Melissa Peaslee, LMHC

Melissa Peaslee earned her Bachelor’s degree in psychology at Siena College, and her Master of Clinical Psychology degree at Augusta University. Melissa began her training in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) while working for the Mental Health Association in Massachusetts with adults who were coping with serious and persistent mental health diagnoses with co-occurring addictions. It was there that Melissa attended her first intensive DBT course with Charlie Swenson and subsequently initiated her agency’s first DBT Skills Group for adults with co-occurring disorders.

Melissa furthered her DBT practice in Connecticut, where she worked with adults coping with a wide range of complex mental health issues including trauma, mood, psychotic, anxiety and substance use related diagnoses. While in Connecticut, Melissa developed and provided agency training on using a holistic approach involving dialectical practices in the treatment of co-occurring disorders.

Melissa then moved to NYC where she has worked for the Office of Mental Health since 2001. In her outpatient clinic, Melissa became a Certified Juvenile Sex Offender Counselor (CJSOC) and provided assessment and treatment to adolescents with problematic sexual behavior during her first 10 years with her agency. She developed a victim-centered and dialectically driven treatment program. Melissa also became a faculty member at SUNY Downstate and taught specialized Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to the psychiatry fellows she supervised in an outpatient therapy setting.

Melissa then moved into the general practice outpatient clinic at her OMH agency, where she was able to deepen her specialization in DBT with adolescents and adults and implemented DBT Skills Groups in that clinic. In this setting, Melissa was able to build on her already extensive DBT training and practice to receive over 6 years of specialized consultation and study with experts from www.TICLLC.org. It was here that Melissa began delivering individual DBT therapy in addition to DBT Skills Groups for adolescents and young adults. Melissa became an agency trainer of DBT and founding member of the DBT Sustainability Team. Melissa provided DBT skills training to students at the Columbia University Dialectical Behavior Training Program in the School of Social Work.

After years of observing the effectiveness of DBT in assisting clients with reaching their goals,  Melissa completed specialized DBT-C training, a treatment developed to use the principles of DBT to treat children and their families. Melissa now serves children, adults and adolescents with a wide range of needs who seek DBT and CBT treatment. Melissa has been particularly inspired by the addition of mindfulness and dialectical thinking to CBT and other treatment practices and has studied and practiced in her personal life. Melissa brings a deep level of compassion, empathy, equanimity and commitment to inclusivity to her practice.