About Dr. Meli
Dr. Melissa Wasserman (AKA Dr. Meli) is a Clinical Psychologist (PSY30983) in California. She has specialty in traumatic stress, particularly how trauma-related challenges impact interpersonal relationships (e.g., couples, families, social, work relationships). While trauma can include a wide variety of experiences and challenges, her clinical expertise includes working with individuals who have experienced intergenerational trauma, interpersonal/relational trauma, war-related trauma and violence, civilian and military sexual trauma, and traumatic loss. She is trained in evidence based and trauma informed interventions including Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Families Overcoming Under Stress (FOCUS). She is also trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).
After graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a B.A. in Religious Studies, Dr. Wasserman earned her master’s degree in Psychology and Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University. She completed her predoctoral internship at UCLA Semel Institute and a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA’s Nathanson Family Resilience Center, working primarily with military and veteran families.
Along with her clinical work, she is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education & Psychology where she teaches master’s and doctoral level psychology students. She directs the Trauma Risk and Resilience Research Lab (TRRL) where she conducts research on intergenerational trauma and resilience as well as war-related trauma. Dr. Meli is also the Co-Director of the Pepperdine Union Rescue Mission Counseling Center, a student mental health training clinic located at a faith-based mission located on Los Angeles’ skid row. Dr. Meli is a member of the Society of Indian Psychologists, Society for Jewish Psychologists, Psychologists Against Antisemitism, the International Society for the Study of Traumatic Stress, and Psi Chi Psychological Honors Society. She is a Board Member of If You Heard What I Heard, a non profit dedicated to preserving stories of the Holocaust and advocating for Holocaust education.
