A Proven Model for Scholars & Educators
You are doing the work: teaching and mentoring students, navigating challenging institutional environments, and perhaps also doing your own writing or research.
The women in academia who seek out our programs are facing myriad challenges as they do this work:
Institutional politics that can be depleting and frustrating
Rapid changes in technology and higher education
Resource constraints and overwork
Continuing biases in their field
Others are feeling daunted by a new leadership role, or greater level of visibility.
Others are worn down by years of tough criticism.
Others want support to write the book, expand their research, or ask bolder questions in their work.
Others come wanting to pursue a side passion, or to explore a career change.
Our professional development programs are here to help with all of that.
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Proven Results
Our program graduates report remarkable results:
93% report they feel more confident
90% feel reconnected to their passion and dreams
91% share their ideas more frequently
85% are taking more initiative in their work
95% feel a greater sense that they are “enough”
What would it be like to experience these powerful shifts?
Why I’m So Passionate About Supporting Women in Academia
I’m deeply passionate about supporting women in academia because you are playing crucial roles on many different fronts: teaching and mentoring the students that will shape our collective future; driving the research that leads to advancements and knowledge that benefits us all; and influencing university cultures during this time of rapid change.
The world needs women’s voices, scholarship, teaching, and mentoring. It’s been a true honor to serve hundreds of women in academia over 15+ years, and hear how the Playing Big programs have truly supported them. I look forward to supporting you too.
With love, Tara
What Women in Academia Say About Our Programs
Since starting the program my salary has more than doubled, I have started my own LLC, and strategized next steps for my personal and professional success, all while learning to live with, and not be paralyzed by, my inner critic. Playing small is no longer an option!
Rev. Dr. Eboni Marshall Turman
Associate Professor, Yale University Divinity School
This course helped me to dig deep and learn to listen to my calling and help me make some key decisions about my career path. I feel confident that I am making decisions that are right for me using the tools I learned in the course. What a great experience. Thank you!
Theresa E. Bartolotta, Ph.D.
Dean, School of Health Sciences at Stockton University
I’m EXTREMELY satisfied with what I got from this course! It is a collection of absolutely essential and brilliant tools that will be useful throughout my professional and personal life. THANK YOU for all the brilliance, work, thoughtfulness, knowledge, experience, connections, and (very importantly!) the love and passion that you put into this course!
Beth Molnar
Associate Professor, Northeastern University President, Board of Directors, Boston Area Rape Crisis Center
Playing Big offers great benefit for academics, helping us better tap into our creativity, vision, and power. I am a faculty member at a women’s college; the mission of my work is to support women playing bigger. As a psychology researcher, I value empirically-supported strategies. As a health scholar, I aim to improve community well-being. As a mentor, I know that the most sustainable approach to developing leadership capacity is to acknowledge people in their messy, glorious complexity – including mind, body, heart. I only wish I knew about the Playing Big program earlier, as it profoundly supports each of these values. Tara delivers substantive, practical content – manageable even for those people with busy, full lives – that will stay with you long after the formal program is over.
Benita Jackson, PhD MPH
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology Smith College
I’ve experienced significant changes because of this program. I am able to put my learning, qualifications, and skills to best use because I communicate more clearly. I find that others are more clear about my role and contributions, which means they know when to come to me for input and when the request should go elsewhere. My profile is also growing in the industry, which is positive for the organization I work for. I manage my time better because I understand my role and worth, so delegate tasks more easily when appropriate. I also communicate more confidently with senior managers and with the people who report to me. I am generally more professional, happier, and putting energy into areas that align with the organization’s mission, as well as my own values.
Joelle Adams
Adjunct Professor
I am so much more able to recognize the inner critic and gently shut her down when she pipes up. I no longer feel mad at myself for having an inner critic (my inner critic was so strong that she would criticize me for listening to her!). Thank you so much for helping me manage my habit of being unnecessarily hard on myself, which has been going on for most of my life!
Naomi Bardach
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy, UCSF School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics and Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies
Our Programs
Join our incredible community, learn from the bestselling book, and be a part of our interactive, renowned training programs.
The Playing Big Book: Start Here
Do you feel a longing to play bigger, but you feel afraid or unsure about the next right steps?
Playing Big is the catalyst for transformation that Forbes calls “A must read for any woman who wants to find and use her voice to make her mark in the world.”
Read the Book
Join Us For a Course
The Facilitators Training:
For Women in Academia Who Want to Coach & Mentor in the Playing Big Approach
What if you already know you don’t just want to play big yourself, you also want to help others play bigger, using this proven, powerful model?
Women in Academia use this training to more effectively mentor students, as well as to run faculty development groups or student groups and workshops.
This course gives you the Playing Big toolkit to use for your own journey,
and a new skillset for supporting others.
Facilitators Training Course
The Coaching Way:
Tara’s course in coaching skills
Learn how to ask the questions that create real shifts in those you teach and mentor. Help others find their own solutions so you can stop rescuing and solving for everyone.
This course will also make work more meaningful and inspiring again—as you lean into coaching-based ways of interacting with others.
Graduates find that integrating coaching into their teaching and mentoring quickly becomes one of the most energizing, fulfilling dimensions of their work.
The Coaching Way
The Playing Big Course:
For Sharing Your Unique Voice
In the Playing Big Course, you will apply the tools directly to your own thought leadership, writing, and life.
Work through your own inner blocks, clarify your boldest goals, and take real action—all within a global community of women doing the same.
Whether you’re writing a book, developing your voice more fully, pioneering an innovative approach, considering a career change, or taking a new leadership role, this course can support you in that next “playing bigger” step.
This program includes live sessions with Tara, coaching demos and Q&As, and an alumnae community of over 1,500 trained leaders.
The next sessions of the Playing Big Course and Facilitators Training open for registration in September 2026.
Playing Big Course
What is The Playing Big Model?
Tara Mohr’s Playing Big is a set of ideas, practices, and tools for women who want to play bigger — on their own terms.
1
Quiet the Inner Critic
That relentless voice telling you you’re not ready? It’s not the voice of truth — it’s a safety instinct. Playing Big teaches you to recognize it, name it, and stop taking direction from it, so you can lead from your real capabilities instead of your fears.
That relentless voice telling you you’re not ready? It’s not the voice of truth — it’s a safety instinct. Playing Big teaches you to recognize it, name it, and stop taking direction from it, so you can lead from your real capabilities instead of your fears.
2
Access Your Inner Mentor
Through Tara’s signature guided visualization, you’ll connect with a vivid sense of your older, wiser self — and begin using that vision as a compass. How would she approach this client, this pitch, this difficult decision? She becomes your North Star.
Through Tara’s signature guided visualization, you’ll connect with a vivid sense of your older, wiser self — and begin using that vision as a compass. How would she approach this client, this pitch, this difficult decision? She becomes your North Star.
3
Unhook from Praise & Criticism
Women are socialized to be deeply responsive to others’ feedback, which can keep you tailoring your work to please rather than to lead. Playing Big gives you tools to receive feedback without being controlled by it — so you can show up more authentically.
Women are socialized to be deeply responsive to others’ feedback, which can keep you tailoring your work to please rather than to lead. Playing Big gives you tools to receive feedback without being controlled by it — so you can show up more authentically.
4
Communicate & Negotiate with Power
Research shows women often default to speech and writing habits — hedging, qualifying, over-softening — that unintentionally undermine their authority. Playing Big helps you replace them with language that conveys the competence and confidence you already have.
Research shows women often default to speech and writing habits — hedging, qualifying, over-softening — that unintentionally undermine their authority. Playing Big helps you replace them with language that conveys the competence and confidence you already have.
5
Leap Before You’re Ready
Playing big isn’t about grand, dramatic gestures. It’s about taking small, connective steps toward the work that matters most to you — and adopting an experimental, iterative approach to your business, discovering what works through action rather than endless preparation.
6
Clarify Your Callings
If you aren’t sure what your callings are, this module will give you a specific way to figure that out. If you already know, it will help you fulfill them in even more satisfying and bold ways. For entrepreneurs, your callings are the compass for building a business that feels truly yours.
Plus modules on navigating fear, overcoming hiding, goal-setting, and so much more.
Hi, I’m Tara
I’m here to help you step into your unique expression of Playing Big—moving into what calls you, inspires you, and brings you fulfillment, in both work and life.
Early in my work coaching, I started to notice something: often, my brilliant women clients simply couldn’t see their own brilliance. They didn’t see how ready they were to go for their aspirations, to do the work they most longed to do, to bring their visions into reality.
I was quite attuned to this because I was in the same struggle myself. I’d excelled in academic environments at Yale and Stanford, yet somehow that had left me feeling less confident in my voice, not more.
And I had turned my back on my creativity and my sense of spirituality, in contexts where I often felt those parts of myself were criticized or belittled. I had to set out on my own journey to regain my confidence and voice, and build my life around what brought me fulfillment and joy.
As I began to coach, my early coaching practice became a laboratory to discover: what really makes the biggest difference in helping us play bigger in the ways that matter most to each of us?
What I discovered led to the development of the unique Playing Big model—a toolkit that helps women thrive in work and life: quieting the inner critic, tapping into our inner wisdom, unhooking from fear and criticism, moving through fear, and much more.
Free Resources
Inner Critic Chapter
Get this free chapter from my book, Playing Big, and learn the unique approach that’s been featured in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and Oprah.com.
Meet Your Inner Mentor
Discovering and then consulting with your inner mentor is a powerful way to navigate personal and professional decisions.
10 Rules For Brilliant Women
It’s time to step up, brilliant women! Discover the ten principles for owning your brilliance and bringing it to the world.
FAQs
I want to play bigger, but I already feel exhausted and overwhelmed, and I’m trying to do less in my life. How does the course fit with that?
This program teaches an inside-out definition of playing big. Playing big isn’t about striving harder or doing more. It is about honestly accepting one’s true aspirations and callings and playing big in going for them. Because it leads to us being more aligned with our authentic selves, and more tapped into our passions, it generally creates more energy, less stress, and far less striving in our lives. It’s an alternative to perfectionistic go-go-going—a deeper path of self-actualization.
What are the community aspects of Tara’s programs like?
Great question!
Over the years we’ve found that some course participants are very eager to connect with others as a core part of their course experience, and other participants are more focused on simply absorbing the content. We’ve structured our courses so both paths are available!
If you’d like to engage with other course participants for friendship, collaboration, or extra reinforcement of the group learning, great. We have a roster, online course discussion group, virtual meet-ups, and more available to help you do that.
If you are more focused on just learning the material for yourself, that path through our programs is available to you too.
I've heard Tara talk about the Inner Mentor. How can I find my inner mentor?
We’re so glad you asked! It’s such a transformative, powerful thing to meet and get to know your inner mentor. Access Tara’s guided visualization to find your inner mentor here.
Where can I buy the Playing Big book?
Most places where you buy your books will carry or can order Playing Big. Here are links to buy the book at Amazon, Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, or Apple iBooks.
If you’d like the audiobook, you can get it here.
Can I do a coaching session with Tara?
Tara isn’t currently doing 1:1 work—the best way to get experiential, in-depth support is through the renowned Playing Big Course. In the course, you get access to all kinds of materials, live sessions with Tara, our amazing global community, and more to work toward your playing bigger. Learn more and sign up to get information on the program here.
I want to start a Playing Big book group.
Great! That’s a wonderful way to propel yourself and others forward in your playing big! People start Playing Big book groups with friends, family members, or workplace groups. We have an easy to use set of Discussion Guidelines for Book Groups here.
