Tara McKernan (LCPC)

I am licensed in Maine with 8 years of professional counseling experience. Prior to working as a counselor I was a special education teacher. My interest in counseling came from watching the impact my father, a school counselor of 35 years, had on those with whom he worked. His death in 2008 was a wake-up call for me to figure out my dream job. It turned out that was I really wanted to do was to be a counselor. As a counselor, I work with individuals of all ages. I have experience working with anxiety, depression, disordered eating, grief, relationship issues, learning differences, and with people who are neurodivergent. I work from a variety of theories, believing above all that all clients are their own best expert. I meet clients where they are, builds relationships and then works with a client to help them achieve the change they seek. I will likely use aspects of Feminist Theory, the Social Constructionist view of development, Ecological and Narrative Theory as well as Cognitive Behavioral Theory in my work with clients. Overall, I believe that the world shapes the person as much as the human shapes the world.