Trauma Focused Therapists in Sag Harbor, NY

Dr. Pentcheva is dedicated to providing evidence-based psychological interventions geared towards promoting individual and family wellness. She offers a wide range of services to help meet the needs of children and families from all over the Hamptons and beyond. Dr. Pentcheva specializes in working with children, young adults and their parents and takes a preventative, strengths based approach to treatment. By creating engaging, child-centered exercises for children and adolescents, she helps them to acquire new skills and incorporate them into their everyday lives.

If you feel lost, confused or hopeless about your life or your relationships, you can turn things around. You can get clear about these problems, and find solutions. You can have a life that more authentically fits who you really are. You can manage your relationships so they begin to feel warm and fun again. When you're suffering and feeling awful, it may be hard to believe that there are things you can do to feel good again. It may also be hard to believe that you can find the power to shift and revive painful relationships.

I fundamentally believe in the connection between the mind and body, and work from a client-centered, somatic approach. Through therapy, we'll explore your history, nervous system, and relationship to your body. With intentional work, we'll get a better understanding of your unique experience, patterns that your nervous system engages in, and how to learn and unlearn new ways of knowing.

I strive to illuminate your existing strengths and help you to recognize ways to apply these strengths to the areas of your life where you are feeling discouraged or stuck. I will help you to regain your equilibrium, achieve your goals and bring out your best self. I address anxiety/ depression, relationship issues, couples therapy, addictions, weight/eating issues, divorce. I do extensive work with high functioning ambitious adults helping to refine personal goals, push past obstacles and more fully realize potential. I also love working with children, teens and parents.

I have experience working with young adults and adults who struggle with depression, anxiety, relationship and familial conflicts, self-esteem, transitions, and work stress. My goal as your therapist is to assist you in developing coping mechanisms, effective communication skills, and a greater sense of self-confidence to utilize outside the therapy walls. I believe everyone deserves a safe, friendly, and warm environment to decompress and find clarity. I will be patient and empathetic, listening deeply, and guiding a gentle and honest conversation.

With over two decades of dedicated practice in clinical social work, I bring a depth of understanding and compassion to my work with adults and couples. My areas of expertise include guiding individuals through the complexities of depression, anxiety, and relationship challenges. As a therapist trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), I journey with clients through the shadows of past traumas to the light of healing. Throughout this process, we gently unravel and reweave the tapestries of their lives, transforming pain into resilience.

Covid-19 has brought the world of mental health fragility to a new level never seen before. The isolation and loneliness felt by everyone from children to the elderly has caused a rise in depression, anxiety and fear regarding every day life and the future. These strains are unhealthy emotionally and physically and need attention to avoid lasting impressions. The working relationship in therapy is to define underlying issues, stuck thought patterns and transform negative behavior to evolve into a positive and thriving attitude and consequently, life choices. We will join together to create the life you desire, as I help guide you.

Family members often call me to help intervene on a family member and help them start a path to recovery. I have been sober for more than 12 years. I am certified as an interventionist, trained in the ARISE method, and also a certified addiction recovery coach. We can intervene on a family member in a matter of days, and we can start them on successful recovery this week.

Are you looking for support and encouragement to take the next steps toward the life of your choosing? I am dedicated to helping you achieve peace with your past and present challenges, and to better align with your authentic Self. Our sessions provide a safe space, where patience, compassion, and acceptance allow us to work together to achieve your life goals, dreams, and your heart’s desire. When current life stressors feel overwhelming, or familiar patterns play out in the form of symptoms, blocks, or blind spots, it may be a sign that past painful experiences are activated in present day life.

Therapy can help you work through problems that feel too big or overwhelming to tackle alone. Together, in a warm and confidential space, we can begin to explore what is making you feel anxious or stuck without judgement or fear. In therapy with me, you will be seen as an individual person with unique desires and experiences, not a collection of symptoms or issues. In session, you can expect liveliness and candor as we discuss the things you wish to explore: relationships, work, worries, goals and sense of self.

You're in the right place if you've experienced trauma earlier in your life AND you're now going through a big change. After trying regular talk therapy and doing it yourself, you still feel stuck in the same old patterns. Your body has reactions that you can't seem to control. You can't stop thinking about the past. Regular talk therapy and/or doing it on your own (DIY) may have made you feel more hopeless, helpless, stuck and lonely. It’s not your fault, though. The traditional methods are not designed to help you fully heal.

I hold a Master of Science from Columbia University and Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley. My experience includes intensive work with anxiety, depression, trauma, addiction, couples therapy and bereavement. I've worked on-staff as a psychotherapist at Stony Brook Hospital, The Dunes East Hampton and Quannacut Addiction Rehab Eastern Long Island, and in private practice for well over a decade. I offer in-person appointments, online sessions as well as concierge care. My column, "Thoughts from a Therapist" appears in the East Hampton Press, Southampton Press, Sag Harbor Express and online at 27east.

My therapeutic approach focuses on my belief that when it comes to an individual’s life, they are the expert. As a therapist, it is my job to be expert on theory and techniques, to assist client's in realizing their own capabilities of deciding where they want to go, and I encourage the strengths within themselves to pursue wherever that is and to identity what that will take to get there. First, however, I must address the level of resistance a client shows.My treatment heavily looks at aspects of internalization, pulls from psychoanalytic theories of neurosis, specifically signal anxiety, and focuses on realizing personal agency.

I often work with individuals who are struggling with overthinking and low self-esteem, who find themselves becoming easily overwhelmed and stressed, or who may be highly ambitious, but find that perfectionism or self-criticism gets in their way. For over a decade I have specialized in treating adults coping with anxiety, depressive moods, life transitions and relationship issues. I strive to create a compassion focused, collaborative and integrative space utilizing evidence based modalities, with influence from my holistic background and ongoing trainings.

Are you a new Mother that is struggling to balance motherhood , career and self care? Do you feel like you have lost your identity, or are having a hard time getting back to normal? Are you grieving the loss of a recent pregnancy & wondering if you will ever get pregnant and sustain a viable pregnancy? If you’re struggling to communicate with your partner and want to get back to a healthy, loving relationship… You don’t have to be alone in this … Maybe you’re needing help — and a lot of it — right now, and you don’t want to spend months or even years in the traditional weekly model of therapy treatment to feel better.