about me ...

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. 

This is to have succeeded.
                                                    — Ralph Waldo Emerson
​

Welcome!

First of all, I love my work. The human experience is endlessly fascinating and I care immensely about each of my clients. I approach each psychotherapy and counseling session ever mindful that you and I are fellow travelers on this planet and the nature of my work is collaborate, in the spirit of recognizing our shared humanity. We are all on our own unique journey towards realizing our potential, and I learn much from my clients. You are very wise and have much to share. I love working with all kinds of people from all walks of life and helping them move past blocks, ruptures, malaise, and stuck places, Together, we identify and develop your inner resources, and move toward manifesting awareness, peace, fulfillment, and flow. 

My psychotherapy style is uniquely my own. It is original, warm, creative, relational, spiritual, practical, and open. It has evolved after decades of study, practice, and travel here in the states, and also throughout Brazil, Sri Lanka, Europe, Mexico, and China. I have explored many spiritual paths and a colorful variety of cultures and lifestyles.

The path of my life, travels, and studies led me to pursue seminary training, and I am an ordained interfaith/interspiritual minister. I respect and honor your personal spiritual path, as I am bound to no specific religious tradition. And of course, if you do not have a religious or spiritual aspect to your world, that's entirely fine! We work in the way you want to work, with or without spirituality as part of it.

In addition, I have studied an array of formal psychological, emotional, and energetic ways of helping others, and while each informs my work, none defines it. I continue to grow and study every single day, and my work continues to evolve as well.

Finally, and significantly, I could not assist you on your journey of healing, integration, and wholeness, if I was not on a similar journey of my own. I have experienced profound challenges and difficulties. These experiences have made me strong, balanced, and compassionate toward the suffering of others. They inform my work every day. 

I invite you to call and I look forward to meeting you!

— Rev. Melanie Smith, MACP, LMFT 
©2019 S. Russell Keil
The professional credentials I bring to our work
​
  • Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology, California Institute of Integral Studies.
  • Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) 
  • Fully Ordained Interfaith/Interspiritual minister​
  • ​Licensed Continuing Education Provider, New Mexico Counseling and Therapy Board
  • 25+ years conflict transformation, communication skills, and counseling experience
  • Founder of NMCCS, New Mexico Couples Counseling Specialists
  • ​Featured relationship specialist on 94.5FM, KKOB talk radio drive time show​
  • Trained in Relationship Enhancement® aka R.E. (a powerful communication skills based model).
  • Trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). A deeply transformative model for working with trauma, anxiety, breakups, couples issues, and more.
  • Trained in the Collaborative Divorce Coaching model (Sacramento Collaborative Practice Group).
  • Trained in Social Resiliency Model
  • Advanced Certification in Mediation, Arcadia University and Institute of Advanced Dispute Resolution, Boulder, Colo.
  • Special Certification in Family Mediation, Face-to-Face Mediation Services, Denver, Colo.
  • Communication Instructor, Art Institute of Colorado
  • Mediator & Conflict Transformation Specialist, Denver, Colo., 2006 - 2010
  • Co-mediated family issues with incarcerated individuals, Arapahoe County Jail
  • ​Additional trainings:
    • Alternatives to Violence Project (skill building for individuals to effectively manage anger and violent tendencies);
    • Thomas Hübl 
      • Mystical Principles of Healing Course (deep exploration of spiritual and energetic components of human relationships).
      • Transparent Communication Course
    • Quantum Touch Healing
Speaking Engagements & Workshops Presented

Debriefing, Trusting Each Other, and Affirming our Collaborative Ideals
Workshop presented to New Mexico Collaborative Practice Group, November 2017

Anger: an Act of Self Love
Presented at Well Woman Life Annual Meeting, September 2017

Tips from the Trenches: Top Tools for Working with Tough Couples
Presented at Albuquerque Mental Health, June 2017

Simplifying Anger: How to Skillfully Engage with Angry People 
Presented to Albuquerque Collaborative Practice Group, June 2017 and August 2017

Hard Conversations in Health Care
Presented to UNM Medical Group’s “S.I.M.P.L.E.” Conference, in Taos, NM, July 2016

Top Coping Skills for Working with Anxiety
Presented at Well Woman Life general meeting, January 2015

ThinkFirst! Anti-Bullying Program
Workshop Co-developer & Instructor, Wagner Ranch School, Orinda, Calif., 2010
the kaleidoscope of influences that inspire me ...
I owe an enormous debt to many great spirits and brilliant minds!
  • Many mindfulness pioneers, including Dan Siegel, Ron Siegel, Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzburg, Tara Brach, Rick Hanson
  • Meditation
  • Deep spirituality
  • Insights yielded from the thought of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Christianity
  • Transpersonal psychology
  • The Integral psychology of Sri Aurobindo and Haridas Chaudhuri
  • Quantum theory/quantum psychology (esp the work of Amit Goswami)
  • Human energy field study and the Chakras
  • The entities at Casa Dom Inacio, Abadiania, Brazil
  • Spiritism
  • Carl Jung
  • Thomas Hübl
  • Ram Dass
  • Carolyn Myss
  • ​Bruce Lipton
  • Kohut/self-psychology
  • Freud/psychodynamic
  • Certain cognitive and behavioral approaches
  • Family systems psychotherapy
  • Gestalt approaches
  • Sound, color, and vibration healing
  • Nature, nature, and more nature!
  • My 18-year-old son and 21-year-old daughter
  •  . . . and many more.​

505-377-0005

Sessions by appointment only.​