Melissa Shepherd

Melissa Shepherd-Williams serves as a clinician at the California Institute of the Arts and Adjunct Faculty in the School of Cultural and Family Psychology at Pacific Oaks College. Within private practice, through speaking engagements, she has served audiences such as the Los Angeles Police Department psychologists; Writers' Guild of America; UCLA Human Resources students; Los Angeles County African American Employees; and Latino Behavioral Health Institute Conference. Her community service includes work as Vice-President of the International Society of Black Latinos, an organization that endeavors to expand knowledge about Latinos in the African Diaspora. Among the experiences in her practice is engaging individuals in cultivating or reconnecting with their agency to thrive in personal and professional environments, especially following burnout. This work is supported by cultural and historical context, such that a fuller story helps in creating new tools to move beyond surviving. Training in trauma studies within the African American, Afro Latinx and Latinx communities adds to her offerings in listening with empathy. As a native from Panama with roots in the Caribbean, she speaks Spanish fluently, which serves well in many therapy sessions. Her book titled "Living Deliciously: Recipes to Welcome Joy into Our Lives" is a compilation of her newsletters including exercises and reflections on how to "squeeze the juice" out of life. The latest book, "From Burnout to Bliss", adds to her creation of learning tools for preventing and emerging from a sense of being stuck professionally and personally.