Tamara has been living in Ithaca since 1985 and, like Diane, she received her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Ithaca College. After working for H.O.M.E.S., Inc., she received her Masters Degree of Social Work from Boston University. While studying in Boston, Tamara did her internships at The Boston Veteran’s Administration and The Newton-Needham guidance clinic. At the VA, Tamara was a member of the Homeless outreach program. She went to homeless shelters in the Boston area to help homeless veterans get the services they needed. While working at the Newton-Needham Guidance Clinic, Tamara saw a variety of clients for psychotherapy, including children and adults.

Tamara had six years of experience working as a therapist at a local non-profit agency, where she worked in the Brief Therapy model. Most of her clients have been short-term, between 8 and 10 sessions. In all, Tamara has counseled nearly 2,000 individuals during her career. Tamara has been in private practice since 1997 when she and Diane Jerdan co-founded Brief Therapy Associates.  Tamara has also spent many hours developing her training using the brief therapy model. The following are the trainings she has attended focusing on brief therapy.

• Worry & Obsession: Cognitive-Behavioral Strategies for Generalized Anxiety and OCD (Michelle Craske)
• Solution Focused Brief Therapy (Insoo Kim Berg)
• Ericksonian Psychotherapy (Stephen Gilligan)
• Re-authoring Your Life Story (Michael White)
• Rewriting Love Stories: Brief Marital Therapy (Bill O’Hanlon and Patricia Hudson)
• Brief Therapy with Difficult Adolescents (Mathew Selekman)
• Solution-Oriented Brief Therapy (Michele Weiner-Davis)