Melanie C. Talley, Ph.D.
Dr. Talley began her undergraduate career in psychology at Temple University, in Philadelphia, where she was accepted into both the university and psychology major honors’ programs. Her thesis mentor was Dr. Suzanne Miller, a forerunner in research on health, stress, and coping. These experiences prepared Dr. Talley for graduate study in clinical psychology at the University of Michigan. Dr. Christopher Peterson supervised her master’s thesis, which incorporated Folkman and Lazarus’s Ways of Coping Questionnaire to explore undergraduate students’ coping styles. This was excellent preparation for her adult psychotherapy internship at The Psychological Clinic.
Dr. Talley’s interests became specific to neuropsychology. She sought training opportunities through three Ann Arbor Veterans’ Affairs Summer Traineeships (with Dr. Kenneth Adams) and a clinical neuropsychology internship at the University of Michigan Medical Center (with Dr. Linas Bieliauskas). After living and working in Germany with her husband, Dr. Sam Safavi-Abbasi (an OU neurosurgery resident), Dr. Talley completed her Clinical Neuropsychology postdoctoral residency at the Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI) in Phoenix, Arizona. She learned to perform cognitive neurorehabilitation and psychotherapy for individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) under her mentor and Clinical Director of the Center for Transitional Neurorehabilitation (CTN), Dr. Pamela Klonoff. Dr. Klonoff completed her postdoctoral training with Dr. George Prigatano, director of the BNI Clinical Neuropsychology Department and training director, here in Oklahoma City. Dr. Prigatano developed a milieu-oriented, neurorehabilitation program at OU Medical Center’s Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Talley studied clinical assessment of neurological syndromes with Dr. Prigatano, who sponsored her observership with Dr. Yehuda Ben-Yishay, director of the only other milieu-oriented treatment program for TBI (aside from CTN).
Text Box: Dr. Melanie C. Talley, Ph.D.