Therapy that starts where you are

Before you call

What a first session is like

The first session is a conversation. You talk about what brought you in and what you would like to be different. Nothing has to be resolved that day.

You set the pace. You are not required to talk about anything before you are ready, and questions about scheduling, fees, and how the work would go are fair first-session questions.

In his own words: "I firmly believe in fostering a safe, non-judgmental environment where clients feel genuinely heard and supported."

• Sessions are 60 minutes.
• In person at 4160 Temescal Canyon Road, Suite 309, Corona, CA 92883, or by telehealth.
• Office hours 8am to 6pm, Monday through Friday. After hours by phone as needed.
• Adults. Individual sessions and couples sessions.
• Call (562) 826-1484 or email drmatthewbernard@gmail.com to ask about availability.

Approach

Treatment is built around you

Treatment is individualized rather than based on a one-size-fits-all approach. What the work looks like depends on what you came in for, what you have already tried, and what you want out of it.

Clinical work may incorporate trauma-informed treatment, cognitive and behavioral interventions, psychoeducation, motivational strategies, emotional-regulation techniques, relationship-focused interventions, and other evidence-informed approaches appropriate to your treatment goals.

The three top specialties are domestic abuse, relationship issues, and anxiety.

Methods

The approaches used in session

These are the methods drawn on, matched to what you are working on rather than applied in a fixed order. You are welcome to ask why a particular approach is being used.

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): making room for hard feelings while you move toward what matters to you.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): looking at how thoughts, feelings, and behavior feed each other.
• Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT): a structured way of working with the beliefs a traumatic event left behind.
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): concrete skills for intense emotion, distress, and relationships.
• EMDR: a structured trauma approach that works with the memory and the body's response to it.
• Attachment-based work: how early relationships shaped what you expect from people now.
• Applied Behavioral Analysis: looking closely at a behavior, what sets it off, and what keeps it going.
• Family and marital work: treating the relationship, not only the individual.
• Psychoanalytic work: making sense of patterns that keep repeating.
• Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT): examining rigid beliefs that keep you stuck.
• Positive psychology and strength-based work: building on what is already working.
• Trauma-focused care: pacing the work rather than pushing through it.
• Christian counseling: available if faith is part of how you make sense of things, and only if you want it.

Fees

What it costs, and the insurance question

Individual therapy is $200 per 60-minute session. Couples therapy is $250 per 60-minute session. Those are the two therapy rates. The focus areas listed on this page are areas of treatment inside those sessions, not separately priced services.

Insurance is not accepted. In his own words: "Though I do not work with insurance at this time, I strive to provide a price that is competitive with other rates, but in line with the value of the product you're receiving."

A sliding scale is available on application. If cost is the thing standing between you and starting, say so when you call and ask about it.

Letters and other written documentation are a separate professional service with their own fee, listed in the fee schedule.

• Individual therapy: $200 per 60-minute session.
• Couples therapy: $250 per 60-minute session.
• Insurance: none accepted.
• Sliding scale: available on application.
• Payment: ACH, Amex, cash, check, Mastercard, PayPal, Venmo, Visa, Zelle.

Right now

If you need help before your first appointment

Therapy is not an emergency service. If you are in danger tonight, or you are thinking about ending your life, use one of these first. There is no wrong time to call them.

• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988, any hour.
• Riverside County crisis line: (951) 686-4357.
• If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.