Dr. Mirissa Jackson, DSW, LCSW is the owner, creator, and lead clinician of Relief with Rissa, LLC. Based in Maryland and licensed to serve clients in Florida and Virginia, Dr. Jackson is an antiracist, anti-oppressive therapist and trainer committed to transforming how minority employees and clients experience mental health care and workplace culture.

Dr. Jackson is originally from Chicago, Illinois, where she obtained her bachelor’s degree at Western Illinois University and her master’s degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in Social Work with an emphasis on clinical mental health. She later earned her Doctor of Social Work (DSW) from Simmons University, further grounding her practice in advanced clinical expertise, leadership, and social justice.

With over seven years of experience in mental health, Dr. Jackson specializes in supporting Black women and marginalized communities impacted by trauma. She is a Certified Trauma Specialist, trained in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Brainspotting, and EMDR, and her clinical approach is deeply rooted in trauma-informed, strengths-based, and liberatory practices.

Her therapeutic work focuses on helping clients move beyond cycles of institutional, generational, workplace, and systemic trauma. She provides a space where clients can release the weight of survival, gain tools for grounding and restoration, and build lives rooted in safety, balance, and self-determination.

Beyond her clinical practice, Dr. Jackson provides antiracist and equity trainings for employers, equipping organizations with practical tools to build safer, more inclusive, and equitable environments for minority employees. Her work bridges individual healing with systemic change, ensuring that transformation is not only personal but collective.

Dr. Jackson’s Approach

Dr. Jackson’s approach is culturally aware, action-oriented, and deeply intentional. She works to decolonize therapy spaces and practices, creating environments where marginalized voices are honored, cultural identities are affirmed, and healing is not separated from the social conditions that shape it.

In practice, this means clients are welcomed to show up exactly as they are, without the pressure to mask their identities or perform respectability politics. Clients are recognized as the experts of their own lived experiences, while Dr. Jackson provides tools, guidance, and strategies that support growth and restoration. Her therapeutic space is free from policing, judgment, or imposed norms, making room for authenticity, vulnerability, and empowerment.

Her methods empower clients to move from survival to thriving through practical steps that restore balance, cultivate resilience, and advance liberation.

Her professional background includes service in substance use rehabilitation centers, children’s residential facilities, correctional settings, and military base installations. She is skilled in treating depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and PTSD, always centering the cultural truths of her clients.

When not working, Dr. Jackson enjoys exploring new cultures through travel, reading, and volunteering in her community.