About Dina
Dina Payne is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who offers calm, practical support for people feeling overwhelmed by stress and anxiety. She writes and listens with care, helping clients sort through tough moments and set simple goals. Her approach aims to make therapy feel approachable and useful from the first session.
She draws on nearly a decade of experience across schools, foster care, and individual therapy settings. That background means she is comfortable talking through relationship strain, mood changes, grief, addiction concerns, and parenting stress.
Background and approach
Sessions focus on what matters most to the person in front of her and on small steps that can make daily life easier. Her style is straightforward and collaborative. She uses client-centered conversations to understand each person’s values and priorities.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy tools are added when practical, for example to break down anxious thoughts and test them against real situations. For people who have been through traumatic events, Trauma-Focused Therapy techniques are available to help decrease reactivity and improve coping. Dina aims to create clear plans for handling triggers and building resilience over time.
Outside of work she enjoys walking her dogs, reading, yoga, and crafts. Her personal interests often inform the down-to-earth tone she brings to sessions and the attention to practical routines that support change.
How these approaches translate to online therapy
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and reflecting back what matters to you. In online sessions this means sessions begin with open conversation about your immediate concerns and goals, and the therapist follows your pace to build trust and direction. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, uses clear steps to identify and test unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. In virtual work that can look like setting small experiments between sessions, tracking mood and behavior, and practicing new skills during video or phone sessions.Trauma-Focused Therapy helps people reduce the intensity of past traumatic memories and improve coping in daily life. Online formats allow careful, paced work on grounding skills, emotion regulation, and gradual processing while monitoring reactions together. Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process - the therapist will discuss options, try techniques, and adjust based on your needs, goals, and preferences.
Online therapy offers practical flexibility. Video calls let you use face-to-face conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions can fit into a short break or require less bandwidth. Live chat and text-based messaging work for quick check-ins, journaling between sessions, or when typing feels easier than speaking. These options help therapy fit into busy schedules and different communication styles.
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Commitment issues
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Eating disorders
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Multicultural concerns
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 9 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English
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