Lena Payne

Hello. I'm a LCSW in California who has been practicing psychotherapy for 20 years. I help adults who are struggling in relationships or who are overcoming the effects of past relationships. I really enjoy working with women experiencing reproductive changes such as perinatal, perimenopause, and menopausal transitions. I have experience as a professor in social work teaching classes on treating trauma and working with military and veterans. I also train new psychotherapist to help them develop skills which help me continue to learn and grow.

When I work with clients, I like to first understand their experiences, challenges, and attempts they've made to address their concern. From there I generally will use Cognitive Behavioral, Acceptance and Commitment, or Solution-Focused approaches to help clients achieve their goals. I provide psychoeducation as I believe it is important for people to understand the what and why of patterns. I believe feedback is important in both directions, on how clients are doing and also receiving feedback about how my clients are feeling in therapy.

In the first session we will get to know each other and I will learn more about your concerns. Then we will determine if I am the best fit. The relationship with the client and therapist is the most important factor in determining therapy outcomes. We will set goals based on what is most important to you and make a plan to accomplish those goals.