Jennifer Payne
Jennifer Payne
(she/her)
I have been a counselor for 18 years. I love meeting and working with people of all communities. This often includes clients focusing on mood disorders, self-esteem and anxiety. I also love working with LGBTQGIA2S+ folx and have provided multiple referral letters for clients seeking gender-affirming procedures. I have a casual approach and use a lot of humor in sessions, but don't let that fool you. I take my work with my clients very seriously and work hard to help them move out of pain, suffering and difficulty. Then they are able to realize, accept and take responsibility to define and live out the life to which they aspire.
Get to know me
In our first session together, here's what you can expect
Clients can expect a number of things to happen in the first session. First and foremost, the task is to make clients comfortable. Then we have to explain any business stuff., get that out of the way. After that, I listen. It's really tough for clients to finally decide to come to counseling, and when they do there's 137 things thrown at them before they get access to anything that even starts to make them feel better. I don't start with a list of assessment questions, I just ask clients what brought them here today. And off we go. Clients' experiences are tailored to them because our focus starts with what they need. Everyone is different. At the end of the hour, I ask clients if they want to come back and talk some more.
The biggest strengths that I bring into our sessions
I am the same me as a counselor, me with my friends, me at home. I am a casual, funny (I like to think) and down to earth person. I am also compassionate and caring. I have been in the client seat many times and for many years. I know this is difficult and scary. I also have 18 years of experience, some in larger cities and some in smaller towns, so I have worked with a lot of different people who I have learned a great deal from. I am the eternal optimist - if what we are doing isn't working, we'll evaluate and try again. I know there's always an answer, always a way. I absolutely love being a counselor. I believe it's what I was made to do in this world.
The clients I'm best positioned to serve
I enjoy working with adults of all communities and cultures. I love to learn about people, hear their stories. I find people are often weighed down by pain and struggles or stuck in old habits. They may need someone to guide them toward a new way of looking at things, identifying the steps necessary to travel a different road. My clients often have trouble seeing and defining the path they truly want because they are blinded and overwhelmed by what they are currently facing.
About Jennifer Payne
Jennifer Payne offers therapy covered by UnitedHealthcare/Optum - Medicaid in Ohio.
I identify as
Specialties
Serves ages
Licensed in
Accepts
Appointments
VirtualMy treatment methods
Acceptance and commitment (ACT)
We use ACT to help you come to a place of acceptance - acceptance of self, thoughts and feelings. We help you find connection with your authentic self - the essence of what makes you you, your values, your dreams. We do a lot of work to be mindful, awareness in the present, without judgement but with a sense of curiosity.
Gender-affirming therapy
I work with many folx who identify as members of trans, nonbinary, genderqueer and other communities. I have provided referral letters for many clients who were seeking gender-affirming medical procedures.
Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
RET is a form of cognitive-behavioral therapy I use primarily in the beginning sessions of counseling, when appropriate, to help clients understand how thoughts and feelings interact. Personally, I think it's a simple and easy to understand structure that accomplishes goals similar to most forms of CBT.
Existential
Along with ACT, existential counseling focuses on assisting clients in finding meaning, the why that speaks to them and makes them get up and walk this earth every day. I believe having some idea of what this might be is essential for everyone. Clients often develop ways to keep their main thing the main thing.
Humanistic
Coping skills, strategies, relationship analysis, none of it matters if it's not with the right counselor. Clients need to feel that they are accepted, cared for and never judged. I enter all counselor-client partnerships with the knowledge that my client is a human being deserving of care and assistance and an end to their suffering first and foremost in my mind. I form an alliance with that person, and together as equals, we do the work important to them.