About Tara
Tara Hartley is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with nine years of experience helping people navigate stress, anxiety, depression, addiction, and relationship struggles. She practices from Illinois and uses straightforward, compassionate care to help clients make concrete changes. Tara focuses on practical steps people can use day to day.
She speaks English during sessions. Her approach centers on listening first and tailoring the work to each person. She uses client-centered methods to focus on what matters to the individual.
How Tara works
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy tools are used to identify patterns of thinking and behavior that raise stress and get in the way of goals. Tara also draws on Dialectical Behavior Therapy and mindfulness strategies to teach coping skills for emotion regulation and distress tolerance. These tools are helpful for people facing intense emotion, relationship conflict, or recurring patterns that feel stuck.
She integrates existential ideas when people wrestle with meaning, life transitions, or big decisions. Her background includes several years supporting people with trauma and substance use concerns, alongside broader work with grief, parenting challenges, communication problems, and caregiver stress. Tara aims to avoid labels and treat each person with respect and sensitivity.
She focuses on building practical skills and clear plans. Sessions may include coaching elements when someone wants active goal work. Tara encourages small, realistic steps and checks progress along the way.
She works collaboratively to find approaches that fit each person’s needs and preferences.
Tara lists 10 ways of working on the entry:
What Tara works with
The areas below are the ones Tara selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Addictions
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 9 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Illinois |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Therapeutic approaches for online support
Tara uses Client-Centered Therapy to build a trusting working relationship, focusing on what matters most to the person and shaping sessions around those priorities. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is used to spot unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and replace them with practical actions that reduce symptoms and improve daily functioning. Dialectical Behavior Therapy offers concrete skills for managing intense emotions, improving relationships, and tolerating distress when situations become overwhelming.Deciding which approach to use is a shared process. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, try techniques, and adjust the plan based on what helps most. That collaboration makes it easier to find methods that fit the client’s life and preferences rather than forcing a single model.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video sessions let people work face to face from different locations. Phone sessions can be less demanding on bandwidth and easier during a short break. Live chat and text messaging provide brief check-ins or ongoing support between longer sessions. These options offer flexibility to fit therapy into a busy schedule.
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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