Clinical rigor.
Human warmth.

Dr. Pensak helps adults feel steadier inside experiences that can make life feel suddenly unfamiliar—anxiety, depression, OCD, postpartum changes, cancer, relationship stress, and major transitions.

Her work reflects a rare integration of clinical care and research. She brings evidence-based approaches into the room without reducing a person to symptoms, and she makes sophisticated psychological science useful in the moments when people need it most. Her style is collaborative, active, and deeply attuned to context: what happened, what is happening now, and what a fuller life might look like next.

Dr. Pensak earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Rhode Island. She completed an APA-accredited internship at Yale School of Medicine, with specialty training in Behavioral Medicine, before pursuing advanced fellowship training in psychiatric oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She later completed an NIH T32 fellowship in aging and palliative care at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Across academic medical centers, she has studied caregiver distress, anxiety, cancer survivorship, treatment adherence, palliative care, and technology-enabled mental health interventions. Her prior roles include Director of Psycho-Oncology at Jersey Shore University Medical Center’s Hope Tower, Assistant Professor of Oncology at Georgetown University Medical Center, Assistant Scientist at Hackensack University Medical Center and the John Theurer Cancer Center, and Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Today, she maintains a private clinical practice and extends her work through writing, teaching, consultation, and public education. Her book, RATTLED: How to Calm New Mom Anxiety with the Power of the Postpartum Brain, reframes the postpartum brain as adaptive and powerful while offering practical support for the anxiety that can accompany matrescence.

Dr. Pensak serves on expert boards for Parents Magazine, Welcome Baby USA, and The Balance Project. She is also a frequent contributor to podcasts, broadcast media, and national conversations about maternal mental health, modern parenthood, anxiety, and serious illness.