Brianna Pellentier (Intern therapist)
Hi! My name is Bri, and I am an intern therapist at The Center for Growth, seeing clients from August 2026 through May 2027. I am currently earning my Master's in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Rhode Island College, with an expected graduation date of May 2027. I offer therapy to children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families, with care tailored to each client's developmental stage and needs. I see clients in person at our Providence office and through telehealth.
My approach
Many people arrive at therapy self-aware and able to explain their patterns clearly, yet still find themselves feeling anxious, disconnected, self-critical, or stuck in the same cycles.
Insight is valuable, but insight alone is not always enough. When we feel anxious or stuck, our instinct is often to think harder, analyze more, or push ourselves to change through willpower. Thought is a powerful tool, but it has limits. A nervous system that feels unsafe cannot be reasoned into calm. And self-criticism, whatever it promises, rarely builds a self you actually like.
In our work together, we pay attention to more than thoughts alone. I integrate somatic and mindfulness-informed practices into therapy, which means we become curious about what is happening in your body as well as what is happening in your mind. This work is informed by an understanding of how thoughts, emotions, relationships, behaviors, and physiological responses influence one another.
My approach balances practical, skills-based strategies with experiential work. Some sessions focus on building concrete tools for navigating daily life. Others involve slowing down and attending to what is happening in the present moment. Lasting change often requires both.
At the center of my philosophy is a simple belief: connection with yourself (including your body, feelings, and values) and connection with others are two vital ingredients of true well-being, and they often rise and fall together. When we lose touch with ourselves our relationships begin to feel strained, and in response we tend to abandon our own needs even further.
People often maintain an appearance of being capable and composed while privately feeling exhausted from holding it all together, and that constant effort leaves little room for real connection with anyone, themselves included. Therapy becomes a place where they can stop managing and start understanding, and where reconnection becomes possible again.
Couples and relationship work
Nowhere do connection with self and connection with others meet more clearly than in couples work. When working with couples, I help slow down the cycles that repeatedly pull partners into conflict, withdrawal, or disconnection.
Rather than focusing only on the surface-level disagreement, we look at what each person may be feeling, fearing, needing, or protecting underneath it. We then work toward new ways of communicating, responding to vulnerability, and turning toward one another.
Emotional, physical, and sexual intimacy are often deeply intertwined. Concerns in one area can affect the others, and all of these experiences are welcome in therapy. For clients who want to address sexual health, intimacy, or sexual connection more directly, I am developing a focus in sex therapy as part of my training at The Center for Growth.
Families also develop patterns, roles, and ways of communicating over time. In family work, we may explore recurring conflicts, developmental changes, unspoken expectations, and earlier experiences that continue to shape current relationships.
What guides the work
Whether the work is individual or relational, one question sits underneath all of it: what does a fulfilling life actually look like for you? So much distress can live in the space between where you feel you are and where you believe you should be. Some of those expectations were handed to you by family, culture, or circumstance. Others reflect who you genuinely want to become. Together, we get curious about the difference, work to identify the values that are truly yours, and ultimately bring your life into closer alignment with your own definition of fulfillment.
What it feels like to sit with me
Therapy with me is engaged and conversational. I am not a blank-slate therapist who remains silent while you wonder what I am thinking. I show up as a real person, respond authentically, use humor when it fits, and share what I am noticing. I listen closely, and I work to connect parts of your experience that may initially seem separate.
My approach is both warm and direct. I will honor your experience while gently challenging patterns that may be working against you. To me, meaningful care includes honesty. When working with couples or families, I am not there to referee, assign blame, or declare a winner. I am there to help everyone step outside the cycle long enough to understand what is happening and begin seeing one another more clearly.
I am intentional about making therapy a space where you do not have to perform. You do not need the right words, a polished narrative, or a productive agenda. When your thoughts begin moving quickly or emotions become overwhelming, we can pause, get grounded, and notice what is happening internally.
Who I work with
I work with children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families. I am especially interested in supporting people navigating:
Perfectionism and harsh self-criticism
Anxiety, OCD, and intrusive or repetitive thought patterns
High achievement pressure and burnout
ADHD and executive functioning challenges
People-pleasing and difficulty establishing boundaries
Relationship conflict and recurring communication cycles
Emotional, physical, or sexual disconnection
Substance use and behavioral addictions, or other patterns that feel difficult to control
Feeling disconnected from your body or depleted by constant self-management
Life transitions, including graduation, career changes, relationship shifts, and other new chapters
A desire to live in closer alignment with personal values
You do not need to fit neatly into one category or arrive with a clear explanation of what you need. Therapy can begin with curiosity.
How I think about the work
My style is relational, intuitive, and responsive. I also draw from structured, evidence-based approaches when they fit your needs and goals.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: We practice noticing difficult thoughts and feelings without allowing them to dictate every decision. We clarify what matters to you and identify actions that move your life in that direction.
Somatic and mindfulness-informed practices: We build awareness of physical sensations, emotional responses, and patterns of activation or disconnection. The goal is not to force your body into calm, but to develop a greater capacity to understand and respond to what is happening internally.
Relational, attachment, and systems perspectives: We consider how relationships, family experiences, cultural contexts, and environments have shaped the ways you protect yourself, connect with others, and interpret what happens around you.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and practical skill-building: We examine how thoughts, emotions, and behaviors reinforce one another and develop concrete strategies for responding differently when familiar patterns begin taking over.
Internal Family Systems-informed and parts-oriented work: We get to know the different parts of you, such as the inner critic, achiever, caretaker, avoidant part, or part that shuts down. Rather than treating these parts as problems to eliminate, we work to understand what they are trying to accomplish and help them relate to one another differently.
I may also draw from narrative, psychodynamic, and motivational approaches as we explore the stories you have learned about yourself, long-standing patterns beneath the surface, and the understandable ambivalence that often accompanies change.
I work under licensed supervision and am committed to ethical, collaborative, and culturally responsive care. You help determine the goals and direction of therapy. My responsibility is to help ensure our work remains purposeful, responsive, and connected to what matters to you.
Background
Before and throughout my clinical training, I have built my professional life around understanding people and the systems affecting their lives. I completed my practicum at a domestic violence agency, where I continue to facilitate a domestic violence support group. This work has deepened my respect for the ways people adapt and survive, as well as my belief in the importance of safety, agency, and connection.
Prior to graduate school, I worked with children for nearly a decade. That experience strengthened my patience, flexibility, and appreciation for how much communication happens through behavior, play, movement, and relationships.
I also bring several years of behavioral health operations experience, which has given me a broader understanding of the systems clients and clinicians must navigate around the therapeutic work.
Outside the therapy room
When I am not in session or in class, you can usually find me drinking an oat milk latte, moving my body, enjoying the sunshine, or grounding myself by touching grass, literally, because it helps. I also spend as much time as possible with my tiny white dog, Callie, who takes her emotional support responsibilities very seriously.
Final thoughts
If you are used to being the capable one, the person others rely on, reaching out for therapy can feel less like a step toward health and more like an admission of failure. But needing support does not mean you are falling short. More often, it means the strategies that carried you this far (thinking harder, pushing through, handling it alone) have reached the edge of what they can do. Noticing that takes honesty. Acting on it takes courage.
Some people begin therapy with a specific concern. Others begin with only the sense that something is not working the way they want it to. Both are valid places to start.
If you are ready to understand your patterns more fully, reconnect with yourself, and build more intentional relationships, I would love the opportunity to work alongside you.
