Tara M. Gray, PhD, LPC, LMHC, LAC, LPSC, ACS, RPT-S, RPT

Dr. Tara M. Gray, Clinical Faculty Professor in the Prescott College Counseling Department since 2018, has long felt supported by the ASGW group work community and its members. Dr. Gray is passionate about facilitating group work and teaching group work to counselors-in-training.  She is proud to have shared the magic and power of group work with over 3,000 K-12 students.   

She is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Licensed Addiction Counselor, Licensed Professional School Counselor, Approved Clinical Supervisor, and Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor with over 30 years of experience across settings, including private practice, university clinic and career centers, residential treatment, and K-12 schools. Dr. Gray has been teaching and supervising in CACREP graduate counseling programs since 2010 and specializes in ethical, compassionate, evidence-based counseling across diverse populations, counselor education, clinical supervision, social justice and advocacy, group counseling, and child and adolescent counseling.  

She has been a member of ASGW since 2010 and credits an elective course in Advanced Group Counseling Skills, with Dr. Maria Riva, in her Masters degree program at the University of Denver, with originally inspiring her to facilitate groups with adolescents. Dr. Gray credits her PhD in Counseling Advisor, Dr. Deborah Rubel, at Oregon State University, with inspiring her to do research on group work with adolescents. Dr. Gray’s grounded theory research on the group cohesion development process in adolescent school counseling groups (Gray & Rubel, 2018) was published in The Journal for Specialists in Group Work. https://doi.org/10.1080/01933922.2017.1370049   Dr. Tara Gray presented at the ASGW Biennial Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico (2020) on group counseling with children and adolescents to facilitate cohesion, heal trauma and build community in K-12 schools. She also participated as a Day of Service Outreach Volunteer there.  Dr. Gray has served on the ASGW Graduate Student and New Professional Committee as Co-Chair (2012-2013) and is a past recipient of the ASGW Emerging Scholar Award (2012) and an ASWG Barbara Gazda Award (2011).  She has designed group work courses and taught group work at 3 different CACREP graduate programs in counseling.  

A recent graduate student had this to say about Dr. Tara Gray:  “Her warmth, passion, enthusiasm, collaborative, and inclusive teaching style have helped create learning environments where students are supported, challenged, united, and inspired. In her Group Work: Clinical Theory and Practice course, she helps her students build confidence in their skills and voices as future group counseling clinicians. Dr. Gray’s enthusiasm for group work leaves her graduate students feeling inspired, motivated, curious and more confident in their ability to create meaningful change through group counseling.  Dr. Gray inspired me to design and lead Teen Affinity Groups.”

Dr. Gray recently published in The SAGE Encyclopedia of Multicultural Counseling, Social Justice, and Advocacy (“Determinism,” 2023, pp. 446-448) and has taught over 100 graduate counselor education courses and has served over 6,000 clients and students to date.  Dr. Gray has also presented recently on neuroscience informed counseling with children and adolescents and rupture and repair and the therapeutic alliance.  She has also written 23 grants funded at over half a million dollars and has served in 34 different professional service volunteer leadership roles.  Dr. Gray currently serves diverse clients in her private practice, Dr. Tara Gray Counseling & Wellness, in Southwest Colorado. She proudly takes all health insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid and supports clients of all ages and backgrounds, including rural populations, veterans, active duty military and their families, and children and adolescents. She currently facilitates court ordered Level 1 and 2 DUI Drug and Alcohol Education and Therapy substance use recovery support groups and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Southwest Colorado Canyons Alliance, the Friends of Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.

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