Private Mentorship

deep, full-spectrum support for writers, grievers and guides

You want to tell stories that ache with honesty and that pulse with your power.

You want to tell the stories that are tucked away in the depths of your soul. You’re not here to play around on the surface.

You want your writing to feel effortless and easeful, with a voice that feels authentic to you and isn’t an imitation of everyone else on Substack.

You’re ready to release your fears of not being good enough, you’re ready to stop looking around you and wishing you had what they had, you’re ready to stop worrying about others will think and just share your truth - because that is what will bring you all that is truly meant for you.

You’re holding so much- you’ve moved through grief, loss, and heartbreak…and you’re ready to be deeply held by someone who sees you completely and who has walked every step of this initiatory path herself.

You know you can no longer go it alone. You know you need support to deeply process your grief so you can remember your pain as the sacred portal it is - the portal to your deepest and truest creations.

So, if you’re ready to stop hiding and become a magnet for those who are meant for you…

I invite you on a three-month journey that will take you to the very depths - to the depths of your creativity, to the depths of your grief, to the depths of your spirituality, to the depths of your joy and vitality, to the depths of your very soul.

Are you ready?

This is for you if you’re truly ready for…

DEEP, FULL-SPECTRUM GRIEF SUPPORT - we’ll move any grief you’re carrying through the body so you can let go of any heaviness, tension, or stuck energy and we’ll honor your grief as the sacred initiation it is

SACRED SPIRITUAL SUPPORT - we’ll connect deeply with your internal guidance system to strengthen your spiritual connection so you’ll feel clearer on your next steps forward

INDIVIDUALIZED WRITING SUPPORT - we’ll engage with intuitive prompts and somatic rituals to help you move beyond feeling stuck and afraid as we bring through your most potent + powerful writing with ease, joy, and flow

this is what happens when you write from your truth…

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for the writer ready to…

    • You’re not interested in surface-level grief support - you’re looking for deep, somatic, full-spectrum space-holding that allows for all parts of you and all parts of your grief, no matter what kind of grief you’ve walked with

    • You’re not trying to avoid, fix, or escape your grief and the difficult experiences you’ve been through - you know your grief is sacred and deserves to be honored for the transformational initiation that it is

    • You’re not interested in run-of-the-mill writing or creativity that forces you to stay in a straight line - you know that your creativity is intimately connected to your connection with spirit, with yourself, with your grief, and with all of life

    • You want your writing to feel authentic and pour through you easefully and effortlessly

    • You want your writing to deeply resonate with the audience that’s meant for you and find the people whose lives are going to be changed through reading your words

    • You want to unhook your worth from your numbers and learn to deeply validate yourself so you love writing and sharing, whether there are 2 people reading or 2000

    • You want to feel comfortable and confident sharing your most authentic + vulnerable, heartfelt pieces of writing, not blocked by fear, worrying about what people will think, imposter syndrome, comparison, etc.

    • You want to feel creatively fulfilled and fully expressed, not like you’re trying to be someone else or fit into a box that will make others comfortable

This is a high-touch, deep and personalized mentorship for the creative who is moving through grief, loss, or identity shifts and is craving creative inspiration, confidence in sharing their work, and somatic grief processing that goes way beyond the surface.

I will meet you where you are in your grief, your spirituality, and your creative journey and our work will be based on where you are most needing support and guidance.

Mentorship is 3 months with 3 75-min sessions/month (9 calls total) with voice + message support between calls

$3000 pay in full (save $333) or 3 monthly payments of $1,111

Free access to monthly Sacred Ground grief ceremonies, monthly writing circles, and any other events, programs or offerings created during our 3 months together

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FAQs

  • Yes. This is so we both get a feel for each others’ energies in a more intimate setting and decide if moving into a mentorship relationship would be beneficial for us both.

  • Absolutely not. I welcome clients with all kinds of grief - not just those who have lost loved ones to death. I’ve worked with clients grieving old identities, old relationships, dreams that didn’t come true, and many other kinds of grief. All grief is welcome.

  • No, I do not offer single sessions because the nature of my work is deep and requires a longer-term commitment. One session can lay a beautiful foundation, but to truly benefit on a deep level from our work together, ongoing sessions are needed.

  • Yes. If we both feel that continued work is needed, we can continue our work together for another 3 months and beyond. We will check in every 3 months to see how things are feeling.

  • No, I don't offer scholarships or discounts on mentorship - after my many years working with clients, I am committed to keeping my client load small so I can offer the highest quality of spaceholding to the clients who do choose to work with me and so I can earn a living wage that supports my family.

    I've come to these rates very intentionally and deliberately due to many factors including my years of experience, all that I have invested in many different trainings, the high quality of space I hold for clients, the immense value clients receive from working with me, as well as all that's included in the mentorship.

    If you’re not able to afford mentorship, I encourage you to attend my grief ceremonies or writing circles, where I am often able to provide some 1:1 support at the end of each call for a much more accessible price.

    • This is not for someone who is moving through acute grief or any other acute mental health crises

    • This is not for someone who is looking for an easy fix and is not willing to put in the work to see change

    • This is not for someone who doesn’t believe in Spirit / God / or a higher power

    • This is not for someone who is looking for guaranteed results. This mentorship isn’t about external results, though those may naturally arise from our work together. This is about deep transformational work, not about what results you can get from working with me.

    • 9 sessions over 3 months (about 3 sessions per month with 1 integration week)

    • Voice and text support via Telegram between sessions beginning the date of your first session and ending on the date of your last session

    • 3 months’ complementary paid Substack subscription which gives you access to a library of bonus meditations and our monthly online writing circles

    • Free access to our monthly Sacred Ground ceremonies for grief + growth

    • Free access to any other programs or offerings I create during our time together

  • No! I work with people of all gender expression and identity.

  • I wanted to leave Melina's sessions with hard metrics to tell you all the things that made me a so-called "better person": number of clients, new relationships, a relentless positive attitude about life. What I got instead was something even better. Freedom from measuring myself and a growing contentment in the person I am in this moment. There are plenty of coaches who specialize in meeting metrics if that is what you want. Melina is cut from a different cloth. If you're ready to do a deep dive into unpacking the person who you think you should be, and embody the person you REALLY are, Melina is the woman you’re looking for.

    Paula Votendahl

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What makes me qualified?

My writing and poetry has gone viral several times on Substack, most notably this poem that brought me 100k views and 400+ subscribers in less than a week.

…but going viral doesn’t actually make me qualified to guide you, because going viral isn’t something I can teach in five simple steps, and it’s not something I can control.

I’m “qualified” to guide you because of the lifetime I’ve spent in dedication to my craft. There’s an old family tale that’s fallen from our lips so many times that its edges have softened and frayed from overuse — we say that I’ve been a writer since before I could hold a pencil. I was so desperate to write and tell stories that I’d dictate plots and characters and all kinds of tall tales to my mother so she could write them down.

I’m “qualified” to guide you because I stopped writing for many years in college after suffering from paralyzing fear and comparison that I wasn’t good enough. I remember the moment in my creative writing workshop that I said, “Enough. I can’t do this anymore.” And yet…here I am. Writing and sharing from my heart in a way that resonates.

I’m “qualified” to guide you because eight years later I started writing again and decided to start my own business because my soul was slowly suffocating in a cold and lifeless cubicle. I wasn’t made to sit in a cubicle.

I’m “qualified” to guide you because of the 6+ years I’ve spent baring my soul through my writing online where instead of growth would just lose subscribers every time I shared, because of all the unseen work it took to get here and how many times I had to get back up off of my scraped and bruised knees, because I never gave up. I didn’t get here through force, I trusted in the timing.

I’m “qualified” to guide you not because I’ve gone viral, but because of how I walked myself through it and because what happens after you go viral is much more important than going viral itself.

When my poem exploded and subscribers began coming in by the hundreds, I was able to stay grounded amidst the meteoric growth because I know that the numbers have nothing to do with my worth. Because I’ve spent years putting in the quiet work to validate myself and stay regulated in my nervous system — no matter what. Because I’ve walked through fear and fire and death and birth and grief and loss and met it all face-to-face, time and time again.

Because when the growth inevitably slows down (and it always does), I don’t panic — I trust deeply in the ebbs and flows of creation. I know that tides rise, and they fall, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I know that some creations bloom, and some wither. I know that linear isn’t better, because life is never linear. Linear is a lie. Linear is an illusion. Linear keeps us on the hamster wheel going nowhere fast.

And me? I got off that wheel a long time ago. I got off the moment I decided I could no longer stay in my mindless job, and instead followed the pulse of my bleeding, beating heart.

The words I wrote in the poem that went viral aren’t just lip service — they come from the embodied truth of my heart, from years of walking with life and creation in ways that are often very uncomfortable and far from easy.

The truth is that I’m not “qualified” to guide you at all — but that’s not what matters. What matters is whether or not my words move you, whether or not my poetry touches a place so deep in your soul you didn’t know it existed, whether or not my frequency fills you with the fire of inspiration and makes you want to write with aching honesty because nothing less will do.