About Elescend
About S Dina Wang-Kraus, MD
I am a Board-Certified Adult Psychiatrist. I completed my undergraduate studies at Johns Hopkins, studying Neuroscience and Neuro-Oncology. I completed my medical training at Stanford University in General Adult Psychiatry. I have unique training in the treatment of relationship struggles, grief, trauma, life transitions, and women’s mental health. As a native of California, I have been a physician in the Bay Area since 2016.
I am a Psychotherapist with extensive training in psychodynamic/psychoanalytic psychotherapy. I am currently a Senior Candidate Psychoanalyst at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis.
As a cultural psychiatrist, I am fluent in Mandarin Chinese. My clinical research, during my time at Stanford, was centered upon the experience of psychological distress in Asian American immigrant families.
I am a former Stanford University Clinical Assistant Professor, having previously been a psychiatrist in the Stanford’s Women's Wellness Clinic. Currently, I continue to support and mentor the Stanford Psychiatry Residents, Fellows, and Medical Students, and bridge outreach for various community partners.
When I am not in the clinic or the classroom, I love hiking with my family, painting landscapes, baking in the kitchen (macarons are my specialty), and watching stand-up comedy.
Dr. S Dina Wang-Kraus, M.D.
Board-Certified Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist.
Preferred Pronouns: she/her/她
The kind of treatment you need and the care you deserve.
Education and Training
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Subspecializing in Systems Neuroscience
Graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa
Clinical research was centered upon Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Neuro-Oncology
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Graduated top of class with Honors and Distinction
Clinical research was centered upon collaboration with the CDC, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, and the Palo Alto Unified School District in designing support programs to address mental health barriers and suicide prevention in teens and adolescents
Clinical research focused on the experience of psychological distress faced by Asian American immigrant families
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Special training in cultural psychiatry and in women’s mental health
Tenure as Chief in 2019-2020 with unique focus on Diversity and Physician Wellness
Clinical research was centered upon studying and designing support programs to address the psychological distress experienced by working physician mothers during pregnancy, the postpartum period, and parenting of early childhood
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Stanford University, Adult Psychiatry Residency Training Program - Individual Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Training (2017 - 2020)
Palo Alto Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program (PAPPTP, 2018 - 2019)
American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA, APSA) Fellowship Program (2019 - 2020)
San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis - Adult Psychoanalytic Training Program (SFCP, 2024 -present)
Licensure and Certification
I am licensed to practice medicine by the California State Medical Board (MBC) and am Board-Certified in Adult Psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN).
Areas of Clinical Inter
Anxiety Disorders/Social Anxiety
Burnout & Recovery
Depression & Mood Disorders
Cultural Identity Exploration
Gender & Sexual Identity Exploration
Relationship & Family Dynamic Struggles
Conflict Resolution
Parenting & Life Transitions
Work & School Satisfaction
Grief & Loss
Trauma & Resiliency
Stress Reduction & Mindfulness
Psychotherapy Areas
I am uniquely trained in various types of therapies:
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In a nutshell: Think of traditional therapy as learning strategies to manage the waves, while psychoanalysis is diving underwater to figure out what is causing the current in the first place.
Psychoanalysis is a depth-oriented approach to therapy. Instead of just addressing symptoms, it explores the conscious and unconscious patterns — often formed early in life — that continue to shape how you think, feel, and relate.
We look at your life’s story and how this informs how you experience and understand the world - how you form connections with others and, even, with yourself.
Through consistent, honest conversations with a trained psychoanalyst, you gain insight into why you do what you do, not just strategies for managing it. It's slower paced than some other therapies, but psychoanalysis aims for change that goes deeper and lasts longer.
By learning to understand yourself better, you can choose how to better shape the next chapter of your life’s story.
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If psychoanalysis is like training for a marathon — sustained, intensive, transformative — psychodynamic therapy is more like a strength-training program: still working the same underlying muscles, still building real change.
Psychodynamic therapy and psychoanalysis share the same DNA — both believe unconscious patterns shape behavior — but psychoanalysis is the more in-depth version, while psychodynamic therapy is a more flexible, often shorter-term application of the same ideas.
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This is a type of therapy that primarily focuses on providing emotional support, encouragement, and validation during difficult life circumstances or psychological challenges. We talk about your feelings, concerns, and any problems you are facing in a safe, nonjudgmental environment.
Here’s how the process works…
Step 1
Request
Request for an appointment via the Secure Portal by navigating to the Prospective Patient page
Step 2
Consultation
You will receive an email or phone call to schedule a consultation visit, during which we will explore what brings you to connect for care and if we might be a good fit to work together. We can plan for next steps.
Step 3
Assessment & Treatment
After a comprehensive assessment, you and I will discuss initial impressions and create a thoughtful and individualized treatment plan that centers around what’s most important to you.
Sunshine Act
Illuminating Financial Relationships in Healthcare for Public Awareness
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Open Payments is a national transparency program that collects and publishes information about financial relationships between drug and medical device companies (referred to as "reporting entities") and certain health care providers (referred to as "covered recipients"). These relationships may involve payments to providers for things including but not limited to research, meals, travel, gifts or speaking fees.
One of the ways that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) provides data to the public is through this search tool, which allows the public to search for covered recipients receiving payments, as well as reporting entities that have made payments. The purpose of the program is to provide the public with a more transparent health care system. All information available on the Open Payments database is open to personal interpretation and if there are questions about what the data means, patients and their advocates should speak directly to the health care provider for a better understanding.
For informational purposes only, a link to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Open Payments web page is provided here. The federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act requires that detailed information about payment and other payments of value worth over ten dollars ($10) from manufacturers of drugs, medical devices, and biologics to physicians and teaching hospitals be made available to the public.
