Matthew Cordova

Biography

Dr. Matthew Cordova received his Ph.D. in 1999 from the University of Kentucky, where he worked closely with his mentors Michael Andrykowski, Ph.D. and Charlie Carlson, Ph.D., studying psychosocial adjustment to cancer and management of chronic pain. He completed his predoctoral internship, with an emphasis in Behavioral Medicine, at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, under the mentorship of David Spiegel, M.D., and Janine Giese-Davis, Ph.D., and funded by a two-year postdoctoral fellowship grant from the California Breast Cancer Research Program. Dr. Cordova worked as a Staff Psychologist at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System from 2001-2007. Since 2007, he has been a Staff Psychologist at the VA Northern California Health Care System’s Martinez Outpatient Clinic, providing Behavioral Medicine clinical services to patients in the Primary Care, Pain Clinic, and Mental Health settings; he is also the Associate Training Director and supervises and teaches pre-doctoral psychology interns and postdoctoral fellows.

Research Interest

Health psychology; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Traumatic stress; Early intervention to prevent trauma-related problems; Social Support; Posttraumatic growth; Positive psychology.