FAQ; About Tara Barghamadi
Education & Experience
My path into this work began with curiosity, search for meaning, and wanting to understand myself & my place in the world.
Academically,
I studied Clinical Psychology and Counseling, earning my Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and my Master of Counseling from Arizona State University.
Before stepping into this work, I spent four years practicing as a Mental Health Therapist (January 2022 – January 2026, facilitating 1000+ hours of therapy sessions), working with clients beginning in internship, onto multiple private practices.
In the later 2 years of my clinical career, I founded and ran my own private practice, where I supported individuals through seasons of transition, healing, identity, and meaning-making.
Prior to clinical work, I was immersed in research at the University of Illinois, serving as a Research Assistant in several labs, including:
- Social, Cognitive, Personality, and Emotion Neuroscience Lab
- Memory Systems Neuroscience Lab
- Infant Cognition Lab
- Parent Studies Lab
I’ve also worked as a Teaching Assistant at Arizona State University, supporting coursework across multiple classes: {PSY 324, PSY 462, PSY 598, FAS 598, CDE 232, CDE 430, CDE 232, SOC 312}.
Before any of these experiences, I worked as a barista across many Cafés.
I learned to read people quickly: what they ordered, how they spoke, how they held their bodies, what the coffee meant to them that day.
I learned how to meet many different temperaments with steadiness, humor, efficiency, or care — sometimes all at once. Long before I had formal language for it, I was practicing presence, attunement, and relational skill under pressure.
People began asking for me by name. They trusted me with their mornings. That kind of work taught me how much small moments, handled well, can regulate a nervous system — and how much being truly seen can matter, even briefly.
Education & Work TLDR;
Over time, all of these work experiences as well as my own personal journey began to converge—bringing the existential, spiritual and the heart-center to the forefront of my work.
In 2026, I am courageously and intentionally stepping beyond my comfort zone in my clinical role and into something more expansive:
✨🕯️Soulful Living Guide- a role I dreamt up ✨
This work is rooted in my education and experiences—but guided by intuition, lived wisdom, spirituality, cultural knowledge and ritual, philosophy, mysticism, cosmology, inner light and a deep respect for the human experience.
I meet you as a human first; and focus on your heart and soul.
My Philosophy
My work is rooted in the Existential understanding that your life is yours to shape—that while no one chooses their starting point, you are invited into an active relationship with your choices, your values, and the direction you move.
Meaning is shaped through courageous engagement—through choosing to participate in your life rather than standing at a distance from it.
In this way, the life you live becomes your personal philosophy—an evolving expression of what you value, what you hope for, and how you choose to meet the world.
"Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you." -Jean Paul Sartre
Often we can get stuck in blaming forces that are out of our control. Our past cannot be changed, and yet it does not have to be a life sentence. When we let go of what is not in our power, we can focus on our own role in our lives.
We live most authentically when we pause to reflect, revisit our vision, intentionally decide who we want to become, and act on it with discipline.
As the wisdom goes:"An hour of contemplation is greater than a year of worship." - Imam Ali
Intentional living is the prerequisite to a life well-lived. Without intention, without a guiding north star, we drift aimlessly. When we set our sights on what matters most—our values, our purpose—we navigate life with direction and clarity.
All worthy endeavors carry difficulty, we must bake this into our expectation. Archery provides an allegory to this: before the arrow is released, it is held in tension, trembling. Growth feels the same: a necessary darkness before momentum.
Mystics have long called this, "The Dark Night of the Soul"
The real question is not whether it will be hard, but how we move through it—and, most importantly, why.
"She who has a why can endure almost any how." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Learning your 'why' has its genesis in uncovering 'who' you are.
In a world full of distractions, noise, and fleeting pleasures, it is essential to reorient to your why, to your values & goals, to the life you’re striving to create. To who you want to become.
Ask yourself honestly:
Who am I in this season of my life? Who do I want to become?
Where am I holding myself back? What do I fear?
What do I want to learn in this life? What makes me feel alive?
Am I moving toward my highest self? Have I fallen astray?
Self-understanding is the antidote to fear. When we know ourselves, when we trust our ability to learn, adapt, and grow, the unknown loses its power.
Fear will exist, but courage is not the absence of fear—it is moving forward despite it. As the adage goes,
"The life you want is on the other side of Fear"
Being clear about who we are, moving with courage, and letting go of control means embracing life as a learning journey shaped by openness and hope. Hope is not based on evidence; it is a posture you practice.
A reminder that you are inherently worthy exactly as you are. The work you do is not about becoming “enough”; it is about deepening, refining, and expanding into your fullest potential.
Growth comes when we are open—open to guidance, open to reflection, open to being seen. Open to being vulnerable.
Feedback, when received without defensiveness, is a catalyst for transformation. Iron sharpens iron: to be challenged and witnessed fully is the path to the most profound growth.
This is the invitation of this work: to live consciously, courageously, and with a heart aligned to your own starlight.
Let’s Connect
I would love to guide you to the path that fulfills your heart and soul