Dr. Kim Pentel

Dr. Pentel has joined Pacific Northwest Individual and Couple Therapy, a Seattle-based mental health therapy practice.Click to read more about Dr. Pentel's current practice.To schedule an appointment with Dr. Pentel or learn more, please email info@pacific-northwest-therapy.com.

More about Dr. Pentel

My approach to therapy is collaborative, interpersonal, and curious. Mental health does not occur in a vacuum; our loved ones often impact and are impacted by our well-being. I view an individual or couple as experts on their own experience and seek to partner with you to offer skills, resources, space to process thoughts and emotions, and encouragement to test strategies to move towards and accomplish your goals.Therapy may brief or ongoing, longer-term. Our work begins with an assessment and treatment planning phase where we get to know one another, clarify goals, and lay out a personalized road map together of the work will do. Oftentimes, we may decide to combine a few of the strategies outlined below to address your unique goals.Through my work in a range of academic, hospital, and community clinic settings, I received unique training not only delivering but also developing cognitive-behavioral therapies (CBTs) for individuals, couples, and loved ones. I have published numerous academic articles and given talks at national conferences on topics related to couple therapy and sexual minority affirming care. While at UNC, I oversaw the development and delivery of a couple therapy specifically tailored for sexual minority couples. For this work, I received the American Psychological Foundation’s Roy Scrivner national award which recognizes an investigator advancing the field of LGBT family psychology and therapy.Individual therapies I offer include:• Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) for a range of concerns including depression, generalized anxiety, stressors related to work/academics, close relationships, or one’s identities, navigating one’s own or a loved one’s physical/mental health concerns
• Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) for a range of anxiety diagnoses including social anxiety and specific phobias
• Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• We may integrate helpful nuggets drawing from mindfulness, meditation, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and dialectical-behavioral therapy (DBT)-informed skills, as indicatedCouple therapies I offer include:• Cognitive-Behavioral Couple Therapy (CBCT): emphasizes how our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors interact and relate with a loved ones’
• Integrative-Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT): emphasizes acceptance and change in relationships
• Common areas of focus may include: healthy communication, physical/emotional intimacy, addressing high tension/conflict or feeling distant, pre-marital counseling, healing after infidelity or a breach of relationship boundaries, navigating external stressors together (e.g., societal discrimination/stressors related to intersecting identities, family-of-origin stress, adapting to new phases of life – e.g., children going to college, caring for aging parents, entering retirement)Training Background:• Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Couple and Family Health, Seattle VA Hospital
• Clinical Psychology Internship, Seattle VA Hospital
• Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• M.A. in Clinical Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• B.Sc. in Clinical Psychology, Tufts University

Select Publications & Conference Presentations

Pentel, K. Z., Baucom, D. H., Weber, D. M., Wojda, A. K., Carrino, E. A. (2021). Cognitive-behavioral couple therapy for same-sex female couples: A pilot study. Family Process. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12696 Video abstract available HERE.Pentel, K. Z., Baucom, D. H. (2021). A clinical framework for sexual minority couple
therapy. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/cfp0000187Pentel, K. Z., Chambers, A. L., Gordon, K. C., Kelly, S., Whitton, S. W. (2019, November). Clinical considerations for culturally tailored couple care with underserved groups [Clinical roundtable]. The 53rd Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Convention, Atlanta, GA.Pentel. K. Z., Cohen, M. J., Boeding, S. E., Baucom, D. H. (2017, November). Impact of postpartum role satisfaction on couple and individual wellbeing: An actor-partner
analysis [Poster presentation]. The 51st Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Convention, San Diego, CA.Pentel, K. Z., Baucom, D. H., Gordon, K. C., & Snyder, D. K. (2017). Integrative Treatment for Infidelity. In J. L. Lebow, A. L. Chambers, & D. C. Breunlin (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_464-1Pentel, K. Z., Nagendra, A., Brownstone, L. (2017, January). The North Carolina experience: Social justice advocacy and clinical implications. In: Flores, L. and Wise, E. H. (Co-chair), Biscuits and bigotry: How psychologists in the South have navigated political attacks against LGBT rights [Symposium]. The 10th Biennial National Multicultural Conference and Summit, Portland, OR.Pentel, K. Z., Blakey, S. M., & Wise, E. H. (2017). When the political becomes personal:
Implications for clinical training and practice. The Behavior Therapist, 40(3), 88-92. ISSN: 0278-8403.