TV presenter-turned-psychotherapist Melinda Messenger, 53, talks to Joanna Ebsworth about changing careers, following her heart, and the importance of taking on new challenges.
Melinda Messenger is living proof that you can successfully switch careers in midlife when you put your mind to it. Having graced our TV screens for almost three decades, the former glamour model-turned-presenter, 53, made the conscious decision back in 2010 to begin stepping away from the showbiz spotlight to pursue her childhood dream of becoming a psychotherapist. And years of academic endeavour later, it’s clear the risk has paid off: having completed her diploma and master’s degree, the mum-of-three now runs a private psychotherapy practice at the Centre for Psychotherapy in London. She has also trained to become a dream guide; taken a course in mindfulness at Oxford University; and is days away from qualifying as a reiki master and energy therapist when I meet her for the first time – along with Platinum Editor-in-Chief Katy Sunnassee – at a swanky celeb-packed party for her TV agent’s birthday (she still dips her toes into telly work when the urge takes her).
Our meeting is short and sweet – just like Melinda herself who, at a petite five foot two, radiates enough warmth to heat a church hall. Our time is only cut short due to the fact that she’s setting off on a charity trek up Snowdon the next day with her fiancé, television expedition leader and medic Dr Raj Joshi, who she first met when she was least expecting it, on the 2023 series of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins. All I can do after wishing Melinda lots of luck on her next adventure and watching her head home for an early night, is grab another glass of Sauvignon Blanc, sigh a little enviously, and turn to Katy to ask, ‘how does she do it?’. But then, Melinda is the first to admit her journey to building a new career has been far from easy when I catch up with her over Zoom a few days later.
‘Up until the point when I started to fully wind down my TV work around seven years ago and start training, I’d spent over a decade doing up to four different TV shows a year, often working every day back-to-back,’ says Melinda. ‘It was just one thing after another, and while I was really grateful to have all those opportunities, I also recognised if I didn’t make a conscious choice to step away [from TV], I’d never get to be a psychotherapist, and that would be something I’d massively regret.’
It was during a stin
