Healthy Connections has a panel of mental health experts with decades of experience and a nationally renowned medical director.

Healthy Connections has been in business since 2001 offering solutions for healthy parenting in our community. We are expanding to reach families nationwide to help them create the positive, nurturing, and powerful legacy they envision for their family and children. We are psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, mental health counselors, certified behavioral health case manager, and also parents. Our experience and the transformational power of our tools, including Triumph Steps®, offers benefits of emotional mastery to help you experience the family you envision. Healthy Connections is contracted to offer mental health services to M-DCPS the fourth largest school district in the United States.

We use Triumph Steps®, an 8 step transformative tool based on Cognitive Behavioral Theory, positive psychology, and mindfulness.

Triumph Steps In The Media:

This innovative program featured in NBC, CBS, PBS, Univision radio gives parents and children the tools they need to establish healthy mental habits for life.

Triumph Steps® is a systematic, consistent, and simple emotional literacy program that teaches children and parents alike the lasting benefits of emotional mastery.

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We invite you to meet our team of professionals:

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Prince Drago is the Co-Founder of Healthy Connections, CMHC and a respected clinician in the behavioral healthcare industry, serving both as a licensed mental health counselor and qualified supervisor through the state of Florida. Ms. Drago earned her bachelor’s degree from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana and received her graduate degrees from Carlos Albizu University in Miami, Florida.

Ms. Drago began her career as a doctoral intern at Miami Children’s Hospital serving adolescents with severe mental health ailments. Her professional practice progressed to working with all age populations, most commonly diagnosed on the schizophrenia spectrum, bipolar disorders, substance use disorders, and major depressive disorders. Her experience has been applied in diverse clinical, administrative, consultant and service positions in an array of psychiatric and mental health settings, that most notably include; Miami Children’s Hospital, University of Miami Hospital (former Cedar’s Hospital), and other various community mental health centers across South Florida.

Since 2001, Ms. Drago has been fully dedicated to the vision of Healthy Connections, CMHC, which emphasizes the promotion of mental health education and the delivery of optimal mental health services within the community. In addition, to her clinical work, she manages the human resource department, provides supervision to graduate student interns, and oversees the day to day operations of the center. Her projects and areas of interest have focused on the expansion of high-quality psychological services and the implementation as well as the operation of treatment programs directing the provision of social services across Miami-Dade County.

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Beatriz Martinez-Peñalver is a licensed psychotherapist with over twenty-five years of experience in the mental health field. She is a passionate advocate who wants to make emotional literacy an integral part of education to decrease our current mental health crisis. Science tells us that happiness is a skill that can be learned, and according to Martinez-Peñalver, we completely forgot to teach this fundamental class in schools. She has been featured on NBC, CBS, PBS, Univision Radio and more.

Beatriz is an activist that has traveled the nation to spread the facts about emotional literacy on the doorsteps of policymakers, educators, and parents.

Beatriz is the Co-Founder of Healthy Connections, a community mental health center operating in Miami for almost two decades. Prior to opening the Community Mental Health Center, Beatriz ran a private practice where she led her patients to self-discovery and personal growth with the psychology of abundance, cognitive behavioral approaches, and meditation.

Martinez-Peñalver is the author of Triumph: A Curriculum for All Schools and Universities. She is the founder of Triumph Steps, an eight-step therapeutic framework and emotional literacy program that teaches parents, educators, and children tools to be mentally fit. Triumph Steps has been approved by Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The School Board of Miami-Dade County has recognized Martinez-Peñalver for her commitment to our students, their mental wellness, and emotional literacy nationwide.

Beatriz is a past Chair of the Business and Education Committee Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce and an active member of the Business and Government Affairs Committee at the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce. Beatriz was a nominee for the very prestigious David Lawrence Jr. Champion for Children Award in recognition of a lifetime of notable achievement and dedication to children.  Beatriz was the AXA 2019 Business Woman of the Year in the category of Outstanding Healthcare professional, presented by Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce. Triumph Steps was recognized as the 2018-2019 MDCPS Exemplary Dade Partner Award- Districtwide. Beatriz loves the outdoors, snow skiing, boating, and scuba diving. She is a mother. Her daughter is the person who ignited her emotional literacy movement. She also enjoys chilly breezy days to ride in the back of her husband’s Harley.