Em Matsuno

Meet Dr. Em Matsuno, an Assistant Professor in Counseling and Counseling Psychology at Arizona State University. In this interview, they share what a day in the life is like for a professor at a research university, what was useful for them to consider as a nonbinary person on the job market, and the importance of mentoring throughout your career.

Click here to watch Em’s interview.

Em identifies as queer, nonbinary, trans, and multiracial. In 2021, they began their first year as an assistant professor after completing a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Palo Alto University specializing in research and clinical practice with trans and nonbinary people. Their current research “aims to uplift, center, and empower Two-spirit, trans, and nonbinary (2STNB) people as scholars, researchers, practitioners, activists, and healers within the field of psychology.”

As an undergraduate, Em earned a dual degree in music and psychology. They shared that visiting the college counseling center solidified their interest in pursuing a career in psychology. “In that moment of feeling so relieved after going to a counseling session, I was like, this is what I want to do,” they said. “I had like such a distinct moment where I was like, this is what I’m going to do.”

As a junior in college, they started to volunteer in the counseling center and in research labs in the psychology department. “That was just the right timing where I could get the experience that I needed for graduate school because I knew I wanted to go to graduate school. So I was fortunate enough to kind of like plan that out a little bit earlier on,” they said. “And then from those experiences I got really good mentorship, that also helped me.”

In describing their faculty job search, they discussed various factors they considered, including the impact that location can have for LGBTQ+ people. “The really hard part about academia is that it definitely can feel like there’s scarcity, like there’s a limited number of jobs… It’s hard to say I’m only going to look in this one location. So when I was applying, I applied to jobs all over the country,” they said.

Em Matsuno “I primarily do research related to trans and nonbinary mental health… And I also am interested in bringing trans and nonbinary students to work with me. So having an environment that would support not only my research, but me and my students was a very, very important part of the decision.” Even if the department and faculty at a university may be very supportive of LGBTQ+ people, they had to consider the overall context of a university’s location.

Their advice to people interested in a career in psychology centers on the importance of mentors. “Relationships are super important, in life in general, but also in career,” they said. “So I feel like having that good mentorship, people that you can look up to, I feel can be very helpful. Like seeing somebody else in their career, who maybe identifies in a similar way, kind of gives you that path. Or like, maybe that could be me, you can kind of imagine that possibility.”

To help trans and nonbinary people interested in graduate school in psychology connect to mentors, they founded a Facebook group: Trans and Non-Binary in Psychology Mentoring Group.

Check out the interview below, where Em shares more about their career journey and how they navigated their job search as researcher working within the trans and nonbinary community.

If you’d like to get in touch with Em or learn more about their work, you can visit the EMpowerment Lab website or their ASU faculty profile.