Tara Porphy , LPC

Tara Porphy is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) based in New Jersey who focuses on supporting women facing stress, anxiety, parenting strain, and relationship challenges. She aims to make therapy straightforward and practical so people can use what they learn right away. Her warm, down-to-earth style helps clients feel heard and understood from the first conversation.

Tara draws on ten years of clinical work across homes, offices, residential settings, and telehealth. She has supported people through addiction and recovery, anxiety and panic, depression, trauma, grief, sleep problems, and life transitions. She also works with concerns connected to attachment, adoption and foster care, body image, and caregiver stress.

In residential substance use settings she led groups, ran individual sessions, and offered family-focused support. That work included motivational interviewing and psychoeducation aimed at both the person in recovery and their loved ones. Tara describes addiction as affecting the whole family and is comfortable helping those touched by it.

She has experience with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including autism, and has worked with at-risk children and teens in home-based settings. Tara often meets with parents individually to help them manage parenting strain and improve daily routines that affect family wellbeing.

Tara uses an adaptable, client-centered approach and integrates methods such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and attachment-based ideas. Sessions focus on practical skills, clearer communication, and immediate coping strategies. She encourages collaboration so therapy matches each person’s needs and goals.

How therapeutic approaches shape online sessions

Attachment-based work focuses on patterns in close relationships and how they affect current feelings and reactions; it helps people who struggle with trust, fear of abandonment, or repeating relationship patterns. Client-centered therapy centers the person's own goals and pacing, giving space for someone to be heard and decide what changes matter most. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at how thoughts, feelings, and actions connect and teaches practical skills to reduce anxiety, manage mood, and change unhelpful habits.

Choosing the right approach is part of the process. Tara will talk with each person about their goals and preferences, then try methods that feel most helpful. She works collaboratively so adjustments can be made as progress and needs change.

Online sessions can be done by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video calls let visual cues guide conversation and are useful for role-plays or watching how interactions change. Phone sessions use less bandwidth and can be easier to fit into a busy day. Live chat and text messaging offer quick check-ins, brief emotional support, and a way to continue work between longer sessions. These options make it easier to schedule appointments, keep continuity during life transitions, and maintain ongoing support without travel.