Meet the Team
Taniek A. Gentles, LMFT-AS, CST, CEO & Owner / Clinical Director
Taniek, LMFT, is a Marriage and Family Therapist and the proud Owner, CEO, and Clinical Director of TAG Inspires, LLC. She also serves as an adjunct faculty member for Drexel University’s Masters of Family Therapy Program.
Taniek earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Lincoln University and a Master’s Degree in Family Therapy from Drexel University. She is an Approved Supervisor through the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) and an honorable member of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women – Pennsylvania Chapter. Taniek is also a Certified Sex Therapist through the American Association of Sexuality, Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT). She is licensed to practice Marriage and Family Therapy in Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut.
With more than 18 years of experience in the mental health field, Taniek brings her expertise beyond the therapy room as a motivational speaker, panelist, keynote speaker, and presenter. She has been featured on Marriage Underdogs Radio Show, WURD Radio, and other streaming platforms. Throughout her career, she has served as a Clinical Supervisor, Director of Family Therapy and Truancy Prevention Programs, and Outpatient Therapist.
Taniek is deeply committed to empowering Black and Brown communities. As a first-generation Jamaican, she brings both professional expertise and lived experience to her work with Caribbean and other culturally diverse populations.
In her clinical practice, Taniek specializes in working with couples and individuals navigating intimacy and relationship concerns. Her areas of specialization include sexual disorders, differences in sexual desire, diverse relationship structures—including ethical non-monogamy, open relationships, and swinging—exploration of sexual identity, women’s sexual health, premarital and marital counseling, infidelity, and other common relationship challenges. As a PREPARE/ENRICH Facilitator, Taniek is certified to provide premarital and marital counseling.
Taniek is committed to the mission of TAG Inspires, LLC: to empower and inspire individuals to embrace their full sense of self and their complex identities. She believes in the power of radical healing, creating safe and affirming spaces, and increasing access to emotional and mental health care for marginalized populations.
Through her clinical work, Taniek helps individuals and couples explore how societal expectations and norms, systemic racism, and generational trauma can influence their understanding of love, intimacy, identity, and healthy relationships. Her approach centers on creating spaces where clients can explore their experiences authentically while developing healthier and more fulfilling relationships with themselves and others.
Taniek currently accepts self-pay clients only and offers package rates and sliding-scale options. Please contact her to schedule a consultation.
Licenses:
Pennsylvania: MF000813
New York: 002216-01
Connecticut: 2100
Licenses may be verified through the following state licensing authorities:
Pennsylvania Department of State: www.dos.pa.gov
New York State Office of the Professions: www.op.nysed.gov
Connecticut Department of Health: www.elicense.ct.gov
Kellie M. Smith, LMFT, LCMFT, ASIT Assistant Clinical Director
Kellie M. Smith is a heart-centered Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist licensed in Pennsylvania and Maryland. She is passionate about helping individuals, couples, children, adolescents, and families strengthen their relationships, increase self-awareness, and create meaningful, lasting change.
Known for her warm, honest, and collaborative approach, Kellie creates a safe and supportive environment where clients feel empowered to be their authentic selves. She believes healing begins through understanding ourselves, our relationships, and the patterns that shape how we connect with others.
Kellie specializes in working with intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships, attachment, self-esteem, communication, boundaries, family dynamics, and personal growth. She works alongside clients to identify unhealthy patterns, develop healthier relationships, and build lives rooted in authenticity, connection, and emotional well-being.
In addition to providing therapy, Kellie serves as the Assistant Clinical Director at TAG Inspires, where she supports clinical excellence through supervision, staff development, and mentorship. She is also an AAMFT Approved Supervisor-in-Training (ASIT), providing supervision to clinicians pursuing licensure. Kellie is certified in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, bringing a strong developmental and family systems perspective to her work with children, adolescents, adults, and families.
Kellie has experience across community mental health, intensive outpatient programming, private practice, clinical leadership, and supervision. She is committed to helping both clients and clinicians discover their strengths, deepen their relationships, and move toward lives marked by healing, purpose, and growth.
Licensure
- Pennsylvania
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) – MF001607
- Maryland
Licensed Clinical Marriage and Family Therapist (LCMFT) – LCM1172
Melissa Holly, Executive Administrative Assistant
Melissa Holly has been with TAG Inspires, LLC since 2021. She has a background in Customer Service and Operations Management.
Melissa is a native of Brooklyn, NY and takes great pride in being a mother and a wife. Melissa is passionate about serving women & children. She lends her talents in supporting community events and volunteering in schools.
Melissa is committed to the mission and vision of TAG Inspires, LLC. Through her role she demonstrates expertise in administrative management, coordinating projects, operational efficiency, and fostering a positive team culture.
Brian Thompson, MFT
None of us are immune to trials in life and we all have experienced pain. In Brian’s work as well as in his life, he has experienced how healthy, loving, and nurturing relationships can be a catalyst to healing from these experiences and growing into the person God has caused us to be.
With over 14, years of experience in the mental health field as a Marriage and Family Therapist, Behavior Specialist, as well as in ministry, Brian strives to help mold and shape relationships needed to help clients, families, and couples in their healing journeys. This may involve cultivating new relationships, strengthening existing ones, or individually reconciling with past relationships that have caused pain. In his work, he also helps clients challenge harmful distortions influencing behavior, explores deeper rooted parts of individuals and their past traumas that shape their experience, helps adjust interactional patterns of engagement that are hurting families and couples, and teaches skills needed to challenge anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders that often cripple individuals and families. In addition, Brian works as a certified Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy supervisor that provides clinical supervision to Family Based clinicians in their process of disrupting negative interactional patterns and strengthening caregiver-child attachments within families.
Brian specializes in couples’ work, particularly with Christian couples, with various challenges ranging from topics such as communication struggles, infidelity, and emotional intimacy. He also specializes in work with individuals, particularly men and young men, struggling with anxiety, depression, relational problems, as well as with managing symptoms influenced by past trauma. In addition, Brian also specializes in working with families with youths struggling with caregiver-child attachments that influence maladaptive behaviors and serious emotional disturbance in the youth.
Brian has a passion to help individuals, couples, and families find strength and resilience within themselves and relationships in their lives. This involves an emphasis on developing a nurturing, understanding, and therapeutic relationship with anyone he is given the opportunity to serve. He would be honored to be a part of your journey.
“I have told you these things, so that in Me you will have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” – Jesus
Shaniyah Thomas, MFT
Shaniyah is a Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT) with a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Drexel University. As a Marriage and Family Therapist, Shaniyah supports individuals, couples, and families in navigating life challenges and adversity, healing relational wounds, restoring relational dynamics, and creating more fulfilling connections. She is particularly passionate about supporting African American clients in addressing pain, challenging cultural and relational narratives, and developing healthier ways of connecting with themselves and others. Shaniyah believes that everyone can grow and transform, individually and within their relationships, with the right support.
Shaniyah takes a hands-on, intentional, collaborative approach to therapy. She believes meaningful change comes from creating new narratives, challenging behavioral patterns, building self-awareness and self-compassion, and strengthening a person’s sense of agency. Her work is informed by Narrative Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), and Parts Work, as well as attachment-based and culturally responsive perspectives.
Shaniyah has a special interest in working with Black teenage girls and emerging adults navigating anxiety, depression, self-esteem, identity development, perfectionism, attachment wounds, trauma, and life transitions. Shaniyah is particularly passionate about helping people of color explore and challenge shame, develop greater self-compassion, and recognize their capacity for choice and agency.
Shaniyah also works with Black couples and families navigating communication difficulties, emotional disconnection, infidelity, intimacy concerns, high-conflict relationships, and co-parenting challenges. Her previous work within the child welfare system has deepened her understanding of how early experiences, family relationships, and systemic factors can shape individual and relational well-being.
Specialties: Black teenage girls navigating self-esteem, anxiety, identity development, and emotional expression. Black women and emerging adults navigating identity development, self-esteem, anxiety, perfectionism, life transitions, and the “strong Black woman” narrative. Clients of color exploring shame, self-compassion, agency, and creating new narratives. Black men navigating anger, stress, emotional regulation, and interpersonal relationships. Individuals navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, attachment wounds, and behavioral patterns. Couples navigating communication difficulties, infidelity, intimacy, emotional disconnection, and high-conflict relationships. Families navigating communication, co-parenting, and changing family dynamics.
Tenisha Smith, M.S., B.S.
Tenisha holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in Marriage and Family Therapy from Chestnut Hill College. She offers extensive experience addressing a wide range of concerns, including anxiety, depression, emotional difficulties, and challenges within marital, couple, and parent-child relationships.
Specializing in talk therapy, Tenisha takes a compassionate, direct, and thoughtful approach to help individuals and couples navigate issues such as infidelity and trust, supporting them in rebuilding connection and fostering healing. She is also experienced in gender-affirming therapy, working with teens and young adults experiencing gender dysphoria, as well as providing vital support to their families throughout this journey. Tenisha believes that cultivating self-awareness and emotional insight is fundamental to enhancing interpersonal relationships and overall quality of life.
Tenisha utilizes evidence-based therapeutic modalities including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), emotional focus therapy (EFT), mindfulness meditation, inner-child work, and couples therapy to guide clients in rediscovering their authentic selves. Through this process, clients are empowered to process emotions, reshape thought patterns, and develop healthier coping strategies. She is committed to providing a safe and respectful environment where clients feel empowered to explore their experiences and work toward personal growth and lasting well-being.
Jennifer Stewart, PhD, MDiv, MFT
Dr. Jennifer Stewart helps individuals, couples, and families move from patterns of conflict, trauma, and disconnection toward healing, wholeness, and renewed connection. She specializes in helping Christians, clergy and clergy couples, high-conflict relationships, and survivors of emotional, spiritual, and relational abuse find healing, restore connection, and create lasting change.
Jennifer offers a holistic, relational approach that integrates emotional, psychological, and spiritual health. She recognizes that relational struggles are often rooted in attachment wounds, family systems, faith experiences, and the lasting effects of trauma, betrayal, and loss. Her therapy provides a compassionate, steady space where clients feel seen, gain insight into unhealthy patterns, and begin rebuilding trust—within themselves and with one another.
An ordained minister and marriage and family therapist with advanced training in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), the Gottman Method, and trauma-informed care, Jennifer helps couples restore emotional safety, strengthen connection, and interrupt destructive cycles of conflict and withdrawal. She has particular expertise in supporting clergy couples as they navigate the unique challenges of ministry, including public leadership, private strain, spiritual exhaustion, and complex vocational demands. She also works extensively with high-conflict couples, helping partners move beyond entrenched patterns toward healthier communication, secure attachment, and meaningful repair.
Gabrielle Maloney, DCFT, MFT Couple and Family Therapist | PhD Student, Drexel University
I specialize in supporting interracial couples and clients navigating the intersections of race, culture, identity, and connection. As a biracial (African American/French) clinician, I bring lived experience and clinical expertise to help clients feel deeply seen and understood. My work is grounded in a strong interest in Black men, particularly the ways systemic inequities shape their mental health, relationships, and access to care.
I work with multiracial and multicultural families, biracial and multiracial individuals, transracial families, and transracial adoptees, with a focus on how race and identity influence family dynamics, communication, belonging, and relational patterns.
I also have a dedicated interest in college athletes. Growing up with a father who coached men’s college basketball has given me unique insight into the pressures student‑athletes face and the importance of integrating mental and physical health in their overall well‑being.
My therapeutic approach is warm, collaborative, and systemic, integrating Contextual Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and narrative and identity‑focused modalities. I help clients slow down, understand each other’s internal worlds, and build relationships grounded in safety, equity, and connection.
I hold a Master’s degree in Couple and Family Therapy, a Clinical Doctorate (DCFT), and am currently a PhD student at Drexel University, with specialized training in interracial couple dynamics, identity development among biracial and multiracial individuals, and mental health equity for Black men.
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Anita Lewis, PhD
Dr. Anita Lewis holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology, with a specialization in Children and Adolescents from Chestnut Hill College, as well as a Doctorate in Marriage and Family Therapy from Eastern University. She believes that helping people is her calling and sees therapy as sacred work. Dr. Anita seeks to create a safe, nurturing, and empowering space where this healing can happen. She is particularly interested in supporting individuals, couples, and families navigating grief, anxiety, depression, trauma, and relational issues.
In addition to being a therapist, Dr. Anita has worked in education for over 25 years and believes in the power of integrating psychoeducation into her therapy sessions. She believes that when individuals are well-informed about mental health and coping strategies, it reduces shame and helplessness, empowering them to take a more active role in their healing. Dr. Anita is also a licensed minister and is passionate about bridging the gap between psychology and spirituality. She especially feels called to help individuals face and overcome any stigmas and faith narratives that have hindered their healing.
Dr. Anita's therapeutic approaches include cognitive behavioral therapy, humanistic therapy, and family systems. She also believes in addressing the needs of the whole person—physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual. She desires that individuals achieve healing and restoration in every area of their lives, and her own lived experience has shown her that this cannot happen in isolation. Help is available, and Dr. Anita is ready to be fully present with individuals who find the courage to seek out help. She would be honored if you would trust her to walk alongside you on your journey toward healing.
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Yani Talley, Therapist Intern
Yani Talley is a second-year student at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is pursuing her Master of Science in Education in Mental Health Counseling. She is developing her clinical identity with interests in individual, couples and family counseling, particularly in the areas of identity, life transitions, communication, relational dynamics, and the ways personal and vocational experiences influence how individuals and dyads understand themselves and relate to others.
Her clinical interests are informed by cognitive behavioral, person-centered and psychodynamic approaches, with a particular commitment to supporting Black and Brown communities, historically underrepresented groups and those whose mental health can be uniquely shaped by disproportionate life experiences, systemic pressures and cultural expectations.
Before beginning her graduate studies in counseling, Yani earned her B.A. in Journalism and Communications from Hampton University and her Master of Science in Communications with a focus in Public Administration from Drexel University.
Yani’s counseling approach is grounded in empathy, curiosity, cultural humility and collaboration. She values creating a space where clients feel heard, seen and supported as they navigate identity, relational challenges, mental health concerns and experiences shaped by broader social and cultural contexts. Through this important work, Yani hopes to support clients in developing greater self-understanding, healthier relationships and more authentic connections with themselves and others.