Melisa Eyuboglu

Melisa Eyuboglu is a psychotherapist in training at the Private Therapy Clinic. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Psychology at the University of East Anglia (Upper Second Class Honours) and a master’s in Mental Health Studies from King’s College London (Distinction). She aims to complete her doctorate and become an HCPC registered Counselling Psychologist.

Melisa primarily uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to help her clients overcome various issues such as depression, anxiety, phobias, and panic attacks. CBT is an evidence-based approach and is recommended by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for treating these disorders. Melisa works collaboratively with her clients to identify their negative automatic thoughts and core beliefs, subsequently using cognitive restructuring techniques to shift these into more balanced perspectives. These are then reinforced with the help of gradual exposures and behavioural experiments.

Having been born in Belgium with Puerto Rican and Turkish heritage, Melisa is committed to providing a culturally competent practice, recognising that there is no one-size-fits-all and each client is unique with diverse therapeutic needs. As a result, she utilises a person-centred approach as a foundation for her modalities, highlighting the importance of a strong therapeutic relationship to ensure a warm, non-judgmental, and confidential consultation.

Since the beginning of her career, Melisa has pursued a diverse portfolio of roles and is comfortable seeing a wide spectrum of presentations. She has worked for the charity The Listening Place, offering suicidal individuals active listening support and has also worked as an Honorary Trainee Practitioner for the Psychosis Community Service within South London and Maudsley. Prior to this, Melisa worked in the creative industry for various advertising agencies and a renowned film production studio. Through these experiences, she recognises the high expectations of professionals in the workplace, placing a particular emphasis on managing perfectionism and imposter syndrome.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Melisa has in-depth knowledge of treating individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Particularly, she has an interest in Pure OCD and recognises the interpersonal and intrapersonal difficulties due to distressing intrusive thoughts. These can include themes such as a fear of being a paedophile, harming others, or being in the wrong relationship. She utilises psychoeducation to help clients understand that intrusive thoughts are a normal part of life, but the distress arises from the meaning we give them. From there, Melisa collaborates with her clients to assign more balanced interpretations to the thoughts and uses Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) to break the damaging rituals that keep these obsessions going.

Sexual Dysfunction
Melisa has also developed a keen interest in sexual dysfunction and the impact this has on one’s mental well-being and relationships. Tackling issues such as vaginismus, premature ejaculation, and erectile dysfunction, she helps clients improve their sexual experience by targeting negative thoughts or beliefs regarding sex and assigns evidence-based tasks for clients to undertake outside of sessions. Examples of these can include meditation, body awareness and pelvic floor exercises, and graded exposure. Most importantly, Melisa does not shy away from the topic of sex and will create a safe and comfortable environment to discuss these sensitive issues.