Named "psychology's telehealth visionary" by Dr. Pat DeLeon, Dr. Marlene M. Maheu has been a leader and pioneer in telehealth since 1994. Impassioned by psychology since graduate school, she was a pioneer in recognizing not only how psychology could be leveraged through technology to help many more people in early 1995. Given her extensive clinical training, she became immediately involved with the American Psychological Association to focus on ethical issues in an effort to prevent the potential harm of using technology as well.
During the ensuing two decades, Dr. Maheu has demonstrated strong leadership in advancing the breadth and reach of psychology through technology worldwide, while steadfastly adhering to the legal and ethical values that have shaped our profession since inception. As a pioneer in the march toward technological advancement of psychology worldwide, she is known for many firsts:
• Dr. Maheu was the first independent psychological practitioner to develop an online consumer portal for psychology. The first privately held Internet resource for mental health information was known as Self Help Magazine. It went live in November of 1994 and served millions of people worldwide for two decades.
• In 1995, Dr. Maheu chaired the first Telehealth-related Task Force at the APA. She also was involved in a number of early APA functions related to technology, including the hiring of the APA’s first legal expert with telehealth expertise. And dozens of APA convention programs.
• In 1998, she was appointed to a 3-year term on APA's Committee for Professional Practice Standards (COPPS) as its first "telehealth lead."
• She has since served on more than a dozen task forces and committees related to telehealth in a variety of national and state associations.
• Since 1995, she was the first psychologist to offer telepsychology-related in-person training. Her webinar, conference panel presentations, symposia, workshops, and now, certification program audiences have now held more than 20,000 practitioners.
• She was the first psychologist to be the lead author of an article about psychologist’s awareness of legal and ethical mandates related to the use of technology in clinical practice published in a psychology journal (Psychological Research and Practice, 2000).
• She was the first psychologist to be the lead author or a telehealth academic and professional book.
• She was the first psychologist to be the lead author of a telehealth handbook specializing in mental health.
• She was the first psychologist to offer professional training programs 100% online with APA as well as ASWB, NBCC and NAADAC CE approval.
• Currently, she’s the Executive Director of the Telebehavioral Health Institute (TBHI), offering the first post-graduate CE professional Certificate Training Programs expanding telepsychology to an interprofessional focus on telebehavioral health. This program has now served thousands of professionals from 65 countries.
• She is the first psychologist to offer telebehavioral health consultation to traditional behavioral health care groups and academic institutions seeking to develop competency-based telehealth services, as well as international hardware and software companies seeking to move into the behavioral arena.
• She was the first psychologist to spearhead efforts to start a technology-focused division to advance practice, science and policy at APA. While neither the 1998 nor the more sophisticated attempt in 2013 succeeded to garner APA Council approval, she was the first psychologist to draw the attention of the psychology community to the need to systematically address psychologist’s use of technology.
• She obtained the contract and co-authored the APA’s first book for telemental health best practices.
• Dr. Maheu is now the President and CEO of the Coalition for Technology in Behavioral Science (CTiBS) since its inception. She founded the first such interprofessional group and has shepherded its growth since 2011.
• She chaired the CTiBS Telebehavioral Competencies Task Force, the first group to develop the first telebehavioral competencies worldwide.
• As such, she is the first author in the publication of the telebehavioral health competencies in the Journal for Technology in Behavioral Science (JTiBS).
• This journal is also the product of her efforts, in that it is the first interprofessional behavioral journal devoted to responsible research and practice related to technology in behavioral science. It was negotiated under her leadership by the Board of CTiBS, which she Chairs as the non-profit’s founding member and CEO.
• Dr. Maheu has also pioneered the first interprofessional credentialing process for telebehavioral health, as based on the new CTiBS competencies.
• She now is traveling the country to give the first 2-day, 15-hour certification workshop as the lead trainer for TBHI.
• She is now also pioneering the first Train-the-Trainer telebehavioral health program through TBHI to train a team of speakers and consultants to work with her to deliver these services to larger groups.
• Lastly, she is the lead author on another book, but this time, the first materials for graduate schools seeking to offer coursework to graduate psychology students. She has recently signed a contract with Cognella publishers to develop the profession’s textbook along with the first digitized graduate course modules for graduate schools through their eLearning environment.
