Dr. Penner provides therapy services to children, adults, and parents.
She provides therapy to children and adolescents who present with anxiety and emotional difficulties, including:
- anxiety disorders (e.g., generalized worry, perfectionism, selective mutism, social anxiety, etc.)
- obsessive-compulsive disorder
- emotional dysregulation (i.e., getting overwhelmed by emotions)
- chronic pain syndromes
- trichotillomania (hair-pulling) disorder and excoriation (skin-picking) disorder
- body dysmorphic disorder
She also provides therapy to adult individuals for whom anxiety, low self-esteem, depression, or difficulties managing stress is making it difficult to achieve their goals or find peace in their day-to-day life. Common complaints include
- feeling overwhelmed by life demands
- being preoccupied by worry
- feeling persistently sad or angry
- struggling to manage big life changes, such as changing careers
- struggling to manage relationships with others
Finally, she provides parenting support to those would like to improve their ability to parent or collaboratively co-parent, as well as to couples and families experiencing challenging or changing life circumstances, such as
- having children
- blending families
- caring for a child with mental health, behavioural, or medical concerns
- navigating a divorce
- managing challenging family relationships
Dr. Penner’s goal in therapy is to ensure that individual and family functioning is improved. She focuses on treatment programs that allow children, adults, and parents to continue to improve and maintain gains after treatment ends. Importantly, she appreciates the high level of distress that families may be experiencing when treatment is sought, and provides an environment that is warm and supportive (for adults and parents) and fun and approachable (for children and adolescents).

The “How” Dr. Penner uses evidence-based, empirically validated treatments (i.e., treatments that have been shown to be effective in research studies). For emotional or mental health concerns, she uses cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). For family relationship distress, she uses emotionally focused therapy (EFT). For parenting support, she draws from well-validated parenting programs such as the Incredible Years, Triple P, and parent-child interactional therapy.