Yanira Peña, LMFT
Yanira Peña is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, founder of New Beginning Family Counseling & Training Center, Inc in Tustin, CA. Her specialty is working with adult individuals suffering in silence, feeling depleted, broken and not enough in their relationships. Through her work, Yanira joins with these individuals to find a healthier balance in their relationships and embrace any brokenness as a badge of honor. Among her areas of expertise are working with individuals and couples who have experienced a traumatic event, loss through death, infidelity, need support in navigating their grief or are in an ambivalent state in their relationship not knowing if their relationship is salvageable.
Yanira completed her undergraduate work at University of California, Irvine, obtaining a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology & Social Behavioral and a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminology, Law & Society. As an undergraduate student she had the opportunity to mentor incoming transfer students, to help support them in having a successful transition into the university; an opportunity she wholeheartedly understood as a first-generation transfer student herself. She has also worked with at-risk and low-income communities in the school setting and volunteered with the Los Angeles Probation Department, providing case management and group support. Upon graduating, she was offered a position as a Detention Service Officer helping provide supervision for detained at-risk youth. Her personal life and work experiences highlighted the need for earlier intervention needed for the at-risk youth population and families that needed support in navigating life challenges. Yanira decided to pursue her Master’s Degree in Marriage & Family Therapy at California State University, Long Beach in hopes of joining the prevention community and providing support to individuals and families when it came to navigating life's hardships for a fair chance at overcoming and thriving in their lives.
While completing her Master’s, Yanira worked at a community agency serving children, adolescents and families. She provided individual and family counseling using evidence-based models, mainly working with trauma survivors, domestic violence, family reunification, and at-risk youth and facilitating psycho educational groups on parenting, emotional and behavior regulation for children. Yanira worked in close collaboration with the department of social services and local schools to provide case management support to her clients.
As a graduate of California State University, Long Beach, with over 10 years of clinical experience in the mental health field, Yanira is currently serving as a private practitioner working with individuals, couples and families. She is an interactive, client-centered and emotionally focused therapist. Trained in Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Prepare/Enrich, Discernment Counseling, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and Grief Recovery Method. She incorporates client’s spirituality when requested by clients. Yanira is bilingual and serves the Spanish-speaking community.
As a public speaker Yanira has been a guest lecturer covering topics such as clinical interventions for trauma, relationships, and therapy and religion/spirituality. Most recently she has been speaking on how couples and parents can navigate stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yanira has also completed the required training to provide Clinical Supervision for pre-licensed therapists.
“Just when the caterpillar thought her life was over she began to fly”
