Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Herrera.
Hi Matthew, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My path to becoming a therapist was not a linear one. In fact, I originally pursued a career in academia, studying US History in both undergraduate and graduate school. For years, I thought my work would center on U.S. foreign policy, archival research, writing, and teaching, which had been my dream for the longest time. However, what always captivated me most were the human stories behind those histories—the way memory, identity, and healing intersected across generations and how people were affected by legislation and policy.
While completing my master’s degree in history at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, I wrote a thesis that examined how American troops’ perceptions of Vietnam and the Vietnamese evolved throughout the Vietnam War. Early on, U.S. soldiers described Vietnam as a dignified, beautiful landscape with a rural people in need of saving from a communist threat. Yet as the war intensified, that same landscape became synonymous with loss, fear, and moral confusion. What fascinated me most was what happened after the war—how, less than a decade later, American veterans returned to Vietnam – not as soldiers, but as travelers seeking peace.
One chapter of my thesis focused specifically on the healing power of landscapes and how revisiting sites of trauma helped veterans and their families process grief, find closure, and repair the psychological wounds from the war. These journeys were powerful acts of reconciliation and healing, and revealed how sites associated with trauma could eventually become a space of transformation. That realization changed the way I thought about human suffering and resilience. Moreover, it also showed me that healing often happens not by erasing the past, but by learning to face the past with compassion and understanding. Looking back, I think my research served as the first bridge between my historical work and my eventual path toward psychotherapy.
Also, the further I advanced in my graduate studies, the more I noticed how passionately engaged I was in conversations about my students’ personal growth rather than reading through my archival research. Many of my students—especially first-generation and students of color—opened up to me about their struggles with belonging, identity, and pressure. I understood those feelings intimately, and I realized that my real passion lay not in interpreting the past, but in helping people rewrite their own stories in the present.
That realization led me to pursue a career as a Marriage and Family Therapist, where I could combine my curiosity for narrative with the therapeutic commitment to healing. As a graduate student, I specifically remember that one of my advisors at the time told me I should consider a career in psychotherapy based on my research. At the time, I brushed it off, but now here I am!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not at all! My journey has been full of twists, doubts, and reinvention. Leaving academia was definitely liberating but also terrifying. I had to leave behind an identity I spent years building, and step into something far less certain.
On a more personal level, I also faced my own battles with anxiety, depression, and cultural isolation. When I first left Los Angeles for college, I found myself in a rural town where I often felt out of place. I was too brown for some, and “not brown enough” for others, so the sense of alienation was very real. Nonetheless, those experiences shaped my understanding of identity and resilience, and they inform my therapeutic work to this day.
They also taught me something fundamental about healing: that our environment – physical, cultural, and relational – profoundly shapes our sense of safety and belonging. Just as my research once explored the ways landscapes carry emotional meaning, I now help clients explore their own “internal landscapes,” emotional terrains shaped by their experiences with family, culture, and memory.
Additionally, engaging in a private practice also came with its own learning curve. Therapists are rarely trained in entrepreneurship, so I had to learn to market from the ground up. There were moments of self-doubt and imposter syndrome, but over time, I learned to see growth as a process, not a destination.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a Registered Marriage and Family Associate Therapist (136003) in the State of California supervised by Lisa Jellison, M.A., LMFT#46430 at The Feeling Space in California. I am based in Pasadena, offering in-person sessions and virtual therapy across California. Since 2021, I’ve had the privilege of helping clients navigate anxiety, identity exploration, trauma, and relational challenges. My approach is grounded in warmth, attunement, and authenticity — I aim to create a space where clients from all walks of life can feel genuinely seen and understood. My ongoing goal is to help people not only manage symptoms but rediscover their inner resilience and capacity for growth.
My therapeutic approaches include Brainspotting, IFS, Narrative, Psychodynamic, Somatic, and Gottman Method interventions for couples. I work primarily with adults, couples, teens, and creative professionals. My typical clients include people navigating anxiety, trauma, intimacy challenges, cultural identity, and creative burnout. Many of my clients are artists, work in the entertainment industry, and high-achieving professionals who put immense pressure on themselves. I also work with veterans and have a soft spot for college and graduate students.
What sets my approach apart is how deeply it’s informed by my background in history. I think of therapy as a kind of living archive—each client brings stories, relationships, and generational experiences that shape how they move through the world. My training as a historian taught me to listen for context, contradiction, and meaning – the same skills I now use in the therapy room with clients.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Luck has shown up in the most unexpected ways. I have had moments of genuine good fortune – mentors who believed in me and clients who found me at the exact right moment. I also had moments of disaster where things fell apart, but these moments ultimately allowed me to build something new and reinvent myself. But those moments taught me persistence, humility, and patience.
Pricing:
- Individual Therapy $185
- Couples/Relationship Therapy $215
- Family Therapy $215
- Sliding scale options available
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.therapywithmattherrera.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattherreramft/
- Other: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/matthew-herrera-pasadena-ca/1172220
