About Penelope
Penelope Surber is a licensed mental health counselor practicing in Florida. She brings eight years of clinical experience supporting adults through stress, anxiety, depression, addictions, and trauma. Her style is warm and person-centered.
Penelope aims to create a respectful, compassionate space where people can begin to make changes. Before obtaining her Florida LMHC credential, she spent several years working as a trauma therapist at a recovery center. That experience included helping people affected by childhood abuse, domestic violence, and complex grief.
Background and approach
She has also worked with those coping with codependency, attachment and abandonment issues, and first responder stress. Her work blends practical talk and skill-building with attention to emotions and personal meaning. Penelope uses cognitive behavioral techniques to notice and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors.
She also draws on dialectical behavior ideas to teach coping and emotional regulation skills. Sessions focus on clear goals and steps the client can try between meetings. Penelope listens closely, mirrors concerns, and adapts the plan as progress is made.
She avoids stigmatizing labels and treats people with empathy and sensitivity. People who value a collaborative, interactive approach tend to find this style helpful. Penelope supports those working through family-of-origin struggles, breakup and divorce stress, caregiver strain, and the fallout from traumatic events.
She communicates plainly and keeps tools simple so they fit into busy lives.
Approaches and how they work online
Client-centered therapy focuses on the person and their experience, using active listening and empathy so people can find their own solutions; it often helps with self-esteem, relationship concerns, and coping after trauma. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at the link between thoughts, feelings, and actions and teaches practical tools to change unhelpful patterns, which can reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) offers specific skills for emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and improving communication that are useful for intense emotions and self-destructive patterns.Deciding which approach to use is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences, and what has or hasn’t worked in the past. Together they will try methods and adjust the plan based on what feels most helpful for the client.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to fit different schedules and needs. Video sessions allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions can work when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text messaging can be used for brief check-ins, flexible communication, and ongoing support between longer sessions.
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 8 years
- Licensed
- Florida
- Languages
- English