About Dina
Dina Payne offers a calm, nonjudgmental space for people feeling overwhelmed. She focuses on practical steps that help reduce stress and anxiety. Dina aims to make conversations straightforward so clients can begin to feel better and meet their goals.
Dina is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, LCSW, practicing in Illinois. She earned a Master of Social Work from Saint Louis University in 2008 with emphasis on school social work and marriage and family.
How Dina works
She has about nine years of clinical experience in several settings. Her work has included time with the foster care system, colleges, and high schools. Dina has also provided individual therapy and couples counseling.
That variety shaped her ability to respond to many kinds of concerns. In sessions she uses client-centered work to understand each person’s perspective. She also uses cognitive behavioral techniques to address unhelpful thoughts and behaviors.
Trauma-focused methods are applied when past events continue to cause distress. Dina helps people dealing with anxiety, depression, relationship and family concerns, addictions, trauma and grief. She also supports clients facing intimacy issues, parenting stress, eating concerns, anger, low self-esteem, career questions, ADHD, and life transitions.
Additional focus areas include caregiver stress, attachment issues, midlife concerns, and multicultural challenges. Outside of practice she enjoys walking dogs, reading, yoga, and crafts. Those interests inform a down-to-earth approach that aims to be practical and relatable.
Dina lists 3 ways of working on the entry:
What Dina works with
The areas below are the ones Dina selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- 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
Training and background
| Register | LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 9 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Illinois |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Therapeutic approaches for online care
Dina uses client-centered therapy to build a respectful, understanding space where the person's goals guide the work. This approach focuses on listening, reflecting, and helping people find solutions that fit their life.She also applies cognitive behavioral therapy, which looks at how thoughts and behaviors interact. CBT helps with anxiety, depression, and day-to-day coping by teaching skills to change unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns.
Trauma-focused therapy is used when past events continue to cause distress. This approach addresses how traumatic experiences affect feelings and relationships and supports steps toward healing.
Choosing the right approach is part of the process. Dina will collaborate with each person to decide which methods match their goals, needs, and preferences. Together they review progress and adjust the plan as needed.
Online therapy offers flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video is useful for full conversations and visual cues, phone works well when bandwidth is limited, live chat can be a quick check-in, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy schedule and maintain continuity of care from home or work settings.
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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