Nyssa Petersen-Ventura, PhD, GMHS
Nyssa Petersen Ventura, Ph.D. is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Geriatric Mental Health Specialist (GMHS), and Certified Autism Center of Excellence (COE) Provider for Washington State. She is located primarily at the Behavioral Health outpatient specialty clinic at 504 Orondo Avenue in Wenatchee.
Undergraduate Education: B.A., Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara
Graduate School: M.A., Clinical Psychology, Rosemead School of Psychology, Biola University
Postgraduate: Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, Biola University
Professional Memberships: American Psychological Association (APA), Washington State Psychological Association (WSPA), National Register of Health Service Psychologists, Associate (NRHSP)
Areas of Practice: Dr. Ventura provides individual, family, and group psychotherapies for adolescents through older adults. She is experienced in providing integrated behavioral health interventions and often coordinates treatment with a multidisciplinary team of providers. She provides a variety of psychological assessment services for children through older adults, including psychological testing, neurocognitive assessment, and evaluations for neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and ADHD. Additionally, Dr. Ventura assists with clinical supervision and training for predoctoral interns and postdoctoral fellows in the Behavioral Medicine Doctoral Psychology Training Program.
Dr. Ventura has been at CVCH for over 6 years where she completed her doctoral psychology training in Behavioral Medicine. She earned both a Master’s degree and Doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology from Rosemead School of Psychology at Biola University, where she was involved in research pertaining to socioemotional development and cognitive abilities. Dr. Ventura completed a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at University of California, Santa Barbara. At the University of California, Dr. Ventura was part of a research team that utilized fMRI and computer performance tasks to explore the mechanisms underlying attention, physiological states, and behaviors, and contributed to several published studies. Dr. Ventura has continued to be involved in research and program evaluation at CVCH and most recently has presented outcome data for a pilot study of a multidisciplinary pediatric obesity group program.
Dr. Ventura has over 10 years of experience providing psychological services to children through older adults in a variety of settings. She has previous supervised training in an inpatient psychiatric hospital, a university counseling center, an outpatient community mental health center, a neurology clinic, and an integrated primary care clinic. She completed a year of clinical training in school psychology services at a school district in the greater Los Angeles area. Additionally, Dr. Ventura has several years of supervised training and experience in providing clinical supervision, teaching, and training activities for clinical psychology practicum students, predoctoral psychology interns, and postdoctoral psychology fellows.
Dr. Ventura takes a strengths-based, whole-person approach to treatment and strives to help her patients feel safe, supported, and valued. Dr. Ventura recognizes that mental health can be influenced by a variety of factors, including the quality of one’s relationships, situational stressors, early childhood history, culture, spirituality, genetic vulnerabilities, and even other biological factors such as chronic illnesses. Dr. Ventura appreciates being part of a multidisciplinary care team at CVCH to better address each unique biopsychosocial factor that may be influencing a mental or physical health concern. Dr. Ventura has experience treating a variety of issues such as relationship difficulties, trauma, and severe mental illness. She incorporates a variety of therapeutic orientations into her clinical work including dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), emotion-focused therapy (EFT), psychodynamic psychotherapy, attachment-based interventions, and mindfulness-based interventions.
Dr. Ventura has special interests in ADHD, autism, bipolar, eating disorders, dementias, psychosis, depression, anxiety, trauma, personality disorders, psychopharmacology, and health psychology. Dr. Ventura enjoys providing psychological testing services for diagnostic clarification, treatment-planning, and therapeutic assessment. She is a Washington State Certified Autism Center of Excellence Provider and has advanced training in evaluating autism spectrum disorders and providing autism-related consultation and treatment planning. Dr. Ventura periodically leads outpatient specialty groups such as adolescent and adult DBT groups and art therapy for older adults.