Melissa Nichols, MA, LMFT (email) is a licensed marriage and family therapist at the Family Attachment and Counseling Center in Chaska, Minnesota. She specializes in working with children, adolescents and their families who have suffered early childhood trauma including abandonment, neglect, and abuse. Ms. Nichols came to FACC in 1997 and has received extensive training in attachment theory, post- traumatic stress disorder, parenting, Eye movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Trauma-Focused CBT, Neurological Reorganization, and equine assisted therapy (EAGALA). She is lead author of Parenting with Stories, originator of the First Steps for Strengthening Adoptive Families program and DVD, and co-author of Connecting with Kids through Stories. She holds graduate degrees in theology and counseling in psychology. Ms. Nichols also presents nationally and internationally on topics of attachment and Family Attachment Narrative Therapy.  Ms. Nichols converted to Catholicism in 1990 and is currently a parishioner at St. Hubert’s Catholic Community in Chanhassen, MN.  She has been a member of Catholic Psychotherapy Association since 2017.