Tara Gralnick, Ph.D.

Meet Tara Gralnick

Tara Gralnick has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Toronto Scarborough. She views the therapeutic relationship as integral to successful psychotherapy, adopting a genuine, empathetic, and non-judgmental style with her clients. She strives to deeply attune to her clients’ experiences, providing a sense of safety that facilitates emotional exploration. She is grateful to have received in-depth training in Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT), and primarily draws from this modality to help her clients access the root of their suffering and create deep, meaningful changes in their lives. She further integrates Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) when needed to help her clients reduce situational distress and ultimately progress towards the deeper work of shifting painful emotions related to past wounds, which so often drive current suffering. Tara finds great meaning in the work that she does.

Tara works with clients experiencing a range of difficulties, including anxiety (e.g., social anxiety, generalized anxiety, panic), depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), psychosis, complex trauma, low self-worth, relationship difficulties, perfectionism, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), overwhelming emotions, life stressors, and self-stigma. It has been her experience that working towards transforming emotional schemes related to past traumatic experiences ultimately liberates her clients from the need to engage in constant symptom management. She has developed a particular interest in working with clients who endured interpersonal traumas and who experience difficulties rooted in shame and self-criticism. She strives to promote cultural safety and apply an intersectional lens when working with clients with diverse racial, ethnic, religious, gender, and sexual identities.

Tara’s training has offered her a lens to understand the human experience at both emotional and intellectual levels, helping her feel competent in embracing the nuance and complexity of each individual’s unique experience. In addition to her role at eFIT, she is currently working at the Centre for Psychology and Emotional Health. She completed her pre-doctoral residency at the Calgary Clinical Psychology Residency Program, with rotations in a hospital-based mood disorders program, early/adult psychosis program, and community mental health clinic. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton’s Early Intervention Clinic, where she ran a randomized control trial evaluating an intervention she co-developed (a group Cognitive Behavioural Therapy intervention for individuals experiencing combined social anxiety and psychosis). Tara has trained in a variety of settings throughout her graduate studies, having completed rotations at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)’s Complex Care and Recovery Program, CAMH’s Work, Stress, and Health Program, West End Psychological Services, and DBT Hamilton. In line with her client-centered approach to therapy, which emphasizes clients’ needs and personal goals, her dissertation focused on developing an intervention that aims to help individuals better understand their universal personality traits and to cultivate desired change.

Tara is passionate about the innovative work being conducted at eFIT and is delighted to be a part of this community.