SOUTH HILLS, PA · TELEHEALTH STATEWIDE

Tess Inman, MSEd, LPC, NCC

  • Licensed Professional Counselor
  • Director of Clinical Services
  • Gottman Trained
  • MSEd · Duquesne University
  • Practicing Since 2013
  • Accepting New Clients

“The trust built within a therapeutic relationship allows us to be more vulnerable, and to carry what we learn into everyday life.”

Tess Inman is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Director of Clinical Services at CPA Counseling’s South Hills office, also seeing clients by secure telehealth. She specializes in couples and families, and in individuals working through relational and systemic difficulty, using the Gottman Method, Structural Family Therapy, and Systems Theory.

Tess Inman
No program commitments
8 insurance plans accepted
Adults, couples & families
Telehealth available statewide
Director of Clinical Services

WHO TESS WORKS WITH

Who she’s for

Tess works with adults, couples, and families. Her specialism is relational and systemic work — the difficulty that lives between people rather than inside one of them.

1

Couples rebuilding after a breach.

Her stated focus: helping couples improve communication, regain emotional safety, rebuild trust and intimacy, and practice healthy conflict resolution. Gottman trained, with more than a decade of couples work behind it.

2

Families where the pattern is structural.

Structural Family Therapy and Systems Theory, which look at how a household is organized rather than at one person inside it. That is a different diagnosis of the problem, and it changes what the work is.

3

Individuals carrying a relational difficulty.

Not every systemic problem arrives as a couple. Tess works with individuals on relational and systemic issues too — the pattern that keeps repeating with different people.

why work with Tess

Trust first, then the work

She stresses rapport-building as a clinical necessity rather than a courtesy: the trust built in a therapeutic relationship is what allows real vulnerability, and what makes skills learned in session transfer to everyday life.

What brings people in

A marriage running the same argument for the third year. A household where everyone is managing around something nobody names. Trust that broke and has not been rebuilt. Or a pattern in your relationships that keeps repeating with different people.

How she actually works

Tailored to the client, which she states directly. Her clinical experience and extensive training span CBT, the Gottman Method, Structural Family Therapy, and Systems Theory — selected for the situation rather than applied in order.

What gets different

Better communication, emotional safety back in the room, trust and intimacy rebuilt, and conflict that resolves rather than repeats. Those are her own four, and they are what couples work is actually measured by.

HOW TESS WORKS

Eight approaches, and a systemic lens

Tess works from the position that therapy must be tailored to the client. Underneath the specific methods sits a systemic view — looking at how people are arranged around each other, not only at what each one is feeling.

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
  • Family Systems
  • Solution-Focused Therapy
  • Person-Centered Therapy
  • Psychodynamic
  • Motivational Interviewing
  • Strengths-based therapy

1

When it is between two people

The Gottman Method for couples — research-backed structure for conflict, repair, and rebuilding intimacy. Tess is Gottman trained and has used it extensively with couples since completing her master’s.

2

When it runs through the household

Structural Family Therapy and Systems Theory. Both treat the individual as part of a larger system, looking at boundaries, hierarchy, and the roles people have ended up in without choosing them.

3

When the pattern follows you

CBT, DBT and TF-CBT for individuals, held inside the same systemic lens. The thinking gets worked on, and so does the relational pattern that keeps producing it.

CONDITIONS TREATED

What Tess treats – who Tess sees

  • Marriage & Couples
  • Premarital Counseling
  • Family Issues
  • Controlling Relationships & Gaslighting
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Adults
  • Teens & Adolescents
  • Young Adults
  • Families
  • Individuals
  • Women
  • Men
  • Seniors
  • College Students

For couples and families

Director of Clinical Services — and a clinical supervisor

Tess is Director of Clinical Services and a clinical supervisor at CPA Counseling, alongside her own caseload. She is Gottman trained and a Nationally Certified Counselor, specializing in couples, families, and relational work.

“An approach to therapy needs to be tailored to the needs of the client.”

CARE PHILOSOPHY

Collaborative. And built on trust.

Collaborative and grounded in trust, in Tess’s description. She stresses the importance of building rapport in order to better meet a client’s clinical needs — and believes the trust that develops is what lets people be vulnerable enough for the work to transfer out of the room and into everyday life.

ABOUT TESS

Growth, grounded in collaboration

Tess Inman is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Nationally Certified Counselor specializing in couples and families, as well as individuals working through relational and systemic difficulty.

She completed her Master’s in Counselor Education at Duquesne University in 2013, and since then has worked extensively with couples and families using the Gottman Method, Structural Family Therapy, and Systems Theory — helping clients improve communication, regain emotional safety, rebuild trust and intimacy, and practice healthy conflict resolution.

Her approach involves supporting growth by being grounded in the collaborative process between client and clinician. She believes the trust built within a therapeutic relationship allows people to be more vulnerable, and to transfer the skills learned in session into everyday life. She stresses the importance of building rapport with clients in order to better meet their clinical needs.

Tess believes an approach to therapy needs to be tailored to the needs of the client, and her clinical experience and extensive training span cognitive behavioral therapy, the Gottman Method, Structural Family Therapy, and Systems Theory.

Alongside her own caseload she serves as Director of Clinical Services and as a clinical supervisor within the practice. She is currently offering both in-person and virtual sessions, at the South Hills office and by telehealth across Pennsylvania.

CREDENTIALS & TRAINING

DEGREE

MSEd · Counselor Education

Duquesne University

CERTIFICATIONS

LPC · NCC · Director of Clinical Services

ALSO TRAINED

Gottman Trained · Structural Family Therapy · Systems Theory

FOCUS

Couples & Premarital · Families · Relational Work

IN PRACTICE

Since 2013 · 13 years

South Hills · Telehealth

IN NETWORK

UPMC · Cigna · Aetna · Highmark BCBS · United · Magellan · Medallion

Clinical supervisor

2013

Practicing Since

MSEd Duquesne, 2013

✦

Gottman Trained

Research-based couples therapy

∞

Personalized Care Plans

No program commitments required

CONDITION GUIDE

Therapy guides from Tess Inman

  • Patient Zero

    Mental Health

    What Taylor Swift Teaches Us About Parasocial Connection

    Why millions feel they truly know someone they’ve never met — the psychology of parasocial connection, when it’s comforting, and when it’s telling you something.

  • woman lost in thinking about to do items shown on the image

    Anxiety

    When Anxiety Starts Making the Rules

    Anxiety rarely announces itself as anxiety — it arrives as good judgment, feeling like being careful, responsible, or thinking ahead, and by the time you notice, it may have been making your decisions for years. OCD is mostly internal: intrusive thoughts, mental checking, rumination, reassurance-seeking. Both respond well to treatment.

  • Accessibility

    Information

    CPA Counseling Accessibility Statement

    Our commitment to an accessible website — WCAG 2.1 AA, keyboard operability, high contrast — and a direct contact if you encounter any barrier.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Questions about working with Tess Inman

What new clients ask most often before their first session.

Tess is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Nationally Certified Counselor specializing in couples, families, and relational work. She works on marriage and premarital concerns, family issues, controlling relationships and gaslighting, anxiety, and depression, drawing on the Gottman Method, Structural Family Therapy, Systems Theory, CBT, DBT, and TF-CBT.

Structural Family Therapy looks at the individual as part of a larger system rather than in isolation — at boundaries, hierarchy, and the roles people have ended up in without choosing them. Where the Gottman Method gives structure to a couple’s conflict, structural work asks how the household is organized and what that organization is producing.

Yes. Alongside couples and families, Tess works with individuals on relational and systemic difficulty — the pattern that keeps repeating with different people. The same systemic lens applies whether one person is in the room or three.

Yes. Tess is accepting new clients at the South Hills office and through telehealth across Pennsylvania. She is in network with UPMC, Cigna, Aetna, Highmark BCBS, United Healthcare, Magellan, Medallion and Medical Mutual of Ohio. Request an appointment online or call 412-439-1416.