Elizabeth Penela PhD
Psychologist
15800 Pines Boulevard
Pembroke Pines, Florida 33027
ADA Accessible
Narrative of Services:
I provide evidence-based therapy for children and adults struggling with anxiety, OCD, and related concerns. I also work with parents of children who struggle with anxiety and OCD using the SPACE treatment approach. About 60% of my patients are individuals living with OCD.
I use Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) within a warm, compassionate, and empowering environment. I also use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and mindfulness practices. My goal is to empower individuals to learn and practice coping tools to face current obstacles, and to develop confidence in their ability to navigate future challenges.
Training Description:
I completed my PhD in Clinical Psychology and post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Miami. Then, at Pediatric Psychology Associates, a private practice group in South Florida, I helped to establish their Anxiety and OCD IOP treatment program.
I also I completed the Pediatric BTTI, an intensive training course led by experts at the IOCDF, with direct training from Drs. Eric Storch and Martin Franklin. In 2020, I completed the basic SPACE training (treatment for parents of children with anxiety and OCD), and later the advanced Failure to Launch training (for parents of adults) with Dr. Eli Lebowitz.
Diversity Statement:
I am a native Spanish speaker and enjoy working with individuals and families of diverse backgrounds. As a child of Peruvian immigrants, I have a personal understanding of how immigration experiences can impact each generation within a family differently. I feel fortunate to serve the South Florida community, where individuals of many different cultural, religious, and racial backgrounds seek treatment.
I trained at the University of Miami (in South Florida) for my PhD and post-doctoral fellowship. As such, my clinical training was primarily with clients of diverse cultural, socioeconomic, and religious backgrounds, at different stages of acculturation.
My clinical experiences throughout my training and in private practice have allowed me to develop cultural competence, which is something that I continuously cultivated through clinical experience.
