Tara Anvar, LCSW, PPS

Tara Anvar, LCSW, PPS

Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Pupil Personnel Services in School Counseling

13 years of clinical experience

NOTE: Tara is not accepting new clients at this time.


Tara believes self-awareness, self-efficacy, and the ability to view experiences from different perspectives is key to a successful therapeutic experience. She uses a humanistic approach to treatment and together with her clients, Tara helps them explore their experiences and reasons for seeking therapy. As a team, they make a plan and develop tools to help improve her clients’ quality of life. Tara’s work is informed by therapeutic modalities such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Behavioral Therapy, Growth Mindset, Social Thinking, and Executive Functioning Skills.

 Inspired By

Working with people who want to grow and develop inspires Tara. She sees so much strength, love and passion in the people she works with. To her, being a therapist means working with people who are being brave, courageous, and vulnerable. Being around such people inspires her to bring those strengths to her own life. As a therapist, Tara is constantly called to do more and live a bigger life than she planned for herself.


Specialties

  • Identity Expression

  • Clinical Supervision

  • ADHD

  • Anxiety

  • Twice Exceptional (2e)

  • Neurodivergent Affirming

  • Autism

  • Executive Functioning Skills

  • Parenting Therapy

  • Language Expression


Specialized Training

  • Giftedness

  • School Counseling

  • Social Thinking

  • Career Counseling

  • Executive Functioning

  • Anxiety


 Tell Me More!

Tara is also a mom to two very energetic boys! With her family, Tara likes to travel, kayak, hike, and camp. When Tara manages some alone time, she often spends it running on one of the many beautiful trails in the Bay Area.

Being a therapist is something Tara happened upon. Originally she wanted to have a career in social justice and human rights. While searching for a Master’s program that would help support such a career, Tara came across the Master’s in Social Work. For her, this degree seemed to be the foundation for any career she would be interested in.

After graduating, she held internships at several Bay Area schools where she developed a passion for working with youth and families. She saw how developing strong personal and interpersonal relationships is the foundation of social justice work. While working in schools, Tara developed Bullying Prevention programs, implemented Restorative Justice programs, and worked with youth and their families to self-advocate. Later she began to work with families in private practice where she continues to help her clients develop personal and interpersonal relationships.

 Background

Tara is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and has a PPS credential in School Counseling. She has worked extensively with youth and young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, and other learning disabilities, as well as children, teens and young adults with anxiety. In addition to working directly with children to develop stronger social skills and executive functioning skills, she also enjoys working with parents to help support their children’s strengths and areas of growth.


Education

Bachelor of Science degree in Anthropology from CSU, Fullerton

Master’s degree in Social Work from CSU, Dominguez Hills

Counseling Credential from Saint Mary’s College of California