About

Kristen Matthews

M.S., LPC, NCC · Licensed in Texas & California

Hi, I’m Kristen.

I’ve always been curious about people—who we are, why we do the things we do, what we believe, and how the experiences we’ve had shape the way we see ourselves and the world around us. Becoming a therapist gave me a place to turn that curiosity into work that I genuinely love.

I grew up overseas in Thailand and was later raised in a fundamentalist religious environment. Both shaped me profoundly. Growing up between cultures taught me early that there are many different ways to understand the world, while my religious upbringing gave me an intimate understanding of what it can be like to grow up in a world where there are very clear answers about who you should be, what you should believe, and how you should live.

As an adult, I’ve had to examine many of the beliefs I inherited and decide for myself what I believe, what I value, and what I want to carry forward. That process has been complicated, painful, freeing, and deeply formative. It left me with a lasting curiosity about belief, identity, meaning, and what happens when we begin questioning things we once experienced as unquestionable.

I also have my own lived experience with OCD. I know what it’s like when your own mind becomes a source of fear, when certainty feels desperately important, and when you’re afraid of thoughts you don’t even want to say out loud. That experience is part of what drew me to this work and has given me a deep respect for just how much courage it can take to stop fighting for certainty and begin trusting yourself again.

I’m also a mother, which has taught me plenty about love, responsibility, letting go, and the humbling reality that human beings cannot be controlled nearly as much as we’d sometimes like them to be.

Travel is one of the places I feel most like myself. I love going somewhere unfamiliar, wandering without knowing exactly what I’ll find, meeting people I otherwise never would have known, and being reminded how enormous and varied the world is. Some of my favorite experiences have come from traveling alone and discovering that uncertainty can hold possibility rather than danger.

My own life has included change, loss, rebuilding, and learning to trust myself in ways I didn’t always know how to do. Those experiences don’t make me an expert on anyone else’s life, and I don’t assume that what has been meaningful for me will be meaningful for you. But they have shaped the person I am and the way I understand being human.

I’m endlessly interested in the things that make us who we are: the people we’ve loved, the things we’ve survived, the beliefs we’ve inherited, the choices we’ve made, and the parts of ourselves we’re still discovering.

I don’t have everything figured out. I don’t think that’s a prerequisite for being a good therapist—or a human being.

I do believe deeply in our capacity to understand ourselves, to change, to find meaning, and to create lives that feel increasingly like our own.