About Matthew
Matthew Esselstrom is a licensed marriage and family therapist practicing in California with 22 years of experience. He focuses on practical support for people facing stress, anxiety, depression, and motivation struggles.
Background and approach
He approaches conversations with respect, sensitivity, and compassion. He helps people who are dealing with relationship strain, anger, low self-esteem, or life transitions.
He also works with concerns such as addiction, grief, intimacy-related issues, eating and sleeping difficulties, and ADHD. Sessions are shaped to each person’s needs rather than using a fixed script.
Matthew aims to build an honest working relationship where clients can talk through what feels hard. He emphasizes clear goals so progress is easier to notice.
He also supports people exploring career questions, parenting challenges, caregiver stress, and recovery from trauma or abuse. His practice addresses a wide range of additional areas including attachment issues, blended family stress, codependency, and substance use concerns.
He tailors discussions and plans for concerns like abandonment, control issues, and co-morbid conditions. He approaches complex situations with steady, experience-based care.
Matthew describes therapy as a partnership. He invites clients to try ideas, track what helps, and adjust plans as needed.
For someone ready to make change, he offers steady support and straightforward tools to move toward clearer choices and better everyday functioning.
How therapeutic approaches meet you online
Matthew uses evidence-based therapeutic techniques delivered in straightforward language. One common approach focuses on building clear, achievable goals and small behavioral steps to reduce anxiety and improve daily routines; this helps with stress, sleep, and motivation issues. Another approach centers on improving how people relate and communicate about difficult topics; it is useful for relationship strain, intimacy concerns, and managing anger. A third method emphasizes understanding patterns of attachment and coping, which can help with abandonment fears, codependency, and trauma recovery.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. Matthew will talk with each person about goals, try approaches, and adjust plans based on what is helpful. The intent is to find methods that fit the person’s needs and daily life rather than imposing one style.
Online therapy is offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to increase flexibility. Video lets people use visual cues and longer conversations, phone calls work well when bandwidth is limited, live chat is useful for quick check-ins, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, caregiving, or other routines while keeping therapy consistent and practical.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Anger management
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Young adult issues
- Experience
- 22 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English