Our Providers | Brisa Peña, PsyD

Brisa Peña, PsyD

Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Illuminating the wisdom within!

Dr. Brisa Peña combines clinical expertise with a passion for empowering her clients to embrace their authenticity, guiding them to courageously navigate their unique lived realities. She is deeply committed to uplifting her clients by creating a nonjudgmental space where they can safely process their personal challenges, build resilience, and flourish. Rooted in cultural humility and empathy, Dr. Peña strives to help each client cultivate their innate capacity for presence, compassion, and connection, while building coping skills and fostering a sense of community to support them throughout their lives.

Believing in the transformative power of creativity, Dr. Peña integrates art, music, meditation, breathwork, mindfulness, and play into her interventions, encouraging clients to use creative expression as a tool for self-discovery and healing. Her hope is that her clients learn to trust their own voice, embrace their own messy, beautiful journey, and face their fears with love.

In her free time, Dr. Peña enjoys playing the handpan and painting abstract works of art. She loves cats, has a knack for discovering unique chocolate treats, and enjoys eating Asian cuisine.

Education & Experience

Dr. Peña earned both a Doctoral and Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Brown University. She completed her clinical internship at NYP/Columbia University Irving Medical Center and her postdoctoral residency at Kaiser Permanente Union City Medical Center.

In graduate school, Dr. Peña specialized in child, adolescent, family, and pediatric interventions, gaining extensive experience with diverse youth, families, and adults in settings such as nonprofit agencies, schools, outpatient clinics, and major hospitals. As part of her academic work, she conducted dissertation research on clinicians’ experiences working with pansexual youth, which was later published in the Journal of Bisexuality and the Journal of Sexual and Relationship Therapy. She received comprehensive supervision in evidence-based treatments, including cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), group and family-based therapies, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT), and crisis intervention, all while integrating culturally responsive care into her practice to address the unique needs of her clientele. Her training also emphasized integrating developmental, biological, and social factors to address a wide range of issues, including anxiety, depression, ADHD, autism, eating disorders, Tourette syndrome, complex trauma, self-harm, and more.

Before joining OCHP, Dr. Peña founded a trauma-informed mentoring business to support women of color on their healing and spiritual journeys. As a bicultural practitioner, she is actively improving her Spanish fluency to offer therapy in Spanish for those who prefer it.