Tara McBrearty , LCSW

Tara McBrearty is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in California with 30 years of experience guiding people through challenging life transitions and emotional shifts. She creates a space where clients can safely explore their feelings, clarify relationship struggles, and examine the patterns that interfere with intimacy, self-esteem, and career advancement. Her work emphasizes supporting each person’s sense of self while strengthening their capacity to manage change and move toward meaningful goals.

Tara’s approach is cooperative and tolerant, aiming to foster an atmosphere of freedom and creativity within sessions. Clients have worked with her to untangle conflicts in relationships, rebuild trust in themselves and others, rediscover enthusiasm for life, and overcome barriers that block professional growth. She attends to an array of concerns including stress, anxiety, depression, addictions, grief, sleep difficulties, and adjustment to new circumstances.

Her practice also addresses attachment and abandonment issues, blended family challenges, caregiver stress, communication and commitment difficulties, dissociation, feelings of emptiness, and family of origin concerns. Tara’s perspective has been shaped by the writings of Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, Jean Piaget, Carl Rogers, and Adi Da Samraj, and enriched by training and ideas from Virginia Satir, Michael White, Gabor Maté, Ellyn Bader, John and Julie Gottman, William R. Miller, and David Whyte. She welcomes the opportunity to support those ready to pursue a deeper sense of purpose and fulfillment.

Therapeutic approaches for online care and support

Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes listening with empathy and helping clients identify their own goals. In practice this means the therapist follows the client’s lead, offering support and reflection to strengthen self-understanding and personal agency - often useful for relationship concerns, self-esteem, and navigating life transitions.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on the link between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It involves practical strategies to identify unhelpful thinking patterns and try new responses, which can help with anxiety, stress, depression, and habits that interfere with daily functioning.

Mindfulness Therapy teaches present-moment awareness and gentler engagement with difficult emotions and physical sensations. These practices can reduce reactivity, improve sleep, and support coping during periods of grief, change, or heightened stress.

Finding the right therapeutic approach is part of the work itself. Tara McBrearty collaborates with each person to determine which methods fit their needs, goals, and preferences, adapting techniques over time as progress unfolds.

Online therapy offers practical flexibility - sessions can occur by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to accommodate schedules and mobility. These options make it easier to maintain continuity of care, attend sessions from familiar surroundings, and tailor communication styles to what feels most supportive for each individual.