May Melnyk
May Melnyk believes in the power of connection and community when it comes to getting through the hard stuff. She is a Registered Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist. May graduated from the University of Calgary with a Master’s of Social Work and a Post-Master’s Diploma in Couple and Family Therapy. She is a Systemic Family Therapist and incorporates elements of Narrative Therapy, Emotion-Focused Family Therapy, Family-Based Treatment, Exposure Therapy, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy.
May has over 17 years of experience in general mental health, with 9 of those years counselling individuals, families, and groups with an eating disorder. She has worked in a variety of settings from hospitals, and community agencies, to private practice. May is exceptionally passionate about working with people in the areas of eating disorders, anxiety-related disorders, depression, gender dysphoria, ADHD, and general relationship struggles. She is an ally of the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities.
May is known for her holistic and relational lens focusing on the patterns that exist between people. She believes in grounding problems in the environment to which they were influenced by exploring how societal beliefs, gender, race, sexuality, age, socio-economic status, intergenerational trauma, and other power imbalances play a role. She prefers to focus on the spaces between people rather than locating problems within people, while at the same time considering how biology, attachment, trauma, emotions, and the brain all interact with each other. If there is one principle that guides May’s work most, its that individuals and particularly children should not be held responsible for “fixing” themselves rather it’s a collective effort we all have in making changes.
Personally, May is a mother of two, an avid soccer and gymnastics observer and driver, a lover of all animals and people, she enjoys gardening, listening to music, and cycling to re-charge.
May would like to say a special thank-you to the Lionheart Foundation for recognizing a need and doing an exceptional job at providing this resource to the community. She couldn’t be more excited to join the team.