Practitioner record · Checked 7 Oct 2026

Tamela Polanin has been in practice 20 years and is licensed in Illinois. Tamela lists stress, Anxiety, relationship issues and family conflicts among 57 subjects on the BetterHelp roster.

Everything below is either quoted from Tamela's own BetterHelp listing, taken from public licensing records, or written by Maker Therapy and labelled as such. Nothing here is an availability promise, a review, or a rating.

20years in practice
57subjects listed
9approaches listed

01 · Who Tamela works with

Tamela works with stress, Anxiety, relationship issues and family conflicts

Tamela lists 17 specialisms and 40 further focus areas. Specialisms are the subjects Tamela chose to list first, which is the closest a listing gets to “this is my actual practice”.

Specialisms
  • Stress, Anxiety
  • Relationship issues
  • Family conflicts
  • Trauma and abuse
  • Depression
  • Addictions
  • Grief
  • Intimacy-related issues
  • Parenting issues
  • Anger management
  • Self esteem
  • Career difficulties
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Coping with life changes
  • Coaching
  • Compassion fatigue
  • ADHD
Also experienced with
  • Abandonment
  • Adoption and foster care
  • Attachment issues
  • Blended family issues
  • Body image
  • Codependency
  • Communication problems
  • Control issues
  • Dependent personality
  • Dissociation
  • Divorce and separation
  • Domestic violence
  • Family problems
  • Fatherhood issues
  • Forgiveness
  • Guilt and shame
  • Impulsivity
  • Infidelity
  • Isolation / loneliness
  • Jealousy
  • Life purpose
  • Midlife crisis
  • Money and financial issues
  • Mood disorders
  • Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
  • Panic disorder and panic attacks
  • Paranoia
  • Personality disorders
  • Postpartum depression
  • Post-traumatic stress
  • Pregnancy and childbirth
  • Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
  • Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
  • Self-harm
  • Self-love
  • Sex addiction
  • Sexual assault and abuse
  • Social anxiety and phobia
  • Women's issues
  • Workplace issues

02 · In Tamela's own words

What Tamela says about the work

Reproduced in full and unedited - not summarised, not tightened, not rewritten in a house voice.

Hello, Thank you for taking the first step in better living. Our mental health is very important. My name is Tamela, I would love to be your therapist. I look forward to working with you. Just a little about me to help break the ice, I am a mom of 3 boys, one is grown and has a son of his own, the other 2 are 16 and 15. I am married to my second husband now for 17 years. We live in the country and raise registered pygmy goats. I have worked in mental health for 20 years.

We all want to live our best life. I know trauma on a personal level and treating trauma has become my passion. I use a client centered approach where you are the master of your own life; I am merely here to walk beside you as a guide. My hope is to empower you to work through your trauma and life’s challenges. I provide trauma-focused, client-centered therapy to all ages and all backgrounds. I am well versed in EMDR, TF-CBT, and Reproductive loss Counseling. I believe that trauma is a journey and not one person’s journey will be the same as the next. You are not alone. I will traverse this journey beside you.

Tamela Polanin, on the BetterHelp listing · read 7 Oct 2026

03 · How Tamela works

The 9 approaches Tamela lists, in plain English

These are the clinical methods Tamela lists. The descriptions are Maker Therapy's, not Tamela's - a general explanation of what each method is, so the list means something before you have spoken to anybody. They are not a claim about how Tamela runs a session.

Client-Centred TherapyPerson-centred · Rogerian
The therapist does not steer toward a technique or a diagnosis. They offer sustained, non-judgemental attention and reflect back what they hear, on the premise that people find their own direction when they are genuinely listened to. Often what people mean by “someone who just gets it”.
Cognitive Behavioural TherapyCBT
Structured, present-focused work on the loop between what you think, how you feel and what you then do. Usually means noticing a thought pattern in the room, testing it against evidence, and practising something different between sessions. Among the most heavily researched talking therapies for depression and anxiety.
Dialectical Behaviour TherapyDBT
A structured skills-led adaptation of CBT built around holding two things at once: accepting yourself as you are and working to change. Teaches concrete skills for distress tolerance, emotion regulation and relationships. Developed for people whose feelings arrive at overwhelming intensity, and strongest-evidenced there.
Emotionally Focused TherapyEFT
Built for couples and rooted in attachment: the recurring argument is treated as a cycle two people are stuck in rather than as one person's fault. Sessions work to interrupt the cycle and get to what each person is actually asking for underneath it.
Eye Movement Desensitisation and ReprocessingEMDR
A structured trauma protocol in which you hold a distressing memory in mind while following a repeated side-to-side cue. The mechanism is still debated; the outcome data in post-traumatic stress is strong enough that it appears in national treatment guidelines.
Mindfulness-Based TherapyMBCT
Trains attention on what is happening right now - body, breath, the thought as it arrives - so distress can be observed rather than automatically acted on. Strongest evidence is in preventing depression from recurring, and it is usually taught as a practice you keep doing outside the session.
Narrative Therapy
Treats the story you tell about your life as something that can be examined and retold rather than as the plain facts. Separates the person from the problem - “the anxiety” rather than “your anxiety” - to make room for the parts the current story leaves out.
Solution-Focused Brief TherapySFBT
Starts from where you want to end up rather than from how you got here. Sessions look for the times the problem is already smaller and work out what is different about those, so the number of sessions tends to be short and the work concrete.
Trauma-Focused TherapyTF-CBT · trauma-informed
CBT adapted for people whose difficulty is rooted in a frightening or overwhelming event. Pacing is the point: safety and stabilisation come first, the memory itself is approached gradually and only when you are ready, and the aim is that recalling it stops hijacking the present.

04 · What happens next

From this page to a first session

Tamela practises through BetterHelp, so the route in is BetterHelp's. This is that sequence, written by Maker Therapy from the platform's published process - not a description of Tamela's own practice, and not a promise about how quickly anything happens.

  1. A questionnaire, not a booking form

    BetterHelp opens with a set of questions about what you are dealing with, what you want from therapy, and any preferences on the therapist. You are not booking Tamela at this point.

  2. Naming Tamela specifically

    BetterHelp matches algorithmically by default, so asking for Tamela is a step you have to take. There is a field for requesting a specific therapist during sign-up, and you can switch afterwards from your account. Starting from a link on this page does not by itself assign you to Tamela.

  3. If the caseload is full

    You will be offered somebody else rather than put on a waitlist. Worth knowing, because it is easy to assume a match is the person you asked for.

  4. The first conversation

    A first session is typically history and orientation: what brought you, what has been tried, what you want to be different. It is also where the questions in the next section belong.

  5. If the fit is wrong

    Changing therapist on BetterHelp does not need a reason. A first session that does not click is common and is not a verdict on therapy. That option existing is the main practical difference between a platform and a private practice.

05 · Before you commit

4 questions worth asking Tamela

Built from what Tamela actually lists, so they are answerable and specific rather than generic. Maker Therapy's, not Tamela's - Tamela has not seen them and is under no obligation to answer any of them.

  • “You list both Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Client-Centred Therapy. Which do you lean on with someone like me?”

    Those two point in different directions - one structured and led by the therapist, the other led by you. The answer tells you what the sessions will actually feel like.

  • “How do you decide when someone is ready to work on a traumatic memory itself?”

    Pacing is the biggest safety question in trauma work. A clear, unhurried answer here matters more than any credential.

  • “With 20 years in, what has changed most in how you work?”

    Long experience is only an advantage if it has been examined. This tends to surface whether it has.

  • “How do you handle the gap between sessions if something comes up?”

    On BetterHelp this varies a great deal by therapist. Better to know the rhythm now than to discover it on a bad week.

06 · Practical details

Credentials and licensing

Credential
LCPC
Licensed in
Illinois
Licence
IL LCPC 180.012372
Licence number
180.012372
Licence expires
31 Mar 2027
NPI
1982255592
Years in practice
20
Gender
Female
Languages
English
International clients
Accepted
Listed since
9 Jun 2026

07 · Provenance

Where every line on this page came from

Tamela's name, credential, state, subjects, approaches and biography are read from BetterHelp's therapist roster, which Maker Therapy re-reads once a day; this page reflects the reading taken on 7 Oct 2026. The licence number and NPI are cross-checked against public registers.

The plain-English method descriptions, the first-session walkthrough and the questions are written by Maker Therapy and labelled as such wherever they appear.

Maker Therapy is not BetterHelp, does not take bookings, and has not met Tamela. There are no reviews or ratings on this page because we have no way to verify one. If you start therapy through a link here, we may be paid a commission - it does not change your price and it does not affect who appears here or in what order.

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