About Dina
Dina Payne is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker practicing in Illinois who works with adults on a wide range of concerns including stress, anxiety, relationship and family issues, depression, addictions, trauma and abuse, grief, intimacy-related struggles, eating concerns, parenting challenges, anger, self-esteem, career questions, and coping with life changes.
Background and approach
She also addresses ADHD and additional areas such as attachment difficulties, caregiver stress, commitment and control issues, infidelity, isolation, and multicultural concerns. With nine years of professional experience, Dina brings a practical and empathetic stance to therapy.
Her approach emphasizes a respectful, nonjudgmental atmosphere where clients can feel heard while collaborating on realistic goals. Dina blends client-centered techniques with cognitive behavioral strategies and trauma-focused methods, tailoring interventions to the situation and the individual's needs.
Her background includes a Master of Social Work with training in school social work and marriage and family topics, and she has worked across settings including foster care, higher education, high school environments, and individual and couples therapy. Outside of her clinical work she enjoys walking her dogs, reading, practicing yoga, and crafts.
Her practice aims to help people develop coping skills, rebuild trust and connections, and move toward meaningful change while honoring each person's values and pace.
Therapeutic Approaches and Online Care
Client-centered therapy places the person's experience at the heart of the work, emphasizing empathy, active listening, and collaboration to help clients explore values and find their own solutions. This approach is often helpful for relationship struggles, life transitions, self-esteem concerns, and situations where a supportive, validating space aids healing.Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying patterns of thinking and behavior that contribute to distress and teaching concrete skills to change those patterns. CBT is commonly used for anxiety, depression, stress management, and coping with day-to-day challenges. Trauma-focused therapy concentrates on understanding and processing traumatic experiences, helping people reduce the long-term impact of trauma and develop coping strategies for related symptoms.
Choosing the right approach is part of the therapeutic process, and the therapist will work collaboratively with each client to determine which methods best match their needs, goals, and preferences. This means adapting strategies over time and combining elements from different approaches when appropriate.
Online therapy offers flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging, making it easier to fit regular sessions into busy lives. These remote formats expand access to licensed professionals, reduce travel time, and allow continuity of care when in-person options are limited, while preserving the collaborative and skills-based work central to these therapeutic approaches.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- 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