Tara Ashley, LICSW, LCSW

Tara Ashley is a licensed clinical social worker with 16 years of experience helping people through stress, anxiety, relationship strain, grief, and life transitions. She is based in Montana and uses practical therapy to help people find clearer steps forward.

Her work often focuses on difficult moments such as trauma and abuse, compassion fatigue, parenting pressures, and divorce or separation. She also supports people facing questions about life purpose, career shifts, money worries, and the emotional fallout of pregnancy and childbirth.

Tara uses straightforward, evidence-informed approaches including cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, client-centered techniques, and elements of the Gottman Method. She helps people notice patterns, try new skills, and make choices that match their values.

Sessions are collaborative and paced to each person. Tara listens first, then helps set goals and practical steps to reach them. People work on managing feelings such as anger, low self-esteem, or anxiety while building routines that improve sleep and daily functioning.

She brings particular experience supporting women through major life stages and professional stress. Over time Tara aims to help clients increase resilience, clarify priorities, and regain a sense of direction after painful changes.

Therapy with her can include short-term coaching-style work or deeper therapeutic work, depending on what each person needs and wants.

Practical approaches for online therapy

CBT, or cognitive behavioral therapy, focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing them with small behavioral changes to reduce anxiety, improve mood, and address sleep or anger problems. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) helps people clarify their values and take committed actions even when difficult feelings remain, which can be useful for grief, chronic stress, and life transitions. Client-centered therapy emphasizes a respectful, listening-first stance where the therapist supports the person's own goals and pace of change.

Choosing the right approach is part of the work. Tara will collaborate with each person to identify goals, try methods that fit their comfort level, and adjust plans based on what helps. That collaborative process helps match skills and strategies to the issues someone brings in, whether it's relationship concerns, parenting strain, or career decisions.

Online formats offer flexibility for people with busy schedules. Video calls let the therapist and client use visual cues for interactive exercises. Phone sessions can be a shorter check-in when video is not needed or bandwidth is limited. Live chat and text-based messaging work well for brief coaching, skill practice between sessions, or when someone prefers writing to speaking. These options make it easier to keep therapy consistent while fitting sessions into real life.