About Tina
Tina Payne Bryson, PhD -- Founder/Executive Director
University Southern California
Dr. Tina Payne Bryson (she/her) is the co-author (with Dan Siegel) of two New York Times bestsellers -- THE WHOLE-BRAIN CHILD (Random House 2011), and NO-DRAMA DISCIPLINE (Random House 2014) -- each of which has been translated into over fifty languages, with THE WHOLE-BRAIN CHILD selling over a million copies. Dr. Bryson is also the author of THE BOTTOM LINE FOR BABY (Random House 2020) and co-author (with Dan Siegel) of THE POWER OF SHOWING UP (Random House 2020) and THE YES BRAIN (Random House 2018). She has just completed the manuscript for THE WAY OF PLAY (Random House 2025), co-authored with Georgie Wisen-Vincent.
Tina is a psychotherapist and the Founder/Executive Director of The Center for Connection (“CFC”), a multidisciplinary clinical practice; of The Play Strong Institute, a center devoted to the study, research, and practice of play therapy through a neurodevelopment lens; and The Center for Connection and Neurodiversity, a wing of the CFC devoted to celebrating neurodifferences and providing brain-based occupational therapy across the lifespan.
Tina keynotes conferences and conducts workshops for kids, parents, educators, clinicians, and industry leaders all over the world, and she makes frequent media appearances (for example, in TIME Magazine, “Good Morning America,” Huffington Post, Redbook, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Real Simple). When she isn't teaching, she consults with various companies and organizations, including the Nike Sport Research Lab (NSRL) where she was Project Director for Mental or Emotional Performance, offering direct support to athletes and supporting research. She also works as a Child Development Specialist at St. Mark's School in Pasadena, CA. A graduate of Baylor University, Tina earned her LCSW and Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, where her research explored attachment science, childrearing theory, and the emerging field of interpersonal neurobiology.
Tina emphasizes that before she’s a parenting educator, or a researcher, she’s a mom. She limits her clinical practice and speaking engagements so that she can spend time with her family. Alongside her husband of 30 years, parenting her three boys is what makes her happiest.
Tina’s professional life now focuses on taking research and theory from various fields of science, and offering it in a way that’s clear, realistic, humorous, and immediately helpful. As she puts it, “For parents, clinicians, and teachers, learning about how kids’ (and their own) brains work is surprisingly practical, informing how they approach discipline, how they help kids deal with everyday struggles, and ultimately how they connect with the children they care about.”
Tina devotes a limited number of hours per week to meeting with parents and children for psychotherapy and consultations. The best way to reach her is to contact her via the link below.
PhD, LCSW 69169