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Tara Winter, LCAT, RDT
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Play Therapy
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Expressive Arts Therapy
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Psychotherapy
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children.teens.adults
TARA WINTER THERAPY
services
I offer a compassionate, supportive space where you can feel heard, understood, and valued. Life comes with ups and downs, and I’m here to help you navigate them with kindness and empathy.
For CREATIVES
WHEN YOU'RE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING MORE
Sometimes you’re feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or stuck—navigating transitions, questions about identity and meaning, or simply needing some space to slow down and figure out what’s happening beneath the surface.
You may be:
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Managing too much at once and struggling to find your footing
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Navigating parenting or the changing dynamics as your children grow
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Moving through perimenopause or another major life transition
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Feeling stuck in your writing or a creative project you’ve wanted to finish
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Struggling with perfectionism or the pressure to hold everything together
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Questioning your identity, relationships, purpose, or what comes next
Therapy can be a space to explore what’s beneath the surface and make more room for the parts of yourself that matter.
Therapy doesn't have to be about fixing what's wrong with you. It can be a space to become more fully yourself.
FOR TEENS
WITH RICH INNER WORLDS
You may be imaginative, sensitive, creative, intense, or someone who thinks and feels deeply. You may be figuring out who you are, where you belong, or how you want to move through the world.
Sometimes, all of that can feel like a lot.
You may be dealing with:
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Anxiety, overthinking or obsessive thoughts
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Perfectionism or pressure to get things “right”
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Feeling overwhelmed or emotionally exhausted
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School, performance, or family pressure
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Friendship, relationship, or social challenges
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Questions about identity, belonging, or where you fit
I provide therapy for teens using conversation, creativity, art, mindfulness, and nervous-system–informed approaches.
For Children
WHO EXPERIENCE THE WORLD DEEPLY
Some children feel everything deeply. They may be imaginative, sensitive, creative, highly perceptive, or neurodivergent—and may be doing well at school while struggling more beneath the surface.
You may notice:
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Big emotions, meltdowns, or difficulty calming down
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Anxiety, worry, perfectionism, or overthinking
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Shutting down or having trouble expressing what they need
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Holding it together at school and falling apart at home
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Difficulty with transitions, change, or social situations
I provide child therapy and play therapy that incorporates creativity, movement, and nervous-system–informed approaches.
Together, we can help your child understand their experiences, build emotional regulation skills, and feel more confident in who they are.
services
I offer a compassionate, supportive space where you can feel heard, understood, and valued. Life comes with ups and downs, and I’m here to help you navigate them with kindness and empathy.
For Adults
WHO ARE CREATIVE
My work also includes adults who are creative, sensitive, introspective, or emotionally complex—and who may be looking for something deeper than simply managing symptoms.
You may be navigating a transition, questioning who you are becoming, struggling in a relationship, feeling disconnected from your creativity, experiencing anxiety, or carrying emotions that seem bigger or more complicated than you can easily explain.
Maybe you’re functioning well on the outside, but something inside feels stuck, disconnected, or difficult to put into words.
Or perhaps you’ve spent years trying to understand yourself intellectually and are ready to experience yourself differently.
Therapy can be a space to explore the parts of your life that don’t always fit neatly into words—creativity, relationships, dreams, identity, embodiment, meaning, and the patterns that live beneath the surface.
Therapy doesn’t have to be about fixing what’s wrong with you.
It can be a space to become more fully yourself.
FOR TEENS
WITH RICH INNER WORLDS
I work well with teenagers who have rich inner worlds and may experience life a little differently than the people around them.
You may be imaginative, emotionally sensitive, curious, intense, creative, or simply someone who thinks and feels deeply. You may be figuring out who you are, where you belong, what you believe, or how you want to move through the world.
Sometimes anxiety, school stress, relationships, family changes, or the pressure to fit in can make all of this feel even harder to navigate.
Therapy can offer a space where you don’t have to have everything figured out. Together, we can explore emotions, anxiety, relationships, identity, creativity, dreams, patterns, and the parts of yourself that are beginning to emerge.
You don’t have to arrive with everything figured out.
You just have to be willing to get curious.
For Children
WHO EXPERIENCE THE WORLD DEEPLY
I work with children using play, creativity, movement, and nervous-system–informed approaches.
This work can be especially supportive for children who are emotionally sensitive, imaginative, creative, or neurodivergent, particularly when they are experiencing anxiety, big emotions, difficulty with regulation, school or social challenges, transitions, or trouble putting what they are feeling into words.
Sometimes a child may seem overwhelmed, withdrawn, frustrated, anxious, or stuck—but not have the language to explain why.
Children don’t always communicate what is happening through conversation. Their stories, drawings, play, movement, and behavior can communicate things that words cannot.
Therapy can give children a safe, supportive space to express themselves, build emotional awareness, develop greater regulation, and make sense of the world around them.
I also work collaboratively with parents when support or guidance outside of the child’s individual sessions is helpful.
services
I offer a compassionate, supportive space where you can feel heard, understood, and valued. Life comes with ups and downs, and I’m here to help you navigate them with kindness and empathy.
For Adults
WHO ARE CREATIVE
My work also includes adults who are creative, sensitive, introspective, or emotionally complex—and who may be looking for something deeper than simply managing symptoms.
You may be navigating a transition, questioning who you are becoming, struggling in a relationship, feeling disconnected from your creativity, experiencing anxiety, or carrying emotions that seem bigger or more complicated than you can easily explain.
Maybe you’re functioning well on the outside, but something inside feels stuck, disconnected, or difficult to put into words.
Or perhaps you’ve spent years trying to understand yourself intellectually and are ready to experience yourself differently.
Therapy can be a space to explore the parts of your life that don’t always fit neatly into words—creativity, relationships, dreams, identity, embodiment, meaning, and the patterns that live beneath the surface.
Therapy doesn’t have to be about fixing what’s wrong with you.
It can be a space to become more fully yourself.
FOR TEENS
WITH RICH INNER WORLDS
I work well with teenagers who have rich inner worlds and may experience life a little differently than the people around them.
You may be imaginative, emotionally sensitive, curious, intense, creative, or simply someone who thinks and feels deeply. You may be figuring out who you are, where you belong, what you believe, or how you want to move through the world.
Sometimes anxiety, school stress, relationships, family changes, or the pressure to fit in can make all of this feel even harder to navigate.
Therapy can offer a space where you don’t have to have everything figured out. Together, we can explore emotions, anxiety, relationships, identity, creativity, dreams, patterns, and the parts of yourself that are beginning to emerge.
You don’t have to arrive with everything figured out.
You just have to be willing to get curious.
For Children
WHO EXPERIENCE THE WORLD DEEPLY
I work with children using play, creativity, movement, and nervous-system–informed approaches.
This work can be especially supportive for children who are emotionally sensitive, imaginative, creative, or neurodivergent, particularly when they are experiencing anxiety, big emotions, difficulty with regulation, school or social challenges, transitions, or trouble putting what they are feeling into words.
Sometimes a child may seem overwhelmed, withdrawn, frustrated, anxious, or stuck—but not have the language to explain why.
Children don’t always communicate what is happening through conversation. Their stories, drawings, play, movement, and behavior can communicate things that words cannot.
Therapy can give children a safe, supportive space to express themselves, build emotional awareness, develop greater regulation, and make sense of the world around them.
I also work collaboratively with parents when support or guidance outside of the child’s individual sessions is helpful.
Hi, I'm tara
I'm glad you're here.
I’ve always been interested in what’s happening beneath the surface.
The parts of us that don’t always have words. The stories we carry about ourselves. The ways our relationships shape us. The things our bodies seem to know before our minds do. And especially the ways people make sense of themselves when they don’t quite fit into the roles or expectations around them.
That curiosity has followed me throughout my work as a therapist. I received my Master’s degree in Drama Therapy from New York University, and over the years I’ve continued to study play therapy, yoga, nervous-system regulation, depth psychology, and other creative and relational approaches. I’m a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist and Registered Drama Therapist. These different perspectives have given me many ways of understanding and working with people, but the thing I come back to again and again is the relationship.
I believe people need a place where they can be fully themselves without having to perform.
For children, that might happen through play, imagination, movement, or a story they create. For a teenager, it might be the first place they can say something out loud without worrying about how it will sound. For an adult, it might be a place to finally slow down and listen to the part of themselves that has been pushed aside for years.
I often return to Donald Winnicott’s idea of the “good-enough” parent. We don’t have to get everything right. Children don’t need perfect parents; they need relationships with enough safety, connection, and room for repair. I think this is true for the rest of us, too.
There is so much pressure to be the right kind of parent, the capable adult, the happy teenager, the easygoing child. But real life is messier than that. We lose our way. We get overwhelmed. We make mistakes. We change. Sometimes we need someone beside us while we figure out what comes next.
That is the kind of space I hope to create in therapy: warm, thoughtful, creative, and human. A place where you don’t have to arrive with the answers, and where we can be curious together about what your experiences might be trying to tell you.
You don’t have to know exactly what you need before reaching out. We can start there.
education & credentials
Education
New York University — Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
Master’s Degree in Drama Therapy, 2010
Thesis: A Healing Process: Therapeutic Theater in an Intensive Psychiatric Rehabilitation Treatment Program
Emerson College
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting
Licenses and Professional Credentials
Licensed Creative Arts Therapist (LCAT)
New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions
License No. 001602
Registered Drama Therapist (RDT)
North American Drama Therapy Association
Registration No. 507
Art Therapist — State of Connecticut
Department of Public Health
License No. 107
Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT)
Yoga Alliance
The Open Center, New York, NY · Prana Yoga with Jeff Migdow, MD
Advanced Training
Synergetic Play Therapy
Currently completing certification; anticipated certification May 2027
Psychodrama Training
American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama (ASGPP), with Dr. Tian Dayton, NYC
Professional Information
NPI: 1508496878
WHAT CLIENTS SAY
erica
“I began therapy with Tara to work through stumbling blocks in my creative process, sources of stress and anxiety, and obstacles to well-being. With her help, I've developed a clearer understanding of my own thought and behavior patterns, and have achieved greater peace and self-integration. She is imaginative, helpful, flexible, and kind.”
working together
Private Pay Therapy
Individual therapy sessions are 45 minutes and are $250.
Out‑of‑Network Provider
I am currently an out-of-network provider. I can provide a superbill that you may submit to your insurance company for potential out-of-network reimbursement.
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