Meet Tara

Most people look at a group practice and they see positions, tasks, bottlenecks, and specific “things to fix.”

I see those things, but I also see way more than that.

I see a living system that’s breathing and humming with life — one with patterns, pulses, and key places that need tending.

For as long as I can remember, my brain has been wired to look beneath the surface.

Not for drama and not for perfection, but for truth. For call and response. For the real factors shaping how a practice breathes, struggles, and grows.

I’ve been a therapist since 2012 and a group practice owner since 2017. But long before any of that, I was the kid who was just constantly curious, the adult who couldn’t ignore misalignment, and the leader who never accepted “that’s just how it is” as an answer to a problem (or a way of leading).

I earned my PhD because I craved depth — depth of people, depth of systems, depth of leadership, depth of understanding, depth of meaning. None of that has changed, nor will it likely ever change.

What I Actually Know (My Lived Experience in a Nutshell)

This is simple enough to condense down, but hard to accurately reflect the true emotionality through all of it. I’ll try to strike the balance.

  • I built a group practice from scratch and grew it to a full leadership team and over twenty employees (still growing).

  • I’ve navigated the identity shifts that most of us will go through (or have gone through): therapist → leader → visionary — and all while tending to my very human nervous system throughout each process.

  • I’ve hired beautifully. And I’ve hired terribly.

  • I’ve wept from the weight of leadership in the hardest moments.

  • I’ve physically laid on the floor to ground myself during some exceptionally difficult leadership team decisions and discussions.

  • I’ve felt alone af in a room full of people I adore — the kind of alone that can only come from being an Owner and Visionary.

  • And I’ve prevailed through it all without succumbing to white-knuckling, self-flagellation, berating myself to “just try harder,” or martyrdom.

These days, my work is less about solving problems and more about helping leaders see clearly — the real patterns, the emotional undercurrents, the cultural dynamics, and the structural realities shaping the health of their practice.

Clarity dissolves chaos. It always has.

How I See Practices (And Why Leaders Hire Me)

Your practice is alive. Of course it has structure — systems, scorecards, roles, accountability. But it also has:

  • emotional seasons

  • cultural drift

  • interpersonal patterns

  • leadership shadows

  • people who need clarity, not pressure

  • a steady (or erratic) pulse you can feel when you learn how to pay attention

I’m not here to apply a formula.

I’m here to help you learn how to read the ecosystem you’re actually running — all of it — and respond from informed, grounded clarity rather than panic, people-pleasing, or reactivity.

Where I work best (and what I love best) is a second-nature blend of systems, psychology, culture, and leadership. It’s all of those things, not one in isolation. All of them.

A Few Things You Should Know About Me

Sometimes, it’s really just easiest and clearest to say things plainly. Here’s what’s relevant to know:

  • My brain sees systems, not isolated parts or fragments.
    I naturally read six layers at once — structure, emotion, culture, dynamics, patterns, impact. It’s just how I’m built and how my brain works. [Great for consulting. Less fun socially.]

  • I trust depth over performance.
    If something looks good but feels off, I’ll tell you. Kindly, clearly, and without theatrics. Cake looks prettier than beef stew, but is far less satiating and nutrient-dense.

  • Culture is alive and malleable.
    It responds to leadership in the same way vegetables respond to rich soil and enough water. When we attune well, things flourish. When we avoid, things wither.

  • I am expressly not here to fix your practice for you.
    I am absolutely here to help you find your lens, your language, your clarity, and your grounding in such a way that you can lead the living organism you’re already responsible for. You don’t need to be a version of me, you need to be the best version of you.

  • My work is rooted in lived experience, deep study, and constant pattern-spotting.
    I’m not here for generic CEO tips or leadership hacks — I’m here for concepts that actually hold up inside real group practices.

What I Fundamentally Believe (The Ones I’m Unwilling to Budge On)

You might not know me well, but I will clarify off the bat that I’m really not into platitudes and pithy or trite statements. I’m interested in practical wisdom with accurate and embodied empathy. Here’s how that looks with regard to leadership, culture, and people:

  • Integrity > Optics
    Alignment matters more than appearance. If something feels off, it is off.

  • People Before Process
    Systems matter deeply, but they exist to serve humans — not the other way around.

  • Transparency Is Strategy.
    Clarity is kindness. Avoidance breeds chaos. We must name the thing that needs naming.

  • Shame Has No Place in Leadership.
    Missteps, burnout, hiring mistakes — they’re part of the path, not evidence you’re unfit for it.

  • Structure Frees You.
    You don’t need more passion — you need better containers so the passion you already have can breathe.

The Living Practice Framework™

Your practice being alive isn’t a metaphor I use lightly — it’s the foundation of how I see the whole system.

Your practice is a living organism.

It has structure, culture, leadership, people, and marketing — all interconnected, all influencing each other whether you’re paying attention or not. Pull one thread, the whole organism responds.

The Living Practice Framework™ is a model I conceptualized to make sense of how I understand and support practices (including my own). It’s where structure meets soul, systems meet seasons, and leadership is a way of being — not a role we play.

Where to Go From Here

I don’t sell on my website.

I don’t run funnels.

And I don’t create offerings on a content treadmill (that sounds torturous, honestly).

Everything I offer — pop-up Q&As, deep dives, mastermind openings, retreats — happens in real time, when it’s alive, true, and worth the energy — for both of us. My work comes in seasons, not schedules (and trying to force a schedule only makes the work feel flat).

If the way I talk about depth, systems, clarity, and the living ecosystem of your practice feels like home, and you want to stay connected to whatever I offer next, join my list by signing up below.

That’s where I share what I’m seeing, what I’m thinking, and what I’m opening — and it’s the only place to hear about opportunities to work with me.