Tara Hartley, LCSW

Tara Hartley is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) practicing in Illinois. She brings nine years of combined experience to her work, including time focused on substance use counseling and trauma-related care. Her style is warm and interactive, and she aims to meet people with respect and compassion. Tara focuses on common concerns such as stress, anxiety, depression, addiction, grief, and relationship challenges. She also supports people coping with major life changes, caregiver strain, cancer-related issues, and aging or geriatric concerns. Intimacy struggles, communication problems, and questions about commitment are other areas she addresses. Her approach blends client-centered listening with practical strategies from cognitive behavioral therapy and skills-based work drawn from dialectical behavior therapy. She also draws on existential ideas and mindfulness practices to help people reflect on meaning and manage strong emotions. Sessions are tailored to each person’s goals and circumstances. Tara emphasizes collaboration and real-world skills. She helps people set manageable goals, notice unhelpful thinking, and practice new ways of coping between sessions. Her background includes work with trauma, addiction, parenting concerns, and family-related stress. People who choose Tara often want straightforward support for everyday struggles and major life transitions. To begin, a short questionnaire and scheduling step are used to match needs and set the first appointment. The aim is steady progress through practical tools and empathic conversation.

How therapeutic approaches translate to online work

Client-centered therapy focuses on listening and building a respectful relationship. In practice this means the therapist offers empathic attention, reflects what’s said, and follows the person’s pace to identify goals and next steps. Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, targets unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns with clear exercises and practical homework to test new ways of coping. It can help with anxiety, depression, and stress by breaking problems into manageable parts. Dialectical behavior therapy, DBT, emphasizes emotion regulation and coping skills. It teaches concrete tools for managing intense feelings, improving relationships, and tolerating distress. Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Tara will discuss options and help choose methods that fit a person’s goals, values, and day-to-day needs. The plan can change as progress is made, and decisions are made collaboratively. Confirm the current session formats before booking so you know what is offered. Online therapy can make it easier to fit appointments into a busy life, reduce travel time, and allow quick check-ins when needed. Video sessions let people use visual cues, while phone or shorter check-ins may be helpful when bandwidth is limited or a brief update is needed. These practical benefits can help therapy fit into routines without promising a specific outcome.