Howard Whitfield

Hello, I'm Payne Whitfield, a mental health counselor providing compassionate, confidential online therapy. I work with adults navigating life transitions, anxiety, depression, stress, grief, and relationship challenges.

I believe therapy works best when you feel truly seen and heard without judgment. My goal is to create a safe, supportive virtual space where you can explore what’s weighing on you and build practical tools for change. With years of life experience and clinical training, I bring a calm, grounded, and collaborative presence to our sessions.

I welcome clients from all backgrounds and identities. Whether you're coming to therapy for the first time or returning after a break, I’ll meet you where you are and work at your pace.

My therapy approach is client-centered, integrative, and strengths-based. I don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all model — I tailor our work to your unique needs, goals, and values.

I draw from several evidence-based approaches:

Person-Centered & Humanistic: You are the expert on your life. I provide empathy, authenticity, and unconditional positive regard to help you gain clarity and self-acceptance.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Together we identify unhelpful thought patterns and behaviors that contribute to anxiety, depression, and stress, and replace them with more balanced, realistic ones.

Mindfulness & Stress Reduction: I incorporate grounding, breathing, and mindfulness practices to help you stay present, regulate emotions, and build resilience.

Trauma-Informed & Culturally Sensitive: I honor your lived experience, culture, and identity, and I work at a pace that feels safe for you. We focus on empowerment, not just symptom relief.

In our online sessions, my style is collaborative, calm, and practical — we’ll talk through challenges but also leave with concrete coping skills you can use between sessions.

Your first online session is a welcoming, no-pressure conversation designed to help you feel comfortable and understood.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

1. Welcome and Logistics: We’ll do a quick technology check, review confidentiality, Headway policies, and how telehealth sessions work to ensure you feel secure.

2. What brings you in now: I’ll ask what prompted you to seek support and what you hope to get from therapy. For parents seeking care for a child or teen, we’ll discuss your concerns and goals together.

3. Background and Strengths: We’ll talk briefly about your history, current stressors, support system, and what coping strategies you’ve tried. I also want to know about your strengths and what’s going well.

4. Building a plan together: Using a solution-focused lens, we’ll begin to identify 1-2 clear, realistic goals for our work. I’ll share how my person-centered and CBT approach can support those goals, and you’ll have time to ask any questions.

You don’t need to prepare anything — just find a private, quiet space with a good internet connection. My aim for session one is for you to feel heard, hopeful, and clear on our next steps together.