Dr. Carole Matlen
Compassionate, practical therapy for life challenges
- Credentials
- CA Psychologist 17461
- Experience
- 30 years
- Licensed in
- California
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Carole
Dr. Carole Matlen is a California licensed psychologist with three decades of clinical experience. She combines years in clinical settings with a background in teaching and ministry to offer steady, practical support.
Her work focuses on common and complex concerns parents and adults face, including stress, anxiety, depression, grief, addictions, eating and body-image issues, and relationship or intimacy challenges. Dr. Matlen’s credential is CA Psychologist 17461.
She prefers direct, down-to-earth work that builds on a person’s strengths.
Background and approach
Sessions often include clear strategies for managing strong emotions like anger and anxiety. She also pays attention to roots of problems when that helps people make lasting change. Her approach blends evidence-based techniques such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - which looks at thoughts and behaviors - and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy - which focuses on values and living more fully.
Attachment-Based methods are used when relationship patterns and early connections are relevant. She mixes these so care fits the individual. Dr.
Matlen can address issues related to family, parenting, blended family concerns, adoption and foster care, and family-of-origin patterns. She also works with trauma, sexual abuse, and loss, using trauma-focused methods when needed. The goal is practical progress that feels personal and doable.
Sessions are offered in English and are delivered through video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging. Getting started involves a short matching process and scheduling that reflects her availability. Costs vary by location and use a cancellable subscription model.
How her approaches translate to online therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice difficult thoughts and feelings and still move toward what matters to them. Online ACT sessions typically include simple exercises and homework to practice values-based living between meetings.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on the connection between thoughts, feelings, and actions. In remote CBT sessions she uses clear, practical tools to change unhelpful thinking and try new behaviors that reduce anxiety, depression, and eating-related patterns.
Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationship patterns shape current connections. When relationship or parenting issues come up, this approach helps identify patterns and experiment with different ways of relating.
Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, preferences, and the problem at hand, then suggest methods to try. Plans are adjusted as needed so the work fits the person.
Online therapy offers flexibility for busy schedules and for people who prefer remote sessions. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation, phone sessions keep things simple, and live chat or text messaging can support short check-ins or coaching-style work. These options make it easier to keep momentum between sessions and to use techniques in daily life.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Less about arguing with difficult thoughts, more about loosening their grip and acting on what matters to you anyway. Values and committed action carry the work, which suits conversation at a distance.
Attachment-Based Therapy
Looks at how early bonds shaped what you expect from closeness, and how that plays out now with a partner, a parent, or your own children.
Client-Centered Therapy
The direction comes from you rather than from a set programme. The therapist offers a warm, non-judgemental space to think out loud and work at your own pace. Online, this rests on the relationship rather than on being in the same room.
Frequently asked questions
Which problems does she commonly address?
What is her therapy style like?
How much clinical experience does she have?
What are her credentials and where is she based?
Does she work in languages other than English?
What session formats are available?
How is cost handled for sessions?
How do I begin therapy with her?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- Adoption and foster care
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Experience
- 30 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Carole
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point