Memoir
A personal exploration of marriage, difficult choices, and rebuilding with greater awareness and integrity.
About Tara
A Therapist with a Daily Meditation Practice
What I Bring to This Work
“The change we long for in our relationships often begins within us.”
— Tara Anand
I have been working in the field of relationship and emotional wellbeing since 2013.
Over the years, I have come to see that most recurring relationship struggles are not about a lack of love, but about how the ego responds to vulnerability — tightening, defending, protecting — often creating the very distance we most long to avoid.
Today, I work online with individuals and couples worldwide who find themselves caught in these cycles. Some come on their own feeling tired of reacting in ways they later regret — wanting to understand what drives them and how to respond differently. Others come together carrying disappointment, longing, or silence between them, hoping to feel close again without losing themselves.
My work is shaped by contemplative practice and grounded in established approaches to relationship therapy. I draw from models such as the Gottman Method, Internal Family Systems, attachment-based and Emotion-Focused therapy — not as fixed formulas, but as frameworks that help us understand what is happening beneath the surface.
Together, we work at both levels: addressing communication challenges while gently examining the emotional patterns that shape how you relate to yourself and to one another.
Why I Do This Work
Couples therapy is demanding work. It requires emotional steadiness, clarity in the midst of conflict, and the ability to hold two perspectives at once without collapsing into sides. I have chosen to focus here deliberately — not only because of the complexity it requires, but because of what I witnessed growing up.
I grew up in a home where conflict and emotional insecurity shaped family life, and I experienced first-hand how tensions between parents can affect a child’s emotional world. Those early experiences led me to want to understand relationships more deeply — not only how they break down, but how they can be held differently.
Over time, that inquiry became my professional path. I have seen how shifts in communication and awareness can change not only a couple’s dynamic, but the emotional atmosphere a child grows up within.
What continues to move me in this work is the knowledge that even small shifts — within one person or between two partners — can ripple outward. A home can begin to feel steadier. Kinder. More emotionally secure.
Meaningful change becomes possible when individuals and partners are willing to understand themselves and one another more deeply. Watching that process unfold — whether within one person or between two — remains quietly fulfilling.
A Boutique Practice
I maintain a small, boutique practice so that the work can remain thoughtful, personal, and carefully attended to.
Working with a limited number of individuals and couples allows therapy to unfold with depth and continuity. There is time for reflection between sessions, and space for conversations to evolve without being compressed or hurried.
A small practice allows me to:
• Give each relationship the attention it deserves
• Work at a pace that supports genuine understanding
• Offer individual sessions alongside couples work when helpful
• Remain fully present and focused
• Continue refining and deepening the quality of my work
This work requires steadiness — a calm nervous system and careful attention. I structure my practice so that I can meet it in that way.
Training & Expertise
My work is informed by a range of established therapeutic approaches, including:
• Person-Centered Therapy
• Attachment Theory
• Internal Family Systems
• Emotion-Focused Therapy
• Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
I have completed Level 1 training in Gottman Method Couples Therapy, along with additional training in working with affairs and relational trauma. I also use the Gottman Relationship Checkup to help couples gain a clearer understanding of their relational dynamics.
Before training as a therapist, I worked in market research — a role that sharpened my ability to listen closely and identify patterns. Those analytical skills now help me bring clarity and direction to emotional complexity, especially when conversations feel circular or stuck.
Meditation and Presence
My personal and professional path has been shaped by long-standing contemplative practice.
I am a certified yoga teacher (Sivananda Ashram, Kerala) and a long-term practitioner of classical yoga and meditation, including Vipassana and Kriya Yoga. I draw from both yoga psychology and Buddhist philosophy in the way I understand impermanence, ego, and suffering within relationships.
These practices cultivate steadiness, self-awareness, and compassion — qualities that naturally influence how I sit with individuals and couples.
Over time, this ongoing practice, alongside my professional training, has deepened my understanding of how early experiences and emotional patterns continue to shape adult relationships.
While my work remains grounded in psychological training and research-based methods, this contemplative foundation supports a calm and spacious therapeutic environment — one where difficult emotions can be explored without reactivity, and meaningful change can unfold with clarity and care.
Beyond the Therapy Room
I also explore themes of relationships, identity, and the inner life through poetry and reflective writing, including contributions to Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.
I am the author of ‘Why The Lotus Blooms: Choosing To Stand Tall’ — a contemplative memoir tracing my journey through marriage, rupture, difficult choices, and the rebuilding of a healthier partnership with greater awareness and integrity. The book reflects on responsibility, vulnerability, and the courage required to live in alignment with one’s deepest convictions.
Based in India, I work online with clients both within India and internationally, offering online couples therapy and marriage counselling.
I am a mother to my daughter and share my home with my husband and our two dogs.
If you’d like to begin, you can book an appointment through the contact page.
Warmly,
Tara
