Tara Bruin, AASW

Tara Bruin is an Accredited Social Worker registered with the AASW and a counsellor based in Australia. She combines three years of clinical experience with 16 years of prior work as a school teacher in Queensland. Tara draws on her professional and personal experience of trauma, grief and mental illness to support people through difficult life moments.

Tara works with stress, anxiety, depression and grief. She helps people dealing with parenting challenges, family conflict, separation and relationship strain. She also supports those facing addictions, trauma and coping with life changes.

Her approach is practical and person-centred. Sessions focus on what matters most to the person and on small, achievable steps. She uses clear, everyday language and tailors plans to each person rather than using a one-size-fits-all method.

Tara draws on several therapeutic approaches including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and attachment-informed ways of working. These methods are used to help with unhelpful thoughts, emotional regulation and improving relationships.

People who choose Tara can expect a respectful, calm and compassionate space to talk. She aims to empower clients to make gradual changes and to build skills that fit into real life. To begin, clients follow the service's matching and scheduling process to book a first session.

How Tara’s approaches translate to online counselling

Tara commonly draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and attachment-informed work. ACT helps people notice painful thoughts without being driven by them and encourages action based on personal values, which can be useful for anxiety, depression and life transitions. Attachment-based ideas look at how early relationship patterns influence current relationships and communication, and they can help with connection issues, caregiving stress and relationship strain.

Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with each person about their goals and preferences and then try approaches that fit. Plans are adjusted over time based on what works for the individual rather than sticking rigidly to one method.

Confirm the session formats offered before booking, as the biography does not list specific online or in-person formats. Online counselling can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy week, reduce travel time, and allow shorter check-ins when schedules are tight. It also supports working through grief, coping with chronic illness or ongoing stress from wherever the client is located in Australia, while the therapist and client decide together how to structure sessions to suit their life.