Dr. Melissa Robinson-Brown has been empowering women to stray from societal norms and live boldly for over 22 years. Also known as Dr. Mel, she obtained her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Loyola University Chicago, and since then has formed Renewed Focus Psychology Services, an NYC-based private practice group helping women and adolescents. With the help of PsyPact, a telepsychology compact, Dr. Mel has offered her services to women in person and through telehealth in more than 40 states.
Her mission is firmly rooted in physical and mental wellness and self-empowerment as she uses her two signature programs, Limitless & Fearless and The Private Pay Way, to help women live boldly and unapologetically. Known for blending her clinical expertise and edgy approach to her work, Dr. Mel continues to aim higher.
Her Agenda: Why do you want to become a clinical psychologist? What has that journey been like for you?
Dr. Melissa Robinson-Brown: I went into college wanting to be pre-med, so I was on the pre-med track, but started to hear about psychology, and took a Psych 101 class. While that was my worst college grade, I got a C. I got to a point where I was like, ‘I like this.’ When I was in college, I had the opportunity to work with a school as part of my master’s thesis, and I did a girls’ group where I looked at middle schoolers and how they could develop more confidence and self-esteem. Not only was I fascinated by how the brain works, but I also wanted to work with adolescents.
Being an adult, knowing what it was like to be an adolescent girl and then seeing these adolescent girls deal with what they were dealing with in middle school, I was like, somebody has to be here and create space for these girls to help them feel seen. That’s where my love of psychology was born.
Her Agenda: What has been the most pivotal moment of your career so far, or something that just really sticks out to you?
Dr. Melissa Robinson-Brown: The first pivotal moment was when I was working at my dream job with another psychologist, who was an older white woman who didn’t want me there. I was just there to help her get closer to what she needed, and I always felt very unsafe with her. I emotionally told my bosses I don’t feel safe with this woman. They told me that I was being immature. When the students complained about her, they investigated and found out that she said I was only there to fill a quota, telling my students not to listen to me and that I was incompetent.
And so it was pivotal for two reasons: First, I realized this environment is unsafe because I am dismissed even when I have instincts and try to get help.
Second, that it doesn’t matter how hard I work. It doesn’t matter what degrees I get. It doesn’t matter how much I bust my a**. There’s always going to be somebody who looks at the color of my skin and just determines from that that I’m incompetent. That shifted the way I think about the work that I do. The second most pivotal moment in my career was about four years after that, when it was time for me to return to this job after having my third kiddo. I was like, I can’t do it. Everything in my body said no. I was supposed to be coming back from maternity leave. Every single time I tried to push myself to do it, my body was just like you can’t. I quit my job in 2017. I have worked for myself ever since. You have to break out and get away because you see things so much clearer, too, when you’re not under the haze.
Her Agenda: Tell me about the work that you do through your private practice and how you have seen it impact the lives of others. How has it impacted your life?
Dr. Melissa Robinson-Brown: I have a group private practice that’s based in New York City. We serve clients in New York and New Jersey primarily. I have something called PSYPACT, which allows me to see clients in over 42 different states through telehealth. One of the things that I want to do is to have national and international reach. At our practice, we work primarily with high-achieving women who are feeling stuck and underwhelmed with where they are in life. We help them let go of outdated societal scripts and templates, set fierce boundaries, and write their next chapter unapologetically and confidently.
We also work with adolescents and their families. I had two goals in building my practice. First, creating a space for women, basically creating the space for women like me who checked all the boxes, followed all the rules, was the good girl, and people said good girls don’t get very far.
Second, I wanted to build a space for women like me to, number one, let them know they’re not alone. Number two, let them know other paths exist that are not the traditional ones that people keep drilling into your brain.
And I wanted to make sure that those women felt seen and not just had one-to-one work but have resources, have community, have a place where they feel like, oh, I can go here and feel like home. I also wanted to build my group practice because I didn’t want other women, particularly women of color, to have to always work in environments where they don’t see you and they don’t listen to you. We are providing resources for women of color who want to be seen by people who look like them because that space feels safer.
Her Agenda: You received the BeyGOOD grant. Tell me what that moment was like for you.
Dr. Melissa Robinson-Brown: I applied for the BeyGOOD grant on New Year’s Eve. At the time, a colleague of mine said Mel, did you get the BeyGOOD grant? I said I don’t think so. I haven’t heard anything. She said go to their Instagram page. I’m scrolling through, and at the time, they didn’t like to say the names of the winners. They just had a collage of headshots of everybody that won. There’s my little headshot. I was super excited for that to have been the first grant award that I had won working for myself. People never believed in what I could do, and that just felt so validating.
I was super excited because I was using that money to offset the cost of therapy for people who were impacted by COVID. I didn’t take that money to buy anything for the business. I took that money and put it right back into the community. We served 10 different women, each of whom had six or seven sessions with us. They didn’t have to pay anything. I want to do more of that.
Her Agenda: What does it mean to you to truly live boldly and unapologetically as a woman?
Dr. Melissa Robinson-Brown: I’ll define it in terms of being a bada**. That’s the bold and unapologetic thing. People think bada**es have to be these rough and tough people. Everybody’s bada** is different. I am showing up as me, and I feel comfortable being fully who I am. Quirks, being a weirdo, that’s who I am.
For me, my expression through my hair has always been a big thing. I think being bold and unapologetic is doing what works for you and showing up as your full self. It is liberating to just be yourself. I know and accept that some people aren’t going to like that. I’ve been criticized. People have asked me, you’re a psychologist? I’m like, yes, got a doctorate from a really good school. I think that’s being bold and unapologetic. I think what happens there is that people like to make assumptions. Their assumptions don’t matter because I’m grounded in who I am.
Her Agenda:What would you say is your main mission in life and your career? What type of mark do you want to leave?
Dr. Melissa Robinson-Brown: About a month ago, I lost my dad. He was one of my favorite people in the whole world. Everyone who talked to me would share stories of my dad and how just one conversation was so impactful for them.
In terms of my legacy and my mission, it goes back to this idea of being a woman who just wants to empower women. When I die, I want people to say, I had one conversation with her and I changed the way I thought about this. I want to empower women to feel good about themselves.
Her Agenda: What skills or abilities would you say someone should possess when wanting to get into this field?
Dr. Melissa Robinson-Brown: Open-mindedness and patience. One of my favorite skills that makes me better at this work is that I love a good puzzle. A desire to work through puzzles. That’s how I am with the clients that I work with. Their lives are all pieces of this puzzle. I’m trying to understand how it all fits together. Your brain has to be able to work through these pieces without judgment. That’s where the open-mindedness comes in.
The other piece [is] a willingness to be imperfect. This is a hard field, and mental health doesn’t get the level of credit it deserves, and how much it impacts people’s lives. You have to be imperfect and not be so by the book in this field. If you just go out there and try to apply it by the book, you’re not going to be a good clinician. You’ve got to be able to come in and put your spin on this. You’ve got to be able to bring your full self to this work. Let your hair down and let go of perfection.
Her Agenda:What’s a motto that you live by?
Dr. Melissa Robinson-Brown:Be unapologetic.
Her Agenda:I know that you have two programs, Limitless and Fearless, and the Private Pay Way. Can you tell me how those came to be?
Dr. Melissa Robinson-Brown: Private Pay Way was born out of building my private practice from the ground up. I have always been a cash-pay practice. I have never taken insurance, and I’ve been in business for 11 years. I’ve remained profitable every year.
I created the Private Pay Way because I wanted to share with other clinicians how you can build a cash pay practice and have a successful cash pay practice without sacrificing your integrity, especially for people who are healers. People get into this work, and they’ll say, well, I’m in this profession to help people and make mental health more accessible, not to make money. I can’t be somebody who doesn’t take insurance because then it’s not accessible. I help people reframe that belief because you can do both and have a successful cash pay practice and make therapy accessible.
Limitless and Fearless came out of me, wanting to figure out how to do one-to-many. I do a lot of one-to-one, that’s therapy. Limitless and Fearless is more of a coaching program that offers group coaching. The intent there is to be able to reach and touch more women. To have women develop better connections because I think women struggle with connecting with other women, with other friendships, and partners. Being able to help people find and build is important to me. That 12-week program was born out of my desire to keep my mission going, which is empowering women, but to be able to do it on a larger scale.
Her Agenda: What’s next for you? What’s something next that you would want to accomplish that you haven’t already?
Dr. Melissa Robinson-Brown: Speaking, speaking, speaking. I feel that’s the next part in my career. I know I’m meant to be on bigger stages. I feel it in my gut that my calling is to impact on a large scale. It’s hard to do that one-to-one. I value my one-on-one, but I know that if I’m called to impact on a large scale, the way I’m going to do that is to speak on larger stages, larger platforms. I’m working on building my speaking career, getting my name out there so I’m known. I also want to write a book. I started it and haven’t finished it, but I think those things are tied together. There’s a book in me talking about my journey and, again, empowering women to let go of what society tells them is the right way.
[Editor’s note: This feature has been edited for length and clarity.]
