From ashes, new life can take root

Healing isn’t just about moving through pain, but also finding what can still bloom alongside it

Individual Therapy

To explore your story, your challenges, and your hopes at your own pace. Together, we’ll work toward clarity, healing, and a deeper connection to all parts of you.

Therapy Offerings

Relationship Therapy

Relationships can be both grounding and challenging. This space offers opportunities to strengthen communication, rebuild trust, and reconnect with each other in meaningful ways.

Family Therapy

Families carry both love and complexity. In this space, we’ll learn to navigate conflict, deepen understanding, and foster healthier patterns of connection.

What To Expect

In therapy with me, you can expect openness, curiosity, and space to fully be yourself. I don’t come in with a rigid agenda or timeline. Instead, I walk alongside you as an empathic witness, helping you tap into your own inner compass. It’s my intent to foster safety, non-judgement, and an opening for the fullness of your story.

My work is eclectic, drawing from Internal Family Systems, somatic mindfulness, attachment theory, existential perspectives, and person-centered care. I invite art and creativity into the room, whether that’s sketching, music-making, movement, or even humor. Any mode of expression can help us reclaim our joy.

With an awareness of the unique impacts of trauma, I place consent, pacing, and empowerment at the heart of every session. You’ll always have agency in what we explore and how we do it. Therapy is a place that creates a genuine human-to-human relationship. I’ll share observations, ask thoughtful questions and be real about my own perspective.

I believe healing isn’t only about lessening the weight of the past, it’s also about rediscovering lightness, laughter, and connection. My approach holds space for both: the heaviness that needs care and the joy that makes life worth living.

About Matthew

This is a second career for me. For years I worked as a Systems Engineer before realizing it just didn’t fill up my cup in the way I wanted my workday to. I’ve always been drawn to knowing people beyond the surface, from the universality of the human condition to our deeply personal lives. Facing some of my own life challenges eventually pushed me to make a career change. I found inspiration in the flower, Fireweed, when moving into this work; bringing new life and beauty into areas burned down by forest fires. The imagery of Ash & Petal speaks to this inspiration.

Beyond the therapy room, I make stained glass art — a practice that feels poetic in its own right: broken pieces transformed into beauty. Music also shapes my life, whether listening, playing guitar or piano, or writing songs. I love being outdoors, often with my Australian Shepherd, Ruthie, who is my constant companion. I also love cooking and any excuse for hosting a themed dinner party.

At the heart of my work is my personal belief that our capacity for pain is mirrored by our capacity for love, joy, and beauty. Therapy is a place to open ourselves to all of it: the wounding and the wonder.

Specialties and Training

I specialize in working with trauma in its many forms, including complex, relational, and developmental PTSD, as well as religious trauma. I also support clients navigating grief and the larger questions of identity and meaning that life can bring. In addition, I work with individuals exploring their gender and sexual identity, as well as those living with neurodiversity or navigating men’s issues. I find I connect especially well with artistic and creative individuals who value expression in its many forms. I work with adults, teens, and college students.

I earned my Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Antioch University, where I also completed a certificate in Trauma Counseling. I trained in Antioch’s counseling center, at Hope Development Practice, and at Cornish College of the Arts supporting students. Before Ash & Petal, I worked in a group practice that focused on complex trauma and dissociation. I am able to work with residents in both Washington state and Colorado. My Washington State LMHCA Credential Number is MHCA.MC.61540903 and my Colorado LPCC credential number is LPCC.0024054.

Contact Matthew

If you’re ready to begin, I invite you to reach out by phone at (206)588-5782, by email at matthew@ashandpetaltherapy.com, or by submitting a request on the contact form below.

“A step toward your own heart is a step toward the Beloved.”

~Rumi

 FAQs

  • Individual Therapy: $125

    Relationship Therapy: $140

    Family Therapy: $140

  • My practice is fully telehealth-based. I use a secure, HIPAA-compliant virtual therapy platform, which means you can access sessions from the comfort of your own space. Many clients find this makes it easier to fit therapy into their schedule and feel more at ease opening up.

  • I offer complimentary phone consultations where you can share what you’re looking for in therapy and ask any questions you may have. It’s a good way for both of us to see if we might be a good fit before moving forward.