Book a therapist or psychiatrist in Tarpon Springs, FL covered by Aetna

I hold a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Saint Leo University and have over 15 years of experience working with youth, families, and adults in various clinical settings. I have extensive training in trauma-informed care and am a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP) and Certified Mindfulness-Informed Professional (CMIP). I specialize in working with individuals ages 12 and older navigating trauma, abuse, grief and loss, anxiety, depression, self-harm, LGBTQIA+ related issues, eating disorders, neurodivergence, and self-esteem.

Tara Payne is the owner and founder of Payne Influential Mental Health. She is a board-certified

Psychiatric Mental Health Practitioner (PMHNP). She obtained her Master of Science in

Nursing from the University of South Alabama. Tara has been a Registered Nurse for almost 20

years in which she has been devoted to helping and treating patients with a variety of conditions.

She has specialized in critical care, mental health, and several other acute care specialties. Tara is a Perinatal Mental Health provider through PSI (Postpartum Support International) as well as a Trauma Certified provider. Tara has learned how vital mental health is when it comes to treating a patient as a “whole” person. This has driven her passion to help serve the mental health community and those in need of mental health management.

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I believe everyone deserves a safe place to feel heard, supported, and understood. I earned my Master's degree in Counseling from Webster University and tailor therapy to each person's unique needs and goals. My hope is that you'll feel comfortable, encouraged, and empowered as we work together toward healing and lasting change.

I am an honest and compassionate therapist with a direct approach to therapy. I believe therapy works best when communication is open, clear, and collaborative. I encourage curiosity, openness, and personal growth, and I aim to empower clients to take an active role in their healing and decision-making process.

I have been practicing as a therapist for 5 years, and specialize in working with mood disorders, attachment trauma, anxiety, addictions, kink, poly/ENM, life transitions, and interpersonal challenges. I am highly collaborative with my clients, and often weave humor and sarcasm into my sessions. Feedback is important to me - the relationship between therapist and client is sacred and one of the biggest predictors of change!

Many of my clients look like they have it together—but inside, they feel stuck, anxious, or emotionally overwhelmed in their relationships. I help adults untangle painful patterns rooted in emotional neglect, people-pleasing, or past relationships that felt confusing or unsafe. Together, we’ll slow down, go deep, and help you get to the root of the issue.

I have worked with clients from ages 3 through 80 and with individuals, couples, and families. With that breadth of experience, very little shocks or surprises me, and I am able to develop an individualized approach for each client, combining therapy modalities that play to my strengths as a counselor and that are helpful for the people I’m working with.

Three principles shape all the counseling I do:

• Counseling should be efficient. Counseling has significant costs in time and money. I think the benefits far outweigh the costs but when I can give you the benefits while helping you save on the costs I will do that. So I choose approaches to counseling (like EMDR and EFT) that generally work more quickly. That being said, I don’t want to you to feel better for three to six months and then need counseling again because we only worked on symptom relief and didn’t bring healing to the underlying causes. That doesn’t seem very efficient to me. So my goal is to provide as long-lasting and complete help as possible in as little time as possible.
• The client is always in charge. People are complex and come with years of history that I can never know all of. I know a lot of things but you will always be the one who decides what you want to get out of counseling, how we work towards that goal, whether or not what we’re doing seems to be working, and when we’re done.
• Change and health happen through relationships. The work we do in counseling will touch on how your relationships impact your health. No matter what you come in for, there are always relational implications of change and relational factors that contribute to whatever it is that you came to counseling to change. Change can only happen in counseling because of our relationship. It’s my responsibility to make our relationship a place where you feel heard and accepted.