About Social Synergies Support
We're building accessible, professionally facilitated group support for the gap between therapy and community.
Our Mission
To bridge the gap between therapy and community by providing accessible, affordable, professionally facilitated group support that helps adults build emotional skills and meaningful connection — free from insurance barriers.
The idea for Social Synergies Support came from a pattern that kept showing up across nearly a decade of work in mental and behavioral health: people doing meaningful work in therapy were still telling their providers they felt isolated. People who had finished therapy were saying they missed the structure. People who couldn't afford therapy in the first place were piecing together support from podcasts, Instagram accounts, and friends.
What was missing wasn't more therapy. It was a steady, structured place to practice — to talk through what's on your mind with people who get it, guided by someone trained to keep the conversation useful.
That's what we built.
How We Got Here
Our Approach
Groups are facilitated by Master's-level mental health professionals — social workers, counselors, and therapists trained in trauma-informed facilitation and group dynamics.
The format stays the same across groups:
Structured conversation, so sessions don't drift or stall
Present-focused discussion, with room for the past when it's relevant
Practical tools, drawn from clinical training but applied to everyday life
Respectful peer connection, with confidentiality protected
Participation is encouraged but never forced. Some people speak in their first session. Some people listen for months before speaking. Both are valid.
Melissa Bernabe, MSW Founder, Social Synergies Support
Melissa is a Master's-level social worker with nearly a decade of experience across the mental and behavioral health fields. Her work has spanned community health centers, county-level behavioral health initiatives in Los Angeles County, intensive outpatient programs, and leadership roles across healthcare and technology organizations focused on community engagement and equity.
For the past two years, she has worked directly with clients of all ages, facilitating structured conversations and supporting emotional growth in guided group environments.
She founded Social Synergies Support in 2025.
Meet the Founder
Why I built this
In every role I've worked in — community health centers, IOP programs, behavioral health initiatives — I kept hearing some version of the same thing.
From clients in therapy: "I love my therapist, but I still feel alone."
From clients who'd finished therapy: "I'm doing okay, but I miss having somewhere to talk things through."
From people who never got to therapy at all: "I can't afford it, and I don't know where else to go."
Therapy is powerful, but it isn't designed to be a community. And most community spaces aren't designed to hold structured conversation about hard things. People kept falling into the gap between the two — and the gap kept getting bigger as insurance got more complicated and therapy got harder to access.
I built Social Synergies Support to be the thing I kept wishing I could refer people to. A place where the conversation is guided by someone trained to hold it. Where you don't need a diagnosis or a referral to show up. Where the cost isn't a barrier. Where you can stay as long as it's useful, and leave when it's not.
It's not therapy. It's not a casual meetup. It's the steady middle ground a lot of people need and can't find.
— Melissa