Dina Greenwald (she/her/hers) is a bilingual (English and Spanish) Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT #84914) and a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC #731) who has extensive experience working with children, families, adolescents, and adults in underserved communities, the criminal justice system, foster care system, school districts, and private practice settings.  Dina uses a trauma-informed lens and attachment science to better understand behavioral challenges, relational conflicts, and personal patterns.

Dina earned a B.A. in Psychology from San Francisco State University and went on to complete an M.A in Counseling Psychology from the University of San Francisco.  Dina is trained in many different modalities, including cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT), Trauma Focused CBT (TF-CBT), family systems therapy, the Yale University Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE) approach, strength-based therapy, motivational interviewing, art therapy, and play therapy.  Dina also integrates components of Dr. Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) to assist with understanding the effects of adverse childhood experiences on a child’s brain development and to help identify developmentally appropriate interventions.  

Dina specializes in treating anxiety, depression, trauma, complex trauma, PTSD, affect regulation, attachment wounds, behavioral difficulties, family conflict, and grief and loss. 

Dina is especially passionate about working in adoption, including foster care, foster adoptions, international adoptions, domestic adoptions, and the adoption trial (adopted persons, adoptive parents, and birth families). Dina was an institutionalized child, adopted from an orphanage in Guadalajara, Mexico, at the age of 3.  Dina’s life journey brought her back to Guadalajara, where she lived and worked for a period of time.  While in Guadalajara, she initiated a search for her biological family and worked as a psychotherapist at the orphanage she was adopted from.  Dina’s quest for answers and her gained experiences ignited a passion for helping others navigate their journeys toward healing.  Being a transracial adoptee and having bi-cultural adoptive parents taught Dina the beauty of differences as well as the challenges of being able to understand and accept one’s own identity and all of its facets.  

Dina’s own experiences, as well as her extensive experience working with children, adolescents, adults, and families, have given Dina a unique ability to tailor treatment specifically for the individual and family to encourage healing and growth.  Beyond treatment modalities, Dina believes that the most important factor for a client’s success is the therapist-client relationship. Her hope is that by creating a strong working relationship with the client, the client will gain a better understanding of themselves, and, in turn, they will learn new skills to elicit positive change in their lives.  Dina is a proud San Franciscan who loves spending time outdoors and traveling with her husband, two daughters, and their dog, Eddy.