Meet Danielle Matthew of The Empowerment Space in Sherman Oaks

Today we’d like to introduce you to Danielle Matthew.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I was bullied as a child. I knew the pain of being called names and how this affected my self- esteem. I went into the mental health profession as a Marriage Family Therapist and worked in various environments with children and families for over 20 years to help overcome my own issues of negative self -worth and help others who were in pain like me. Before starting The Empowerment Space, I worked for an insurance company and learned how bad the bullying epidemic was. My job was to talk to mental health providers across the country and determine why their client was needing inpatient care. In many cases, the children were coming in due to being bullied. Some made threats to harm themselves while others actually attempted suicide. I asked the providers how many of the parents were aware of the bullying, and it turned out few parents had knowledge of the bullying until their children were entering behavioral units inside a hospital. I was astounded and perplexed by how few parents knew how badly children were feeling about themselves. I would usually inquire about programs that were in the provider’s area that would provide support and therapy to children who were victims of bullying, to help prevent psychiatric hospitalizations.

In many cases there were differing prevention programs in schools, but no programs to address bullying at a crisis point. I decided at this time to enlist a private consulting firm to conduct a needs assessment in the Los Angeles community to identify programs that addressed victims of bullying before it got to the point when a child would need to be hospitalized. The consulting firm confirmed that there were not many programs in the community that addressed victims of bullying at a crisis point, so competition and potential saturation for this type of program did not exist. I wondered why this was? I spent the next year working with a business coach and developmental psychologist to write an evidence-based bullying therapy program called The Empowerment Space.

The program works with children who are victims of active bullying and are at a crisis point and need skill building to help address their self-esteem. The program prides itself on working to empower children to handle bullying themselves by providing tools, coping skills and community support with the parents and the schools. The program provides guidance and support for children who feel powerless and helps empower parents, as well, to guide their children through the bullying. I also started speaking in the community to educate more people about the bullying epidemic. Several event attendees encouraged me to write a book to spread my message more widely.

Last year, I wrote my first book, entitled The Empowered Child: How to Help Families Cope, Communicate and Conquer Bullying. I spent months carefully writing in a style that was easy to read, allowed people to identify with and helped families address the issue of bullying with their children. I am happy with the end result and feel this book is a necessity to help guide families from a powerless place to one of becoming more powerful against the bullying epidemic. I am continuing to learn from others every day in the community and from the clients that I work with. I feel empowered every time I hear a parent, educator or another colleague tell me how helpful my message has been. I am grateful for every day I can attempt to make a difference in a family’s life.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I have developed a program from scratch where there has not been a model of how to conduct processes. I have had to learn from others how to write a program that could be helpful for without having many prior models to consider in the community. It has been hard for parents to address at times that bullying is a problem that they cannot solve by themselves. I have had to really work on removing the stigma that is used with the word bullying to truly understand and help families in the community. There are many people that I interface with who have a hard time acknowledging that bulling exits and the degree to which it may be happening. I have had to work closely to help remove any labels that come along with the term bullying. I think slowly awareness about the bullying epidemic is increasing and people in the community want to open up the conversation more with children.

Please tell us about The Empowerment Space.
The Empowerment Space is my business. I work as a therapist in private practice and specialize in work with bullying victims. I also have an evidence based program for victims of bullying. The program is for children ages10-17 to help build social and self- esteem skills to decease bullying for children. I am most proud of the fact that I have built a 10- week program from scratch that is evidenced -based to really help victims of bullying. There are not many programs like this in the community. I feel that the knowledge I can share can really empower families. I think the thing that sets me apart from others in the community is that I have built a program to really help victims of bullying. I have tools and a program to address bullying when it becomes at a crisis point, supporting not only the child but also the family and thee school community. I also feel that my book The Empowered Child: How to Help Families, Cope, Communicate and Conquer Bullying is a powerful tool for families to really talk about bullying.

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