About Dayna

Dayna Guido, MSW, LCSW, ACSW

Inspiring and Nurturing Professionals

Guiding and empowering others is an incredibly rewarding and fulfilling experience, and it remains an honor for me to support individuals on their unique professional journeys. Throughout my extensive career, I have remained committed to providing hope and direction to those in need. With my guidance, you can develop new skills, enhance your performance, and build the confidence necessary to overcome any obstacles that inevitably arise. Let’s work together to achieve your goals and create a positive impact in the world.

Background

Dayna has always been a natural leader and a pillar of support for those around her. From a young age, she had a strong sense of empathy and a desire to help others, which led her to pursue a variety of roles in which she could make a positive impact on people’s lives.

Early on as a life guard, she was responsible for ensuring the safety of those at the pool, and she took this responsibility seriously, always going above and beyond to make sure everyone was having a good time while staying safe. All of this foreshadowed Dayna’s future.

As a therapist, she uses her skills to help her clients overcome their challenges and find meaning and purpose in their lives. As a supervisor and educator, Dayna continues to use her natural leadership skills to support her supervisees and students.

In her professional career, Dayna excels as a leader, guiding teams with humor and creativity. She recognizes the importance of building strong relationships, always taking the time to listen to concerns and provide support.

Approach & Philosophy

Throughout her life, Dayna has remained committed to supporting those in need, and her optomistic approach has been  an invaluable tool in this effort. She has a rare ability to connect with people on a deep and meaningful level, which has made her a beloved figure in every role she has undertaken.

It is no surprise that those who have worked with her have been profoundly impacted by her leadership and support, and that she continues to be a source of inspiration to many. She believes that everyone has the potential to succeed and works tirelessly to create a positive and nurturing environment in which they are empowered to thrive.

Roles

Dayna wears many hats and has the energy to fulfill a wide variety of roles and responsibilities. Here’s a short compilation of some of her favorites.

Clinician

After graduating from Valparaiso University, Dayna Guido began her professional career in residential care for at-risk adolescents. She later pursued her MSW from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Jane Addams College of Social Work in 1984, where she was exposed to the family systems movement in Chicago and had the opportunity to learn from many experts in the field.

Throughout her career, Dayna has held various roles in agencies, including individual and group residential care staff, individual, group, and family therapist, clinical and administrative supervisor, and trainer. She has also been involved in the development of residential group homes for children and adolescents, foster care services, and clinical departments consisting of clinicians, program staff, foster care staff, and interns. Additionally, she has written for and received a federal grant for a runaway shelter for adolescents.

In 1994, Dayna decided to leave agency work after 15 years and establish a full-time private practice, focusing on providing therapy for at-risk children and adolescents in out-of-home placements. She initially offered play therapy, individual, family, and group therapy, as well as multi-family group therapy.

To expand her skills as a clinician and work with all age groups, Dayna began providing individual, couple, and family therapy in various settings, such as an inpatient psychiatric hospital, hospital ER for psychiatric assessments, a partial psychiatric hospital program for couple and family therapy, adult assisted living facilities for individual and group work, memory care services, and leading parent training groups. She also collaborated with the Asheville TEACCH Autism Program to specialize in Autism Spectrum Disorders to better serve the mental health needs of individuals with autism.

Dayna’s commitment to professional growth and development is demonstrated through her regular participation in peer supervision consultation groups and training in various treatment modalities, which inform her clinical practice.

Clinical Supervisor

During her time in graduate school, Dayna was determined to become proficient in quality clinical supervision, as she had encountered various supervisors with differing levels of effectiveness. She embarked on an intensive learning journey by attending every available training on clinical supervision and avidly reading journals, articles, and books on the subject. With the guidance of her own clinical supervisor, Dayna qualified as a Field Instructor for MSW interns and began providing clinical supervision for MSW graduates seeking clinical licensure. She has remained dedicated to this career path ever since.

Starting her own private practice gave Dayna the opportunity to offer clinical supervision to various residential and group care programs, foster care programs, therapeutic wilderness programs, therapeutic boarding schools, day care programs, and community mental health agencies offering outpatient therapy, school-based therapy, and intensive-in-home services.

Her passion for clinical supervision and ethical consultations has led her to gradually transition into teaching others how to be effective Clinical Supervisors. Dayna currently runs over a dozen monthly groups for clinicians, including a Clinical Supervisors Clinical Supervision Group, Group Supervision for fully licensed clinicians, and Clinical Supervision Group for LCSWA and LCMHCA clinicians. She also provides remote Clinical Supervision and Consultation services.

Author

Dayna co-authored The Parental Tool Box: For Parents and Clinicians with her late husband Jim Guido, which was published in 2018 by Global Heart Books. The book is a culmination of the various communication and relationship skills and strategies they acquired over nearly forty years of working with families and supervising clinicians and staff. The concept of The Three R’s: Reframe, Replace, and Rewire, which are incorporated into each chapter and parenting tool, was developed by the authors. Parents can use The Parental Tool Box on their own or with the help of a clinician. Each chapter ends with Home Improvements, which are exercises designed to practice the parenting tools.

Dayna’s second book is Creative Ways to Learn Ethics: An Experiential Training Manual for Helping Professionals. This book is a compilation of ethics trainings that Dayna has successfully provided over many years. The manual makes ethics interesting, fun, and engaging while providing challenges to practice professional ethical conduct. It uses a variety of experiential approaches, including expressive arts, games, mindfulness exercises, films, journaling, and group activities. Creative Ways to Learn Ethics was published by Routledge Books in 2019 and can be used by educators, trainers, mental health professionals, healthcare providers, and organizational leaders.

Trainer

Since completing her graduate studies, Dayna has been continuously developing and delivering trainings on various clinical topics such as clinical supervision, ethics, autism spectrum disorders, therapy with adolescents, play therapy, and expressive arts. While certified to teach established curriculums early in her career, Dayna discovered that she preferred to design her own material as part of her creative process and personal growth.

In recent years, Dayna has developed a new passion for providing keynote addresses. She brings energy and enthusiasm to large audiences, offering fresh perspectives and inspiring individuals to make positive changes in their personal and professional lives.

She has taught hundreds of classes and workshops in-person and virtualy, reaching thousands of individuals. Dayna is known for her ability to blend humor with serious topics and to use case examples from her own experiences to enrich the learning experience.

Additionally, Dayna served as a consultant to UNC-CH School of Social Work AHEC Programs for over 15 years, delivering trainings throughout North Carolina. 

Educator

With a strong desire to influence future generations of clinicians and social workers, Dayna began teaching in graduate schools in 1997. As an educator, she was challenged to keep herself updated with the current research and trends in her field. Her students appreciated her wealth of clinical experience and ability to make learning engaging.

At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work, Dayna served in various roles including Adjunct Clinical Instructor, Program Director for the Mountain Area Distance Education MSW Program in Asheville, NC, Field Advisor, and Field Instructor. In recognition of her teaching excellence, she received the prestigious School of Social Work Dean’s Recognition of Teaching Excellence Award in 2005-2006.

More recently, Dayna was an Adjunct Instructor at Lenoir-Rhyne University, teaching Couples & Family Counseling and Child & Adolescent Counseling at the Center for Graduate Studies of Asheville.

Dayna has also taught at the Department of Social Work, Asheville MSW Program at East Tennessee State University. Her dedication to the field of Social Work has remained unwavering since the beginning of her career.

Creative Soul

Dayna’s work is fueled by her passion for life, which manifests in her love for organic gardening, bookmaking, quilting, mixed media art, and art journaling. In 2013, she challenged herself to create an inch of art every day. Currently, Dayna is channeling her creativity into making altered books that she uses in her role as a clinician and supervisor, combining her love for art and her commitment to her profession.

Dayna has also focused on creating pockets of joy on the land she inhabits. She has designed and cared for organic gardens on her property and has landscaped contemplative paths for mindfulness and connecting to nature in both the sun and forest. Additionally, she has designed a studio for artistic pursuits.

Contact

Call

(828)-251-5371

Email

dayna@daynaguido.com