About
LGBTherapy Matters
My Journey
My name is Jeremiah Matters (He/Him) and I am an openly gay Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist. While I grew up in Washington State, I moved to California to continue my education and received my Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts with an emphasis in Biblical Studies, Psychology, and Intercultural Studies from Hope International University in 2015. However, graduating was no easy task, because back then I was not only in the closet, but I was in complete denial of being gay, which led to years of struggling with depression and anxiety. That being said, I personally know how difficult it is to navigate the Coming Out Journey. Having sailed through those dark waters for so long myself, once I came to a point in my life where I could begin to start living my life more authentically, I knew I wanted to help others like me, so I continued my education further in graduate school and received my Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology: Marriage and Family Therapy from Azusa Pacific University in 2020. Since then, I have worked at a couple private practice offices and continue to see clients in Irvine, CA today.
Education
I could not be more thankful for the years of learning how to be a therapist from my education at Azusa Pacific University. My time there had a huge impact on my career, and one of the greatest things I learned was that while the interventions in therapy are valuable, the therapeutic relationship between therapist and client is the most important aspect of therapy that contributes to the overall efficacy of treatment. A good therapeutic relationship is one that centers around empathy and unconditional positive regard for the client. But what does that mean exactly? I define empathy as a deep, mutual, emotional understanding that lets the client know that whatever they share is understood on a personal level. Whether or not the experiences are the same, the stories we tell in therapy relay core emotions that we are unsure can be understood by others, yet a therapist who practices with empathy can tune in to those emotions and feel them with the client as they share their pain. That is where I come in and offer unconditional positive regard, which lets you know that no matter what you have done or felt, I am here for you, with not judgment nor shame, but rather grace, acceptance, and love.
Clinical Experience
During my last year of graduate school I had the honor to do my internship at the Hope Counseling Center, a community counseling center in Anaheim, CA where I got to work with clients of diverse ages and ethnic groups. During that year I learned a great deal of what it means to be a therapist in Orange County and I had the privilege to practice under an amazing supervisor who taught me much of what I know today. After leaving my internship, I continued my clinical experience at a private practice in Newport Beach where my previous supervisor taught me the importance of developing a niche, which is when I decided to pursue working with the LGBTQ+ Community, as well as doing Sex Therapy with couples and individuals. If you want to learn more about Sex Therapy, check out my other website by clicking here. Otherwise, continue reading below to learn about how I work with clients through an Attachment Theory approach to therapy.
Attachment & EFT
To summarize Attachment Theory, how we were raised—how we were shown love, or lack thereof—affects who we are, how we love, and how we view ourselves, trust others, and relate to and have relationships with others today, whether romantic or platonic. While Attachment Theory began with an understanding of how babies attach to their mothers, it grew into a much more diverse area of research that began to include adult attachment as well, which led me to learning more about Emotionally Focused Therapy—or EFT for short. Although I am not yet an EFT Certified Therapist, I completed the EFT Externship by the International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT) in 2020, which is the first step to becoming certified. In short, EFT helps clients understand how to be more vulnerable with their core emotions so that they can live more authentically with themselves and others. If you want to learn more about how EFT can help you in Individual Therapy, click here. If you want to learn more about how EFT can help you and your partner in Couples Therapy, click here.