Melissa Parks, PhD - Author & Coach for Globally Mobile People

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Melissa Parks, PhD - Author & Coach for Globally Mobile People

I've been working in the field of mental health and wellness for almost 20 years now, in the USA, Spain, and the Netherlands.

📖 Author, “A Compassionate Mess”— out now!
🌍 Helping globally mobile people find home in themselves | 🧠 Therapist-turned-coach | 💖 Self-compassion advocate | 💻 Co-founder, LIT Community I have my PhD in Clinical and Health Psychology and worked as a therapist for many years. These days I provide coaching to expats and entrepreneurs. I primarily support my clients through transitions, helping them to cultivate resilience, coping skills, and a better understanding and appreciation of themselves and their values. I'm also the co-founder of “Location Independent Therapists," an online community made up of mental health professionals around the globe who are living and working across country lines. We support them in growing their private practice and finding ways to combine their career in mental health with international living. I'm currently writing a memoir that's primarily focused on the decade I lived abroad in Europe. I share about my journey to pursuing therapy myself, and becoming a therapist, making peace with my highly sensitive side, and discovering the power of self-compassion. I'm also the mom to an energetic preschooler who keeps me on my toes so I have a lot of empathy for my clients who are parents themselves. I'm married to a global nomad who I met while living abroad and we speak a version of Spanglish in our house, and keep our love for international living alive with as much travel as we can, staying in touch with friends and family around the globe, and enjoying international foods.

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If you’re interested in discussing how we could work together, I invite you to set up a free consultation call at https://melissaparks.com/free-consultation-call/ or email me at [email protected]

09/04/2026

Come join me next Tuesday, September 8th for a free self-compassion session.

10am PT / 1pm ET / 7pm CET

I’ll lead you in 45 minutes of guided meditation, journaling, and the option to share. You can also stay on mute and off camera if you prefer. No experience required.

I hosted these sessions weekly throughout July and August with a really positive response from participants. This is your chance to put on your own oxygen mask first and learn some new ways of talking to and treating yourself that you can continue to practice on your own.

Sign up at the link in my bio. I hope to see you there!

09/02/2026

One of the questions I keep getting since publishing my book is “what does your family think of your memoir?”

I haven’t known how to respond because it’s not exactly my question to answer, but the next time someone asks I’ll tell them about this surprise my family planned for me while we were on vacation (orchestrated by my mom).

I’d just returned from a grocery store run when my sister told me she had a surprise for me. I followed her inside one of the houses and was shocked when she handed me a t-shirt with a picture of my book on it! She told me to put it on to surprise everyone who was waiting for us at the other house.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the door to the other house and found that everyone (my husband, kids, parents, brother-in-law, and nephews) were ALL wearing shirts with my book cover on the front! I turned to my sister with my mouth hanging open just as she unzipped her jacket to reveal that she too had a matching shirt.

The best part was seeing just how excited my kids were about the surprise. But a close second was what came next. We toasted with Spanish cava and sparkling apple c***r and my mom said some kind (and funny) words about how proud she is of me. Then we headed down the boardwalk to grab gelato, a group of walking billboards 🤪

I don’t know if it’s purely a coincidence, but I did sell 2 copies of my book after that!

Achieving my lifelong dream of publishing a book, getting to celebrate it with my family, and hearing from readers about how the book is resonating with them are all things I’m not taking for granted. I’m so so appreciative for each of these moments.

If you’re looking for a book to read, grab a copy of my memoir, “A Compassionate Mess.”

It’s set during my decade abroad and explores a lot of themes that globally mobile people will relate to, but even if you’ve never lived abroad this book is for you. I explore my lifelong journey to try and fix myself, including my mental health struggles, and my discovery of the power of self-compassion as a path to self-acceptance. You’ll find it on Amazon, Bookshop.org & many other online retailers.

08/18/2026

My son is 6 years old today. Six! I’m definitely feeling the saying “the days are long, but the years are short” as I prepare to celebrate this milestone.

In my latest Substack article I reflect on my (rocky) transition to motherhood and the unexpected challenges I’m actually celebrating. I’m now thinking I should have titled it, “Everything I didn’t Expect When I was Expecting.” 🤪

If you’re parent, I think some of it will resonate. If you’re a parent of a neurodivergent child I think a great deal of it will resonate.

But even if you’re not a parent at all, you may still enjoy the article as I also reflect on transitions in general and how even though I’m an expert in how to best navigate them (this is often what I coach people through), my nervous system still resists big changes. Like I say in the article:

“When I imagined what motherhood might be like, I did hope that it would help me grow, but I didn’t expect it to involve so much of the ooey-gooey messy middle of a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly.”

You’ll find the link to my Substack here: https://open.substack.com/pub/melissaparksphd

08/14/2026

12 years ago I started a blog on the intersection of global living and mental health 🌍🧠

It started as a passion project as I was finishing my PhD dissertation. I’d always loved to write, but this was the first time I shared it in hopes it would reach as many people as possible.

The year earlier I’d (finally) read Julia Cameron “The Artist’s Way” and started to heal my inner artist. This blog was my way to own my desire to be a writer and to trust that the universe was conspiring on my behalf.

It certainly was! While my secret dream to leave psychology behind and become travel writer didn’t happen (thank goodness!) within weeks of publishing my blog I had many potential therapy clients reaching out for support.

I knew nothing about marketing at that time, but I’d accidentally tapped into the “know, like, trust” factor and spoke directly to my ideal client.

In the years since, my business, and life, have taken many twists and turns. I’ve moved from Madrid ➡️ Netherlands ➡️ Seattle. I transitioned from offline therapy to 100% online, becoming one of the pioneers in the online therapy world and co-founding LIT Community I’ve also switched to coaching to allow me to serve more globally mobile clients.

I’m now in an intercultural, bilingual marriage, I’ve become a mom, I’ve gone through repatriation firsthand, and have done so much learning and unlearning about neurodivergence for myself, my son, and my clients. I also returned to my desire to write and published my first book this year. A memoir called “A Compassionate Mess: A Therapist, Her Monsters, and a Journey to Self-Acceptance.”

But when I thought about what I’d most like to celebrate over these past 12 years, it’s not the things I’ve accomplished. It’s the clients from around the globe, in all continents except Antarctica, who have entrusted me to help them. To support them as they navigated creating a new home, making the impossible decision of whether to stay or go, to ride the rollercoaster of repatriation, to care for their deeply feeling selves while living internationally, and so much more. I’m beyond grateful that this is the work I get to do

Thank you 💗
Gracias ♥️

08/10/2026

8 years ago was one of my favorite days ever 😍

My husband and I spent an entire year trying to figure out what we wanted our wedding days to be like. Where in the world, who needed to be there, and what we wanted to prioritize (not to mention where we were willing to compromise).

It’s not a small feat to plan a wedding when you’re an intercultural couple with loved ones around the world. We explored so many different possibilities and in the end settled on a small ceremony overlooking the Bay of Biscay in the Basque Country of Northern Spain. 🌎

We were surrounded by family and friends and celebrated late into the night with amazing Spanish food. Even my 1.5 year old nephew partied until 2am 😂

One of my favorite parts of the wedding was that the week beforehand my family came from the U.S. and my husband’s family from Costa Rica, the U.S., and Spain so we could introduce our families to one another and bond before the big day. It was truly magical and something we may never get to repeat in exactly the same way.

We kept the celebration going one month later with a BBQ in Seattle with even more family and friends. 💗

Over these past 8 years we’ve had plenty of challenges, but even more things to celebrate. An international move, buying a house, becoming puppy parents, and then human parents. Navigating sleep disorders and neurodivergence, entrepreneur life and a pandemic…and much more. We certainly haven’t been bored!

An intercultural, bilingual marriage is its own unique version of hard, while also its own unique version of rewarding. I wouldn’t have it any other way 🥰

08/07/2026

My recent Substack article is about something I dive deeper into in my memoir.

The belief I harbored for years, even while pursuing training as a therapist, that therapy couldn’t possibly help me.

It wasn’t until my life abroad came crumbling down that I decided I had nothing to lose (and nowhere else to turn).

Ultimately that scary leap into the unknown ended up providing greater healing than I ever thought possible, and made me the helping professional I am today.

Link to the full Substack article: https://open.substack.com/pub/melissaparksphd/p/i-didnt-believe-therapy-would-help?r=lstfy&utm_medium=ios

07/31/2026

Where is home? 🏠

That question is one globally mobile people dread, but also can’t stop asking ourselves. 🌍

Many of us end up discovering it’s not a geographical place (at least not just one), but rather a collection of memories, people, feelings, etc. 🌟

Back in June, I sat down with .weber on the House of Peregrine podcast for a conversation about what “home” actually means once you’ve lived across cultures, languages, and versions of yourself. 🎙️

We talked about the difference between fitting in and belonging. The cost of being a chameleon, and the relief of finally coming back to yourself. What it’s like to code-switch across cultures — and how my own late-in-life autism diagnosis added a whole new layer to that story. 🧠

My favorite reframe from our talk: home isn’t a place you arrive at. It’s the feeling of safety in your own body — where you can take off your shoes, exhale, and just be, without performing or translating. Something that often requires more of an inner journey, not an outer one. 🛣️

If you missed the episode, it’s still up — link in bio. 🎙️

07/29/2026

I’m on Substack ✍️

I’ve actually been on there for a few months but with the busyness of my book launch it was hard to find time to write an article.

One of the things writing and publishing my memoir reminded me of was how much I miss writing my blog. Next month it will be 12 years since I launched my “Intentional Expat” blog. Back in 2014 I quickly learned that writing about the intersection of international living and psychology was a great way to find therapy clients!

But my blog quickly went from a place to share my love for writing to a business. I’m grateful the business took off, but along the way my writing became more focused d on SEO and I lost the joy I once had with writing it.

Now that my first book is out in the world, I want to get back to finding that joy in writing and regularly sharing it with the world. Substack is going to be the place to find my reflections on belonging, globally mobile life, self-compassion and likely some stuff about parenting and neurodivergence (and parenting neurodivergent kids while being late-diagnosed neurodivergent yourself).

Come find me over there and let me know if you’re on there too so I can subscribe! 💌

https://open.substack.com/pub/melissaparksphd

Address

Seattle, WA
98109

Website

http://www.melissaparks.com/, https://www.amazon.com/Compassionate-Mess-Therapist-Monsters-Self-Acceptance/dp/B0H42Z1ZMP

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