do quite well. We have the gallery and theater, and now we even have a second theater group in town. We just have so many creative opportunities. I like the way our downtown reflects that creative sense. It's a small town that doesn't feel too small and it also doesn't feel too big. I just came back from visiting my sister in Portland, and I was never so glad to get back home!”
– Melody Munro-Wolfe, owner of MM Wolfe Psychotherapy PLLC