Melinda Bell is the Co-Founder of Christ Centered Community Counseling, aka C4. Melinda was formally trained in high school education and began her career teaching African American Studies in Charlotte’s inner-city, where she recognized right away that she had a gift with adolescents and young adults. In the classroom, lessons were brought to life through interactive, culturally significant, multimedia “experiences” that inspired students to speak out against injustice and racism. However, at home things were falling apart. She and her husband began Christian counseling as a last Hail Mary to save their marriage. The couple was transformed by God’s redemptive work in the counseling room but were heart broken to see that marginalized communities didn’t have access to the same counseling that had changed their lives. In 2016 they founded Christ Centered Community Counseling to make Christ centered counseling available to people in the urban inner city.  Melinda is a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor Intern, a North Carolina Peer Support Specialist, and a certified trauma trainer. In addition to seeing patients, she leads professional development for teachers and community members on trauma, resilience and the brain. While she continues to pursue the ongoing work of exploring her own story through intense individual counseling, she is also committed to making as many memories as possible with her four remarkable children and husband of 18 years.