Matthew Givrad

Matthew M Givrad, PhD, PsyD, Licensed Clinical Psychologist. Hi, I am a licensed clinical psychologist in California, a psychology associate professor in graduate school, and a psychotherapist. I am familiar with theories and practices for providing effective psychoeducation and psychotherapy. My therapy sessions include educating you about distressing situations in your life to promote awareness of what you are experiencing and to empower you to self-regulate and self-heal. My style of psychotherapy is collaborative, The more I know about you, the better I will be able to work with you to jointly develop a plan for your therapy. I practice active listening and help you to do the same, taking in everything that is discussed during the session and making it a part of the building blocks for your improved mental health.

My approach

When clients experience anxiety and depression, therapy often involves untangling the web of past events and processing traumas that impede progress. I am educated and skilled in treating complex traumas and trauma processing techniques of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), and Internal Family Systems (IFS). Many of my clients come to therapy seeking resolution of specific problems they are facing. In these cases, I use Solution Focused Therapy and Brief Psychotherapy techniques, which are the most effective and expedient for these situations. The language of children and adolescents is their behavior. I am experienced in assessing and treating anxiety, depression, and traumas in children and adolescents using behavioral performance management techniques and am experienced in collaboration with parents.

My focus

I provide therapy for individual adults who have experienced sexual traumas, abandonment, loss and illness of loved ones in the family and significant others, abuse in childhood and adulthood, physical injuries and loss of physical abilities, and trauma of life-threatening diagnoses, all of which entail symptoms of PTSD. In addition, I provide therapy for clients who are experiencing generalized anxiety, depression, and anxiety-based disorders of OCD and adjustment to significant changes in life.

My communication style

My communication style is active listening while making brief notes and not interrupting the client’s flow of thoughts unless it is appropriate to clarification of a point that the client is making.

My journey to mental healthcare

I earned a doctorate in education (Ph.D.) from the University of Southern California, and a doctorate in clinical psychology (PsyD.) from California Southern University and am a graduate of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration’s program in Peer Support and Self-Help Recovery, which incorporates the effective use of 12-step programs in support of individual therapy. My education is supplemented by the courses in Food and Health, Cue Centered Therapy, Pathways to Recovery from Addiction, and Compassion Cultivation Therapy at Stanford Medicine continuing education programs. I am a Certified EMDR Therapist by the EMDR International and an EMDR Consultant in Training. I am a member of the National Register of Health Psychologists’ Academy. In addition to my practice, I am an associate professor of counseling and psychology for teaching psychological assessment at the graduate level.

My goals for you

At the outset of therapy, we will formulate anywhere between one to three goals that you want to achieve in therapy. We will classify your goals as learning/improving coping, skill acquisition, improving functioning, improving health, reducing ineffective behaviors, or maintaining your previous gains. Your treatment plan will be developed based on your goals. Periodically we will review your goals and assess to what extent they have been achieved. Once your therapy goals have been achieved, you will have the choice of either terminating the therapy or formulating new goals. Oftentimes, while therapy is in progress, clients think of additional goals and add them to their list. Typically, therapy will be one session per week. However, in cases of trauma being recent or occurring while the therapy is in process, we may schedule additional sessions per week to achieve stability in coping with recent trauma or resolving the ongoing occurrence of trauma. Sometimes clients come to therapy with their goals already formulated and seek help exploring how they can achieve them. Other times they are not certain where they want to go in life and therefore are seeking help with formulating their goals and mapping out how to achieve them. In either case, my approach to therapy and counseling is collaboration and joint exploration.

My first session with you

Our first session would be, for the most part, dedicated to understanding you and the issues or experiences that bring you to therapy. During the first session, we briefly touch on your life’s history and biographical information. I work within the framework of my specialty, trauma therapy, and therefore I seek to understand the roots and causes of your symptoms, and together with you we discover what traumas you have experienced that has caused your symptoms.