ABOUT Melanie 

Melanie Drane is a licensed marriage and family therapist with a strong interest in multicultural conversations—heightened by two decades working in Europe and Asia. Melanie completed her clinical hours with families, couples and individuals at the Southern California Counseling Center. During her three years there, she trained in family systems, and studied trauma treatment integrating somatic awareness and mindfulness with Virgil Day, LMFT. Melanie also trained for two years at the Jung Institute of Los Angeles, where she worked at the Kiefer Frantz Clinic and earned her Certificate in Jungian Studies.

In addition to private practice, Melanie serves as wellness clinician, supporting medical residents and fellows at LAC + USC Medical Center and USC Keck School of Medicine's Graduate Medical Education Wellness Program. She is deeply engaged in exploring the stressors that impact physician well-being, and the complexity and rigor they have acquired during the pandemic. In 2017, she received a CAMFT grant to study ways to host psychotherapy in the presence of aphasia (loss of language due to stroke, TBI, or other neurological crisis). Her interest in the healthcare environment includes providing care for individuals and families during medical events that challenge relationships and identities.

Melanie graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University. She is also an alumna of Interlochen Arts Academy, UC Berkeley and The London School of Economics. She earned her MA in Counseling Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is fluent in German, and conversant in French and Japanese.

As well as her work as psychotherapist, Melanie is a writer and recipient of the Rona Jaffe Writers Award, first prize in the UK Poetry Society's National Poetry Competition, and a North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship in Writing. She has served as writer-in-residence at Interlochen, and is currently a faculty member at the Stanley King Institute. She loves dogs (and all wild things), and a pack of three shelter rescues shares their home with her.