Our editorial mission
BehavioralHealthGuide.org exists to help patients and families find verified behavioral health care and understand their treatment options. Our content mission is simple: provide accurate, accessible, evidence-based information that helps people make informed decisions about their mental health care.
We are not a clinical practice and do not provide medical advice. Our content is designed to educate and inform — not to replace the judgment of a licensed clinician who knows your specific situation.
How our content is created
Research and sourcing
All clinical claims are sourced from peer-reviewed research, clinical practice guidelines from professional organizations (APA, APA, NASW, SAMHSA, NAMI), and the current DSM-5-TR. We do not publish treatment recommendations based on anecdote, opinion, or unvalidated sources.
Writing standards
Content is written at an accessible reading level (approximately 8th grade) to ensure it is understandable to patients and families without clinical training. We avoid jargon where possible and define clinical terms when they are necessary.
Clinical review
All content in our clinical guides and blog articles is reviewed by a licensed clinician with relevant specialty expertise before publication. Reviewers check factual accuracy, currency with clinical guidelines, appropriate framing for a patient audience, and that no claims overstate the evidence.
Our clinical reviewers
Provider data standards
Provider listings on BehavioralHealthGuide.org are sourced exclusively from public federal and state data — not from provider payments or self-reports. Our data sources include the CMS NPI Registry, SAMHSA treatment locator, and all 50 state licensing boards. Every listing is verified against active license status before appearing in search results.
We update provider data monthly. Providers with expired, suspended, or revoked licenses are automatically removed from search results. No provider pays to appear or rank higher in our results — rankings are determined solely by relevance and location.
Corrections policy
If you identify a factual error in our content, please contact us at editorial@behavioralhealthguide.org. We review correction requests within 5 business days. When a correction is made, we note the update date on the affected page.
What we are not
BehavioralHealthGuide.org is an information and directory resource — not a clinical service. We do not provide diagnoses, treatment recommendations for specific individuals, crisis counseling, or any form of clinical care. If you are in crisis, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.