Tara Bruin , AASW

Tara Bruin is an AASW-accredited social worker and counsellor practising in Australia. She draws on three years of counselling experience and a prior sixteen-year career as a school teacher in Queensland to offer calm, practical support for people facing hard life events.

Tara helps people who are managing stress, anxiety, depression and grief. She also supports those dealing with parenting strains, family conflict, separation and relationship concerns. Her background in education gives her an easy way of explaining ideas and planning small, manageable steps forward.

In sessions she aims to be warm and direct. Tara listens first, then works with each person to set clear goals. She tailors approaches to the person sitting in front of her, combining different tools depending on the issue and the person’s preferences.

She also brings lived experience of mental illness, trauma and grief to her work. That perspective informs how she responds with empathy and respect, and helps her focus on practical coping strategies that people can use between sessions.

Tara uses evidence-informed methods such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Attachment-Based work, Client-Centred techniques and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. She offers a supportive space for people who want to rebuild routines, manage symptoms, or make difficult decisions about relationships and parenting.

People who choose Tara typically want straightforward guidance and a collaborative process. She works to help clients find clearer choices, reduce overwhelm and take realistic steps toward a more manageable life.

Therapeutic approaches for online care

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on helping people notice difficult thoughts and feelings without being pushed around by them. It encourages choosing actions that match personal values while building flexibility in how someone responds to stress. Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationships shape current patterns of connection and trust, and it can help people improve closeness, boundaries and communication in relationships.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Tara will talk with each person about their goals and preferences, then suggest which methods might help most. That decision is collaborative and can change as therapy progresses to reflect what is working best for the individual.

Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat or text-based messaging to make counselling more flexible. Video suits deeper conversations and non-verbal cues, phone works well when bandwidth is limited, live chat can be used for quicker check-ins, and messaging lets people reflect between sessions. These options help fit support around work, parenting and other commitments, and make it easier to keep continuity when life gets busy.