Penny Kruger

About

Penny Kruger (she/her/hers) is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker-Supervisor (LCSW-S). Penny completed her Master's in Social Work at Tulane University in New Orleans, her native city. She has been practicing clinical social work for 30 years at all levels of clinical care with a variety of clinical areas, including mood disorders, sexual trauma, sexual compulsivity, domestic violence offender treatment, and personality disorders.

Penny is intensively trained in both Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy. In 2006, she founded the first adult DBT Intensive Outpatient Program at Ascension Seton Behavioral Health in Austin, Texas. She acted as the Clinical Lead for this program until 2020, training and supervising many of the current practicing DBT clinicians in the Austin area.

She is an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry and Department of Health Services at The University of Texas at Austin’s Dell Medical School, teaching psychiatric residents and social workers about DBT. In addition, Penny is the active Clinical Director of Austin DBT Associates, where she helps train clinicians to provide adherent DBT and RO-DBT treatment in an outpatient setting.

Penny continues to see clients in her private practice and provides ongoing training and consultations for clinicians and agencies trying to adapt DBT to their settings.

Specialties

• DBT - Comprehensive (Fully Adherent)
• Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO-DBT)
• Impulsive Behaviors
• Perfectionism
• Loneliness
• Fertility, Pregnancy, & Postpartum
• Abuse
• "I need someone to talk to"
• Social Skills Training
• Divorce/Separation
• Low Confidence/Self-esteem
• Substance Abuse/Addictions
• Self-Harming/Suicidal Thoughts
• School Problems
• Parenting Concerns/Education
• Panic & Anxiety
• Occupational Concerns
• Life Changes
• Grief & Bereavement
• Family Concerns
• Domestic Violence
• Couples Counseling
• Anxiety & Depression
• Anger Management