I am a husband, father, professional counselor, psychotherapist, spiritual practitioner and dancer. My own healing journey has been rich and ongoing. I originally received a BFA in acting from NYU and worked as a professional stage actor in New York for many years. My work is infused with a playful reverence for the intensity and depth of the human experience that was developed in my acting career. During my time in New York I was introduced to a movement form called contact improvisation which has become a life-long love and continuing resource in my somatic psychotherapy work.
After my father's cancer diagnosis I moved from New York back to my native Northern California and started a new career path in the healing arts. Over the course of the last 15 years, I have received in-depth training in many somatic psychotherapy approaches including: The Hakomi Method of Mindful Somatic Psychology, Attachment Theory, PolyVagal theory , Somatic Trauma Resolution, Body-Mind Centering, Emotional Freedom Technique, Family Constellations, Jon Eisman’s Re-Creation of the Self Method and the Birth into Being work of Elena Tonetti-Vladimirova. My clinical orientation also includes in depth training in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Solutions Focused Therapy and Internal Family Systems.
Providing massage for hospice patients and for my own dying father, I noticed how people would sometimes revert to infant-like states near the end of life. This led me to an intensive and long term study of how a person's early life experiences help shape their nervous system. Getting the chance to accompany people so intimately in their dying process has given me a deeper insight into what is truly important for living as well as a clarity about what holds us back from living a more courageous, vulnerable and open-hearted life. As a Birth into Being Facilitator, I use my insights into the power of the conscious birthing field to help individuals and companies clear their creative pathways for whatever projects they are “birthing” into the world.
After having run a successful somatic coaching and healing practice in the Bay Area for several years, I went back to school in 2016 to get my Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy with an emphasis on Licensed Professional Clinical Counseling. This move was prompted by a desire to be a bridge between the worlds of indigenous healing, coaching, and the emerging world of professional psychedelic-assisted therapy and new evidence-based somatic approaches to healing trauma. I was impressed by the ever-growing body of research affirming the efficacy of psychedelic therapy in treating a wide variety of mental health issues. I felt a calling to engage more deeply in this emerging, above ground clinical world. After graduation (and a move to Colorado with my expanding family) I began training in Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy and now offer KAP to my clients in collaboration with a trusted consulting physician.
Throughout my journey and clinical training I have been supported by a personal spiritual practice that has included instruction in yoga, meditation and earth-based and indigenous practices and world views. Together with my wife, I run Living Bridges, the Colorado branch of Medicine Path Native American Church. There we hold a space of prayer and ceremony for all who come in a good way.
I am a proud and grateful father of two daughters, and I have found the journey of family to be the most challenging and rewarding evolution of my personal spiritual and healing path.
Thank you for taking the time to read more about my journey. It is an honor to bear witness to the depth of my client’s lives, and I am committed to doing my own personal work to be worthy of the trust that is placed in me by those who come for council and support.
Matthew Cavanna MA, LPCC
PSYCHOTHERAPY
LIFE-COACHING
SPIRITUAL COUNSELING
KETAMINE THERAPY
PSYCHADELIC INTEGRATION
LPCC# 0018007
(Supervisor Pierre Bouchard LPC, #0012927)
