Mary Nii Munteh, Psy.D.

Staff Psychologist, Mind/Body Coordinator

I enjoy clinical work and find that it often energizes me. My approach to therapy is integrative. I weave concepts from the psychodynamic, existentialist, and cognitive behavior approaches. I believe that relationships play a great role in the development and maintenance of symptoms and that effective therapy attempts to correct faulty and maladaptive patterns through providing alternate experiences, developing a healthy sense of self, as well as giving clients the opportunity to take on and evaluate new healthy behaviors. During my training I obtained a concentration in doing trauma work and currently I describe myself as a generalist. I have had significant experience applying my clinical approach to a variety of client presentations ranging from adjustment and stress issues to relational problems, and complex trauma. The organizing thread of my work draws significantly from the multicultural perspectives, as I have an international background and enjoy exploring the impact of diversity issues on the mental health and well-being of my clients and supervisees. My approach to diversity and multicultural treatment is based on my lived experience in several countries and participation in international organizations. Navigating individual and group differences and the impact on mental health concerns of students tends to come naturally to me. Theoretically, I incorporate feminist theories as well as the multicultural literature to help clients when it is appropriate to better understand their distress and to be empowered to make necessary change.

Counseling centers provide a nice balance of the activities that I enjoy doing. Alternating between individual client work and group work, coordinating services (currently Mind/Body and Biofeedback services), preparing and delivering outreach activities, providing supervision, thinking about and developing new programs, as well as teaching counseling skills are important aspects of my work.

Accompanying students in training is an activity that I enjoy and I bring to this role previous experience in training roles outside the field of psychology. My approach is developmental and focused on the goals each trainee desires to achieve during the period we work together. Goal setting in this regard is collaborative and goals are used in a flexible way to ground supervision conversations and focus. I am invested in the growth of the students I supervise and value the relationship and the mutual benefits they provide for trainees and for my ongoing professional development.

Professional development and self-care are important to me and I share these values with my trainees and make it a point to revisit them throughout our work together. As a non-traditional and international student, I credit my success to my having been very intentional in applying self-care activities that worked well for me. Based on this experience, I think having conversations with trainees about their own self-care activities is a valuable contribution toward their overall success. I enjoy the outdoors, gardening, cooking, hanging out with friends, reading comedies, and meditating daily.