In January, Matt appeared in two articles on Business Insider related to couples and relationships. Drawing on his experiences as a couples therapist, Matt spoke with writer Julia Naftulin specifically about codependency in relationships and how to confront challenging issues as a couple without letting them fester into larger arguments. 

The most recent article was a part of Naftulin’s ongoing series of advice columns related to sex and relationships in which she uses the expertise from couples therapists, sex therapists and others to answer submitted reader questions. This particular question detailed the trouble the reader was facing after moving in with her partner, namely the inability to stop fighting, and a lack of sex and intimacy. In response, Matt asserted how essential it is for couples to find ways to discuss these issues together in a calm space. This has the potential to not only prevent arguments from growing, but can also create a closer connection for a couple.

Likewise, the earlier Business Insider article also involved couples moving in together, or in this case, choosing not to. Beginning with Gwyneth Paltrow and her husband Brad Falchuk’s decision to not live together during their first year of marriage, Naftulin uses their choice as a jumping-off point to discuss codependency (although codependency was not mentioned specifically by Paltrow). Exploring how codependency often manifests, Matt explained that codependency frequently occurs as one person needing too much in a relationship, while their partner sacrifices their needs in service of meeting their partner’s. He also made sure to note that being committed to satisfying a partner’s needs doesn’t always signal codependency and in fact, many couples could learn to be needier.