Melissa Clarke (She/They), LMHC ATR

Care Worker

Melissa is an Artist, Registered Art Therapist, and Licensed Mental Health Clinician, originally from Hudson Valley, New York and has been residing in Massachusetts since 2008. Melissa honors where she was born, where she has planted roots, and how she has grown to become a world citizen, as she has built community through expressive arts in Colombia and Kenya. She graduated from Lesley University in 2011 with a Master’s Degree in Art Therapy and Mental Health Counseling and has focused her career on working in several community settings such as school-based counseling, in-home therapy, Immigrant rights organizing, as well as community mental health. For the past 10 years, Melissa focused on working with Latine immigrant youth and families navigating the systematic barriers and complex intergenerational trauma at La Colaborativa de Chelsea, as well as the South End Community Health Center (now known as Neighborhealth).

Melissa comes to RAW with many tools in her new role as a Care Worker, yet the most important one she holds true to in her work is coming to spaces with an open and humble heart, bi-lingual abilities to connect in Spanish, Somatic practices, and of course using art as a tool to both empower and hold sacred space for individuals and groups navigating the complexities of their personal life narrative.

Melissa has previously supported RAW as a volunteer for Saturday Family Gather Group in 2016 and has officially joined as a RAW team member in 2025.