About Dr. Tara Feil

Biography

Dr. Tara Feil is a clinical psychologist, writer, and speaker with a longstanding interest in a fundamental question: What does psychological science teach us about living well?

It turns out, quite a lot. Some of psychology's most useful insights remain tucked inside academic journals and professional conferences, while much of the advice that reaches the public isn't grounded in psychological science at all. Dr. Feil's work bridges that gap, translating rigorous research into meaningful ideas people can understand and use.

Her interest in what makes life worth living began early in her career through her work in suicide prevention and research. Dr. Feil worked alongside leading researchers at the Catholic University of America, the American Association of Suicidology, and the National Institute of Mental Health, studying the lives of suicidal individuals and their families. That work ultimately broadened her focus toward an equally important question: What helps people build lives they experience as meaningful and worth living?

Over the course of her career, Dr. Feil has worked clinically with adults and adolescents, taught psychology at the University of Kansas, and lectured at the University of Mary. She has presented her research nationally and internationally, and her work at the intersection of positive psychology and health has been featured by Psychology Today, ABC News Radio, SiriusXM's Doctor Radio, and other national media. She has also been a featured TEDx speaker.

Today, Dr. Feil draws from clinical psychology, resilience research, positive psychology, and the broader science of human behavior to explore the psychology embedded in ordinary life: how we handle what hurts, where we place our attention, how we relate to one another, and the choices that shape how we experience our lives.

Her work now reaches businesses, schools, healthcare organizations, and communities through writing, speaking, and consultation. Dr. Feil is also a business owner, community leader, wife, and mother of four — roles that keep her interested not simply in what psychology tells us, but in whether it holds up in the complexity of real life.

Her mission is simple: take psychological science seriously, make it genuinely useful, and help people apply it to the life they're actually living.