Sara Tinker, LCSW
Tennessee · 26 years in practice
Sara Tinker is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 26 years of experience.
License and registration
- LCSW, Tennessee
- 1046 · expires April 2028
- NPI
- 1578905204 · national provider identifier
- Years in practice
- 26
- Languages
- English
Details are as listed on the therapist's public professional profile. You can check the license with the issuing state board, and the NPI with the national registry.
About Sara
Sara Tinker is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 26 years of experience. She focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, relationship pain, trauma, and low self-esteem. She works in a warm, interactive style that aims to build trust and practical change.
Sara uses an approach that centers on attachment and client-centered care. She also draws on dialectical behavior therapy and emotionally-focused ideas to teach skills for emotional regulation and stronger connection.
Background and approach
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is part of the tools she lists for trauma work. Her background includes long experience across community mental health, adolescent psychiatric care, addiction work, and independent practice. Those years inform how she helps with grief, parenting strain, sleeping problems, anger, bipolar mood concerns, and compassion fatigue.
She also supports people facing chronic illness, caregiving stress, body image issues, codependency, and intimacy-related questions. Sara emphasizes practical steps as well as exploration of meaning and values. Sessions can include teaching coping skills, practicing new ways to communicate, processing painful memories, and developing healthier boundaries.
She says the therapeutic relationship itself is central to change. Clients looking for a therapist who mixes experiential thinking with skill-building may find her style helpful. She works from Tennessee and offers sessions by video, phone, live chat, or text messaging.
Sara holds the LCSW credential and brings a long history of clinical work to each conversation.
Focus areas and approaches
Everything Sara lists on their public professional profile, in their own terms.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
- Self esteem
- Depression
- Addictions
- LGBT
- Family conflicts
- Grief
- Intimacy-related issues
- Sleeping disorders
- Parenting issues
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Coping with life changes
- Compassion fatigue
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Postpartum depression
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trichotillomania
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Approaches Sara names
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
Naming an approach is not evidence of training in it. This directory copies what each therapist lists and does not check training records.
Online support
How attachment work and skills-based therapy translate online
Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on how early relationships shape current patterns. Online sessions can help identify these patterns and practice new ways of connecting with others. Client-Centered Therapy means the therapist listens closely and follows the client's lead, creating space for personal pacing and exploration. Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, teaches concrete skills for managing intense emotions and improving relationships, useful for stress, mood swings, and conflict.Sara will collaborate with each person to find the right mix of approaches. Together they will review needs, goals, and preferences and adjust methods as progress unfolds. That collaborative process helps shape whether sessions emphasize skills, trauma processing, or relationship work.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video allows face-to-face interaction for therapy exercises and emotional work. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or to fit a short break in a busy day. Live chat and text messaging are helpful for brief check-ins, homework support, and ongoing encouragement between longer sessions. These options make therapy more flexible and easier to fit into everyday life.
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Questions people ask
What kinds of problems does she help with?
Sara helps people facing stress, anxiety, depression, trauma and abuse, relationship and intimacy concerns, grief, and addiction issues, among others listed in her specialties.
How would you describe her therapeutic style?
Her style is warm and interactive, combining client-centered listening with practical skills from DBT and emotionally-focused approaches to improve emotion regulation and communication.
What experience does she bring to therapy sessions?
She has 26 years of clinical experience across community mental health, adolescent psychiatric care, addiction services, and long-term independent practice work.
What are her credentials and location?
She holds the Licensed Clinical Social Worker credential (LCSW) and practices in Tennessee.
Can I work with her if I live outside the United States?
Sessions are offered in English and she is not currently accepting international clients.
Which session formats are available?
She provides online sessions using video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to fit different needs and schedules.
How does payment and cost work?
Cost varies depending on location and therapist availability; sessions use a subscription that can be canceled at any time.
What should I do to begin working with her?
To get started, select the Start Therapy button, complete a short matching questionnaire, and schedule a session based on therapist availability.
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