Matt Englar-Carlson, Ph.D.

Professor
Office: EC426
Telephone:  (657) 278-5062
Email:   mattec@fullerton.edu

Personal Biography
I am so happy to be a member of the counseling department at California State University at Fullerton. I believe our program epitomizes the best of what graduate education can be: collaborative and caring faculty, motivated and purposeful students, and a university dedicated to bettering the social welfare of the surrounding community. Of course the sunny weather is an additional bonus. I am also the director of the Center for Boys and Men , which is housed in the College of Health and Human Development.

At CSUF I wear many hats outside of role with the Department of Counseling: faculty coordinator of Graduate Student Mentoring Program that supports efforts for helping historically under-represented groups and first-generation college students; faculty coordinator for Diversity and Inclusion at the CSUF Faculty Development Center ; and chair of the CSUF Institutional Review Board .

As a mental health professional, I am much more interested in focusing on mental health, rather than mental illness. My roots in Adlerian psychology coupled with my Midwestern upbringing have forged an emphasis on strength-building and making the best better in all people. In my capacity as a teacher and clinician, I facilitate personal and interpersonal functioning across the life span with a holistic focus on individuals, groups, and families. Being trained as scientist-practitioner, I look to carefully integrate theory, research, and practice with a constant attention and awareness to intersectionality inclusive of the range of human diversity. In terms of my career path, I actively sought experiences to push me to better understand myself in order to work effectively with an increasingly culturally diverse clinical population. I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of California- Santa Cruz with an emphasis in social psychology and sociology. After completing two Master’s degrees at Stanford University (Health Psychology Education) and the Pennsylvania State University (Counselor Education), I worked for two years as an elementary school counselor in the San Francisco Bay Area. In my capacity as a school counselor I focused my preventive efforts on conflict resolution and mediation, cooperative learning experiences, and group counseling. My favorite program was a yearlong mother-daughter group with middle school girls and their mothers. Although this job was wonderful, I knew further education was calling me. For my doctoral studies I attended the Pennsylvania State University and received my doctoral degree in the American Psychological Association (APA) accredited program in counseling psychology. My doctoral studies focused on the psychology of men and masculinities and multicultural counseling. I completed my clinical internship at the Student Counseling Center at the University of Southern California and spent one year as a visiting assistant professor in educational psychology at the University of Washington before coming to California State University- Fullerton. Over the past decade I have been a teacher at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA facilitating experiential men’s groups and father-son weekends.

Although my professional identity is important to me, I further define myself by broad interests outside my profession. As a lifelong athlete (I began running at age 5), I always have some athletic pursuit captivating my focus. My passion for over 35-years has focused on two wheels as I am cycling fanatic. As active mountain biker, road cyclist and beginning cyclocrosser, my daydreams consist spending time with my friends on storied climbs like Mont Ventoux, Col du Tourmalet, and the Passo Stelvio. There is nothing better than riding with friends and savoring any time on a bike. Yoga has recently come into my life and I wonder why it took so long, but I love it so much that I am doing teacher training. My love for sports is pretty strong, and in terms of professional sports, I am true to my roots and always cheer on teams from Wisconsin- Packers, Bucks, Brewers, Badgers. All types of music are often playing in my head or around me. If I could relive any musical period, it seems hard to beat the punk music of 1977. Spend a little time around me, and it won’t be long until the conversation turns to my two favorite culinary loves- coffee and donuts. Coffee is good anytime, but donuts are best shared with my 16-year old son Jackson, and my 11-year old daughter Beatrix.

Teaching
As a professor, I teach a variety of classes but like to focus on classes that emphasize the core theoretical concepts that underlie the field. I tend to teach from a constructivist perspective, encouraging students to blend their own emerging views of counseling and education with the dominant discourse on best practices, current research, and developmental theory. In addition, I work to create a classroom atmosphere in which the pluralism inherent in modern counseling practice and life is addressed and enhanced. I believe that effective teaching is focused on helping students become critical thinkers who can assess ideas from multiple viewpoints and perspectives. However, counseling is not about remaining in one’s head, thus I tend to teach experientially allowing each student to “try on” and practice concepts and strategies in a supportive setting. Counseling is a verbal and expressive profession in which the classroom must allow for interaction and observation of individual and group processes.  I teach Counseling Theory, Family Systems, Groups: Practice and Process, Beginning and Advanced Practicum, Advanced Counseling Techniques, and Final Project. One of the greatest joys of working at a university is the time spent mentoring students in an effort to assist students towards meeting their goals. Don’t be a stranger, stop by my office and let me know if I can be of assistance.

Scholarship
My scholarly interests are broad and continue to evolve over time. My main scholarly work focuses on the intersection of masculinity and health and wellness, multicultural issues, social justice and counseling theory.  With colleagues, I also investigate preventative structures amongst professional male athletes that support clean sporting behavior. In reference to men, I am interested how masculinities influences well-being, interpersonal relationships, and self-identity. This exploration extends to how men and boys ask and receive assistance from the mental health field. As such, I hope to continue working to train mental health professionals to be aware of, receptive to, and able to clinically address the needs of men. I am one of the core authors of the recent APA Psychological Practice Guidelines for Working with Boys and Men . A particular focus with men and boys includes working from a strength-based/pro-social model of understanding men. I also am interested in exploring effective supports and treatments of that promote psychosocial-emotional health of male adolescents of color. I am also the co-editor of the 24-volume monograph series Theories of Psychotherapy (APA) that features the world’s leading authorities on various theoretical approached to psychotherapy, and co-author of the monograph on Adlerian Psychotherapy.

 

Selected scholarly work includes:

Kottler, J. A., & Englar-Carlson, M. (2019). Learning group leadership: An experiential approach (4th ed.). San Diego, CA: Cognella.

American Psychological Association, Boys and Men Guidelines Group. (2018). APA guidelines for psychological practice with boys and men. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/about/policy/psychological-practice-boys-men-guidelines.pdf

 

Carlson, J. D., & Englar-Carlson, M. (2017). Adlerian psychotherapy. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association

 

Macedo, E., Englar-Carlson, M., Lehrbach, T., & Gleaves, J. (2017). Moral communities in anti-doping policy: A response to Bowers and Paternoster. Sports, Ethics and Philosophy. doi: 10.1080/17511321.2017.1371791

Englar-Carlson, M., Gleaves, J., Macedo, E. & Lee, H. (2016).  What about the clean athletes? The need for positive psychology in anti-doping research. Performance Enhancement and Health, 4, 116-122. doi:10.1016/j.peh.2016.05.002

Kiselica, M. S., Benton-Wright, S., & Englar-Carlson, M. (2015). Accentuating positive masculinity: A new foundation for the psychology of boys, men, and masculinity. In Y.J. Wong and S. R. Wester (eds.), Handbook of men and masculinities (pp. 123-143). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Englar-Carlson, M., Evans, M., & Duffey, T. (Eds.). (2014). A counselor’s guide to working with men. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.

Englar-Carlson, M., & Smart, R. S. (2014). Positive psychology of gender. In J. T. Pedrotti & L. M. Edwards (Eds.), Perspectives on the intersection of multiculturalism and positive psychology (pp. 125-141). New York, NY: Springer Science.

Kottler, J. A., Englar-Carlson, M., & Carlson, J.D. (Eds.). (2013). Helping beyond the 50-minute hour: Therapists engaged in social action. New York: Routledge.

Englar-Carlson, M., & Kiselica, M. (2013). Affirming the strengths in men: A positive masculinity approach to assisting male clients. Journal of Counseling and Development, 91, 399-409.

Liu, Y., Englar-Carlson, M., & Minichiello, V. (2012). The socio-psychological impact of midlife career transitions for male technical professionals: A qualitative study of narratives. Career Development Quarterly, 60, 273-288.

Englar-Carlson, M., & Carlson, J. D. (2011). Adlerian couples therapy: The case of the boxer’s daughter and the momma’s boy. In D.S. Shepard & M. Harway (Eds.), Working successfully with men in couples counseling: A gender sensitive approach. New York: Routledge.

Englar-Carlson, M., & Stevens, M. A., & Scholz, R. (2010). Psychotherapy with men. In J.C. Chrisler & D. R. McCreary (Eds.), Handbook of gender research in psychology Vol. 2 (pp. 221-252). New York: Springer.

Stevens, M. A., & Englar-Carlson, M. (2010).  Counseling men. In J. A. Erickson-Cornish, B.A. Schreier, L. I. Nadkarni, L. H. Metzger, & E. R. Rodolfa (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural counseling competencies (pp. 195-230). New York: Wiley.

Oren, C.Z., Englar-Carlson, M., Stevens, M.A., Oren, D.C. (2010). Counseling fathers from a strength-based perspective. In C.Z. Oren & D.C. Oren (Eds.), Counseling fathers (pp. 23-48). New York: Routledge.

Kiselica, M., & Englar-Carlson, M. (2010). The positive psychology/positive masculinity model: A new framework for psychotherapy with boys and men. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 47, 276-287.

Englar-Carlson, M. (2009). Engaging men in psychotherapy: A stimulus video. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Kiselica, M.S., Englar-Carlson, M., & Horne, A.M. (Eds.) (2008). Counseling troubled boys: A guidebook for professionals. New York: Routledge.

Nelson, M.L., Englar-Carlson, M., Tierney, S., Hau, J. (2006). Class jumping into academia: Multiple identities for counseling academics. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53, 1-14.

Englar-Carlson, M., & Stevens, M. (Eds.). (2006). In the room with men: A casebook of therapeutic change. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.