Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Bishop.
Matthew, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
During my collegiate years at San Diego State University in the 2000s, I struggled a lot with depression and acting out of anger. I grew up in a home that didn’t model healthy expression of emotions and I carried a lot of shame and feelings of not measuring up. A close friend noticed how angry I would get during pickup basketball games and encouraged me to call his therapist. He opened up about how therapy had been really helpful for him and how it could help me keep my emotional outbursts under control. That began my own personal journey with psychotherapy in San Diego.
Over the next few years, I was in both individual and group therapy—it changed my life. During group sessions, I found myself making comments to other members that they found really helpful. Guys 20, 30, even 40 years older than me would come up afterward saying my feedback mattered to them. That’s when I realized this was something I wanted to make a career out of. I switched my major to psychology, went on to graduate school, and haven’t looked back.
I spent my first years after grad school working with at-risk youth and the unhoused population in San Diego through nonprofit mental health programs. By 2016, I transitioned into private practice counseling. Over time, my reputation spread through word of mouth—running addiction recovery groups, working with teens, and supporting young adults whose parents referred them to me.
In 2002 I began teaching graduate counseling courses at Point Loma Nazarene University, and in 2024 I founded Sonder Therapy Group in San Diego, where our team now provides therapy for kids, teens, adults, couples, and families.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Private practice is rarely easy. Despite the high demand for mental health care, the market in San Diego therapy and counseling is fairly saturated. I was fortunate to enter the field before therapy became mainstream and “Instagrammable,” which helped me build a strong referral base.
The bigger challenge has been mentoring newly graduated marriage and family therapist associates at my practice, helping them grow their caseloads. That’s meant learning more about intentional networking, SEO, Google Ads, and digital marketing for therapists in San Diego. Even though it’s been up and down, both associates are growing their practices. In this field, if you’re a talented clinician and you genuinely help people, your name will spread.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At Sonder Therapy Group, we love working with kids, teens, young adults, and young professionals. Rates of anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and self-harm are higher than ever, and we believe therapy needs to address the whole picture—not just symptoms.
We take a holistic and practical approach to counseling. Yes, we teach coping skills and process emotions, but we also focus on habits that support overall well-being—sleep, nutrition, exercise, relationships, and screen time. For example, if I’m working with a 19-year-old who stays up until 3 a.m. gaming, feels isolated, and barely exercises, my first priority is building trust, and then helping him make life adjustments that can ease depression naturally alongside therapy.
We’re proud that primary care physicians and psychiatrists in San Diego refer clients to us because of our emphasis on lifestyle balance, resilience, and responsibility for mental health. We’re also unique in that we don’t encourage clients to define themselves solely by a diagnosis. Instead, we help them connect with the healthiest, bravest, most resilient parts of themselves.
And of course, there’s Monty—our 9-year-old therapy dog in San Diego who comes to the office every day. You can meet him here: Monty the Therapy Dog
.
How do you think about happiness?
The happiest moments in my career are when former clients check back in—sometimes home from college, sometimes emailing to share news about engagements, new jobs, or big life milestones. Whether in teen counseling, young adult therapy, or couples therapy, I want my clients to know I’m rooting for them long after our sessions end. Those updates remind me why I do this work.
Pricing:
- We operate on a sliding scale, our low end is $100 a session and our high end is $225.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sondertherapysd.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matt.shows.up/
- Other: https://sondertherapysd.com/monty-the-therapy-dog/
