Tamara Badette
MSW, LSW | Therapist
she / her
I love walking alongside people during the hardest seasons of their lives. Watching someone start to see themselves differently. Watching confidence build where there used to be doubt. Watching them realize the thing they thought would hold them back forever, doesn't have to.
Therapy should be collaborative. It should be judgment-free. It should be a space where you feel supported, empowered, and genuinely understood.
Everyone deserves compassionate care. Especially the people who've been met with stigma instead of it, barriers instead of it. My job is to meet you where you are, honor who you are, and let you show up as yourself. No performance required.
I lead with authenticity and compassion, and I believe every client has strengths, even the ones they haven't recognized in themselves yet. My work is about building on those strengths while giving you practical tools you can actually use, not just talk about, in your everyday life.
I was drawn to Open Space because it doesn't just say โaffirming and inclusive,โ it builds a space where it's true. Every client safe, seen, respected. That's not a mission statement to me. That's the entire job.
When you work with me, expect warmth. Expect honesty. Expect to be able to just be yourself. This is a partnership, and we'll move at the pace that's right for you. I'll celebrate your wins, stand with you through the hard parts, and help you build the confidence to make change that sticks.
LANGUAGES SPOKEN
English
THERAPY APPROACHES
Mindfulness-Based
Narrative
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Attachment-Based
IN THE THERAPY ROOM
Humorous
Process-Oriented
Narrative-Driven
Intersectional
Radically Accepting
YOU CAN FIND ME
Doing aerial yoga, paddle boarding, getting lost in a good book, creating diamond art, watching YouTube, laughing hysterically at TikToks, or planning my next vacation.
IโM ALL ABOUT
Growth, black girl joy, spontaneous travel plans, challenging myself, and guessing your astrological sign.
Clinician Details
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Aetna
Anthem
BCBS PPO Plans
Capital Blue Cross
Geisinger
Highmark
Independence Blue Cross (IBX) PPO Plans
Optum / United Healthcare
Insurance credentialing for the below panels is in progress:
UPMC
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$115 (53-minute session)
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Telehealth
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Individual Therapy
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Adolescents / Teens (14-18)
Adults (18+)
Specialties
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Bipolar disorder doesn't just affect your mood. It affects how safe you feel in your own mind, day to day, sometimes hour to hour. That unpredictability is exhausting, and you don't have to carry it alone.
What I've found is that most of the work isn't about eliminating the highs and lows, it's about learning to see them coming. Recognizing the patterns before they take over. Building routines and coping skills that work for you and hold steady when things get hard, not just when things are calm.
Whether you were diagnosed last month or you've been managing this for years, this space is for you. Some people come in still making sense of a new diagnosis, learning the language of it, figuring out what it means for their life. Others have been doing this work for a long time and want a therapist who can go deeper than symptom management. Both are welcome here.
I bring CBT, DBT skills, mindfulness, and psychoeducation into our work together, tailored to what you actually need, not a one-size-fits-all protocol. We'll build the tools that help you feel more stable, and we'll do it at a pace that respects where you are.
This is genuinely a space without judgment. You don't have to have it all figured out. You just have to show up, and we'll build stability together, one session at a time.
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If you've spent years putting everyone else first, doubting your own voice, or shrinking to make things easier for other people, you know it's exhausting. And underneath that exhaustion is usually someone who's been waiting a long time to matter to themselves the way they matter to everyone else.
What I've come to believe is that self-worth doesn't come from doing more or achieving more. It comes from challenging the beliefs that told you you had to earn your place in the first place. Beliefs that got built early, got reinforced often, and never actually got questioned.
This work looks different for everyone. For some people, it's learning to set a boundary without spiraling into guilt. For others, it's recognizing the voice in their head that's been running the show, and realizing it doesn't have to. Wherever you're starting from, this space is for you.
I use CBT, mindfulness, and strengths-based techniques, but the real work happens in the relationship itself, in a space where you feel supported, accepted, and finally allowed to take up room.
You don't have to already believe you're worth it to start this work. You just have to be willing to find out, and we'll get there together.
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Change doesn't ask permission. A new chapter, a loss, a career shift, a diagnosis nobody planned forโฆ it shows up and rearranges things whether you're ready or not. And even when the change is one you wanted, there's still a version of you getting left behind, and that takes something out of you.
Most people don't come to therapy during a transition because they can't handle change. They come because nobody warned them how disorienting it would be to lose the routines and roles that used to tell them who they were. Without those, you're left figuring out an identity in real time, which is a strange and often lonely place to be.
I work with people at every stage of this. Some show up mid-freefall, just trying to get steady footing again. Others show up months later, once the immediate chaos has passed, ready to actually look at what happened and what they want next. Neither is too early or too late.
Using CBT, mindfulness, and a strengths-based approach, we'll build the coping skills that hold up under pressure, work through what you're actually feeling instead of just managing around it, and get you to solid ground. Not necessarily the ground you had before, but a new one that's actually yours.
You don't need a five-year plan to start. You need a place to think out loud while you figure it out, and that's what this is.
