I am a professional counselor licensed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. I received my Masters degree in Counseling Psychology from Temple University in 2019. Prior to that I was working with at risk youth in classroom and community settings as a therapeutic support staff. I provide counseling and therapy services for people suffering from life problems, relationship challenges, and co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
In our first session together we will focus on discussing expectations about the therapeutic process, some informal conversations about who you are and what you are hoping to achieve from our work together. The first session may involve some formal assessment and informal conversation that enables me to gather the information that I need to learn who you are. We will then form a plan for treatment to address your needs and goals.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
Having worked directly with countless adults seeking to break free from-oco drugs and alcohol over the past five years, I have gained an intimate understanding of many of the unique challenge a person seeking recovery faces: legal challenges, loss of jobs, ruptures in relationships, and co-occurring mental and biomedical conditions are just some of the complicating factors that I have helped people in your position navigate and overcome.
Describe the client(s) you are best positioned to serve.
My ideal clients are suffering from substance use disorders, want to change, but just need a little help. My clients recognize the value in having a safe place where they can be heard, where they can be supported unconditionally in their recovery efforts.
About Matthew Alexander
Serves ages
Licensed in
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Appointments
VirtualMy treatment methods
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
Evidence shows that at the core of many mental health struggles lie cognitive distortions. Many of us subconsciously maintain ideas and attitudes that are unhelpful or untrue. I have receive formal education and training in the use of dialectical methods to uncover, identify, challenge, and replace such distortions to ameliorate mental health struggles. This is called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). I have successfully implemented CBT skills in the treatment of depression, anxiety, substance use disorder, and PTSD. I have received training from the Medical University of South Carolina in the use of CBT in the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Motivational Interviewing
Sometimes the therapeutic process is about changing attitudes and behaviors that are causing problems in our lives. One of the greatest practical challenges to changing is readiness to change. Often people have good reasons to change, and good reasons not to change. I have received formal education in the transtheoretical model of change, assessment of stage of change, have been certified in the use of basic and intermediate motivational interviewing skills, in helping to enhance motivation for change through therapeutic interventions, identifying and overcoming obstacles to change, and supporting individuals as they move along the continuum of readiness to change.