HEALTH PSYCH MAINE - Key Persons
Dr. Mihm is a licensed psychologist specializing in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) including the trauma-focused and evidence based practices of Prolonged Exposure (PE) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT). Her focus is post-traumatic stress related disorders (PTSD), depression, insomnia, and anxiety disorders including social and specific phobias, generalized anxiety, and panic.
Dr. Mihm completed her internship at Spokane Mental Health Center in Washington State working with general mental health issues including domestic violence, grief/loss, and suicide prevention. She received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Nova Southeastern University before accepting a position with the VA Hospital in Palo Alto, CA where she worked as an Attending on a 24-bed, psychiatric inpatient unit. She also served as Clinical Affiliated Instructor with Stanford University supervising medical students, psychiatric residents, and psychology graduate students.
In 2006, Dr. Mihm returned to her Maine roots and was hired by the VA Maine Health Care System as the Team Leader of the PTSD Program and PTSD Clinical Team (PCT). In addition to her clinical duties, Dr. Mihm served as Chair of the Disruptive Behavior Committee and Employee Threat Assessment Team and supervised medical students, psychiatric residents, and psychology graduate students. Dr. Mihm has presented throughout the medical and law enforcement communities on issues related to PTSD.
Dr. Meyer has been a psychologist with Health Psych Maine since 2011, initially on a part-time basis, then transitioning to full-time in 2014. He became clinical director and owner in October 2019 following the retirement of Dr. Jeff Matranga. He has presented throughout the medical, fire, and law enforcement communities on issues related to PTSD and self-care. Dr. Meyer is a specialist with O2X Human Performance, giving him the opportunity to work with fire departments, law enforcement, and veterans/military personnel throughout the country.
Dr. Meyer is a licensed psychologist specializing in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and empirically based treatments, including Prolonged Exposure (PE), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Interpersonal Therapy for Depression (IPT), and Integrated Behavioral Couples Therapy (IBCT). His focus is PTSD/trauma-related disorders, depression, anxiety, adjustment, and couples therapy.
Dr. Meyer completed his internship at the Salem VA Medical Center in Virginia and post-doctoral training with Boston University and the VA Boston Healthcare System. He received his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of South Dakota with a specialization in Disaster Mental Health. Dr. Meyer has co-authored a book chapter on psychological first aid, published articles related to assessment and treatment of trauma-related disorders, and presented on trauma psychology topics internationally.
Dr. Meyer joined the PTSD Clinical Treatment Team at the Togus VA Medical Center in 2009, where in addition to his clinical duties he served as a member of the Dartmouth Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects (VA Maine Medical Center's IRB of record) and supervised clinical psychology interns and residents as a member of the Psychology Training Committee. He left the VA in 2014 to focus full-time on his work at Health Psych Maine.
Prior to his psychology career, Dr. Meyer spent 14 years as an EMT/Firefighter, working for the U.S. Forest Service as an engine foreman and helicopter rappeller, and for a municipal fire/EMS department. In his free time, he enjoys canoeing/kayaking, hiking, woodworking, and making maple syrup from trees on his property.
Dr. Matranga focuses on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness-based CBT applied in an individualized, compassionate manner.
Dr. Jeff Matranga founded Health Psych Maine (HPM) in 2000 with Jeri Wilson and was clinical director and owner of until October, 2019, when he transitioned to semi-retirement (more explanation below) and passed the leadership and ownership baton over to the very competent and caring hands of David Meyer, Ph.D. and Eliza Meyer.
Dr. Jeff Matranga is grateful to have been surrounded by a team of excellent professionals and support staff, including his wife, Jeri Wilson, who did a fabulous job as practice manager. He is also grateful to long-time colleagues Jonathan Borkum, Ph.D., Stacy Whitcomb-Smith, Ph.D., and Chantal Mihm, Ph.D., along with Dave Meyer, Ph.D and the other clinicians. Over the years, we grew from 2 to 8 providers and the support staff grew accordingly.
Although Dr. Matranga is no longer a regular part of HPM, he does see some people on a self-pay basis. If you are interested in that, please contact him by this email or by calling the main office for Health Psych Maine and they can give you his phone number.
Dr. Matranga is a psychologist specializing in:
Health Psychology/Behavioral Medicine such as coping with and adjusting to chronic and catastrophic illness and making lifestyle changes to increase wellness.
Treatment of anxiety disorders including worry/Generalized Anxiety Disorder(GAD), Panic Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Acute Stress Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and Social Anxiety Disorder (also known as Social Phobia).
Depression.
Insomnia.
With their son, Wes, Jeff completed the Missoula Montana Marathon twice, in 2018 and 2019, making for 4 completed full marathons in 18 months.
Dr. Borkum is a licensed psychologist with twenty years of experience in the treatment of pain and headaches. He earned a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Maine, where he continues as an adjunct associate professor. He has also taught the unit on pain in a postdoctoral program at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology in Boston.
His peer-reviewed book on pain and headaches has been published by Taylor and Francis and has been added to academic libraries throughout the world.
He has written journal articles on such topics as the biology and psychology of chronic pain, and migraine triggers, physiology, and medications. His work is part of the basis for the metabolic theory of migraines.
He also reviews manuscripts submitted to the journals Headache, Cephalalgia, and the Clinical Journal of Pain, and has contributed chapters to the textbooks Refractory Migraine: Mechanisms and Management, Handbook of Complex Occupational Disability Claims, Head, Face, and Neck Pain: Science, Evaluation, and Management, and the Handbook of Clinical Psychopharmacology for Psychologists.
Job Titles:
- Psychologist
- Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Dr. Foster is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and the treatment of OCD, anxiety, and trauma. Dr. Foster offers compassionate evidence-based therapy for adults and adolescents. Her approach to treatment with CBT focuses on changing unhelpful patterns of thinking and behavior that can keep people stuck. Therapy often includes exposure-based approaches, mindfulness strategies, and self-compassion. Dr. Foster works toward your goals by helping you learn to get out of your mind, do more of what you love, and take some risks to try new things.
Melanie is licensed in Maine as a Clinical Professional Counselor as well as an Alcohol and Drug Counselor. She additionally holds certification in Clinical Supervision and is a Nationally Board Certified Counselor. She has over 20 years of experience in the social services field with a variety of professional positions in both state government and non-profit organizations. The last 10 years of Melanie's career has been dedicated to providing direct clinical care specializing in the treatment of co-occurring disorders, behavioral addictions, mood disorders and PTSD/trauma.
Melanie earned her undergraduate degree in 1999 from Austin Peay State University in Tennessee with a B.S. in Sociology/Psychology. She continued her academic studies by earning a Master's Degree in Public Administration in 2005 as well as a Master's Degree in Counselor Education in 2009 both from the University of Maine. In 2011, Melanie was accepted into Fielding Graduate University's Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology where she continued her academic and clinical studies as a PhD candidate. Melanie also held an adjunct position at Kennebec Valley Community College teaching a Co-occurring Disorders course in 2012.
Melanie provides clinical treatment utilizing a multi-modal approach to counseling that is heavily reliant on evidence-based interventions including CBT (cognitive-behavioral therapy) and DBT (dialectical behavior therapy) while also integrating holistic, person-centered, solution-focused, and trauma-informed perspectives. She has provided treatment in many environments including residential facilities working with adolescents; in-home treatment working with children and families; and outpatient services where she provided treatment to adults, children and families. For the last 6 years Melanie has concentrated her clinical expertise in a DBT informed Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) where she works with a highly skilled clinical team of behavioral health specialists providing individual, couples, family and group treatment working with individuals who have co-occurring disorders.
Prior to her clinical work, Melanie was involved in multiple aspects of governmental services and processes, some of which involved evaluating the performance of Maine's healthcare systems as well as program needs; developing and implementing recommendations for improvements; closely collaborating with state and federal agencies; developing health care policy through consensus based rulemaking; monitoring legislative activities regarding policy initiatives; and conducting mental health and substance abuse agency licensing reviews. Through these experiences, Melanie gained extensive knowledge in the areas of behavioral health programming to include rules, regulations and policy development at both a state and federal level which has complemented her clinical work.
Dr. Goetze is a licensed clinical health psychologist specializing in the evaluation and treatment of acute and chronic health challenges. She emphasizes the use of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and evidence-based treatments for behavioral weight loss, insomnia, chronic pain, and health management. Mindfulness and acceptance-based strategies from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) compliment her work with CBT approaches, and Dr. Goetze adapts these treatments to create an individualized fit for each person's needs.
Dr. Goetze earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from an APA-accredited doctoral program at the University of Maine. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at VA Boston Healthcare System providing evaluation and treatment to individuals with spinal cord and vascular injuries, receiving palliative care, and undergoing bariatric and metabolic surgery. She completed two-year postdoctoral training at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, where she provided evaluation and treatment across medical populations including those engaged in pain rehabilitation, transplant service, sleep medicine, and integrated behavioral health. During Mayo Clinic training, Dr. Goetze specialized in assessing and serving people with medically complicated obesity and those preparing for, or with a history of, bariatric surgery.
Dr. Goetze has co-authored peer-reviewed articles and presented her health psychology research at over thirty national and international conferences. With the long-term goal of returning to her home state of Maine, she was thrilled to join VA Maine Healthcare System, Togus in Augusta before transitioning to the Health Psych Maine team where she is able to provide health psychology services to communities across the state.
Dr. Whitcomb-Smith is a licensed psychologist with a special interest in problems related to the integration of the mind and body. She uses evidence-based treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) techniques to address anxiety disorders, chronic pain, insomnia and health management. Dr. Whitcomb-Smith completed her internship at Albany (NY) Consortium focusing on the integration of psychology in medical settings, treatment of pain, and working with older adults. She received her doctorate from the University of Maine and completed post-doctoral training with Kennebec Behavioral Health focusing on outpatient treatment of disorders. Dr. Whitcomb-Smith has an external faculty appointment to the University of Maine where she has taught graduate courses and currently supervises clinical work of doctoral students in the graduate psychology program.