SERVICES
Teletherapy Services
Clinical psychologist Dr. Margie Melaniphy (formerly Provenzano) offers therapy exclusively through secure telehealth platforms. Although located in Minnesota, she is licensed to provide telehealth treatment to clients who reside in 36 states, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Therapeutic Approach
At Proven Behavioral Health, we specialize in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, a mindfulness and acceptance-based therapy for individual adults with anxiety disorders, depression, relationship issues and work-related stressors.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has developed as a behavioral intervention to help people learn strategies to live life more in the present, more focused on important values and goals, and less focused on painful thoughts, feelings and experiences. ACT teaches people how to engage with and overcome painful thoughts and feelings through acceptance and mindfulness techniques, to develop self-compassion and flexibility, and to build life-enhancing patterns of behavior. ACT is not about overcoming pain or fighting emotions; it’s about embracing life and feeling everything it has to offer. It offers a way out of suffering by choosing to live a life based on what matters most.
ACT has developed within a scientific tradition, and there continues to be a thriving research community that examines the basic science underlying ACT and the effectiveness of applying ACT techniques to numerous life problems such as anxiety, workplace stress, depression, PTSD, substance abuse, chronic pain, psychosis, eating problems, and weight management, just to name a few. ACT is also now being used in VA hospitals to treat veterans with PTSD, and it has been deemed an evidence-based practice by SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices.
We have extensive training and experience using ACT, and we have seen again and again how it can help people live rich, full, meaningful lives. ACT is useful not just for people struggling with mental health problems, but as a philosophy of life for anyone interested in getting more from their day-to-day experiences.
To learn more about ACT, visit the ACBS website. Two books we often recommend for patients who are interested in reading more about ACT are Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life by Steve Hayes, and The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living, by Russ Harris.