Tara DeJohn, PhD, LCSW

I am an experienced licensed social worker who believes that trust and safety are two critical components to create in the counseling setting so that everyone, regardless of her/his/their life experiences, learn to embrace her/his/their resilience and decrease the influences of shame and other self-destructive thoughts and emotions. I work with anyone 13 years old and above.

I am an outpatient psychotherapist at Cardinal Counseling Center. I received my Bachelor of Science in Psychology, Master’s in Social Work, and Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA. I am a Licensed Certified Social Worker (LCSW) in the state of Arkansas.
I have worked across a broad range of settings, including medical & psychiatric hospitals, outpatient community-based programs for persons with chronic mental illnesses, residential programs for youth in foster care, private practice, and university settings. I believe that trust and safety are two critical components to create in the counseling setting so that everyone, regardless of her/his/their life experiences, learn to embrace her/his/their resilience and decrease the influences of shame and other self-destructive thoughts and emotions. I know personally & professionally how important it is to address the realities of intersectionality and “othering” that are part of our society and how they can hinder experiencing a fully satisfying and fulfilling life. I believe it is important to work with people and their support systems to learn how to be responsive (rather than reactive), especially for people with traumatic life experiences (known as a trauma-systems approach).
Commonly utilized therapeutic approaches include CBT, ACT, brief solutions-focused therapy, motivational interviewing, and person-centered therapy. I believe in the importance of working with (not for or fixing) individuals, couples, and families towards defining and achieving their goals. This same mindset of working with is the foundation I use for clinical supervision with social workers working towards obtaining their LCSW.