A Columbia-trained psychotherapist, I have more than ten years of experience working with kids, teens, and adults, including couples and families

I am a Columbia-trained psychotherapist with over ten years of experience working with kids, teens, and adults, including couples and families. I primarily focus on adults and couples, with a particular interest in working with corporate professionals, entrepreneurs, and those in the creative fields. I founded Tribeca Therapy as a private practice in 2009 and expanded it into a group practice in 2011 (read more about Matt and Tribeca Therapy here).

While I am professional and focused on my patients and their needs, my patients also experience me as a real person with them in the therapy room. I take my work personally and, while I respect that my purpose in session is not to benefit or center on me, I don’t hide that the ups and downs of my patients’ lives–their pain and struggles–matter to me in a very personal way. Everyone needs an advocate and I see my place, at times, as being that for my patients. I want to help my patients want more for themselves and fight to get it, seeing themselves as capable of creating and having more.

My work as a therapist is influenced by my study of philosophy as much as psychology

My work as a therapist is influenced by my study of philosophy as much as (if not more than) psychology. The influence of philosophy on my practice is less about referencing the thoughts of a particular philosopher or school of philosophy than seeing philosophy as a useful tool in thinking rigorously, questioning assumptions, and being self-reflective. Philosophers recognize that they view problems and the world from a given perspective. As a therapist, I try to be aware of my biases as a product of my point of view. This includes race, class, gender, and sexuality, as well as my perspective as a therapist. I am aware of the ways being a therapist and practicing therapy can construct a sort of myopia that can sometimes be antithetical to creative thinking. Because of this, I work to maintain a sense of exploration and discovery in my practice.

While I don’t practice a formulaic type of therapy, treating each patient individually using a custom-built set of tools that works for them, several core principles, related to Tribeca Therapy as a whole, are also essential to my personal approach:

Diversity (politics)

I recognize that the term diversity is a troubled one. However, I am a politically engaged individual and progressive with my politics. I work frequently with women, people of color, people who identify as LGBTQ, trans individuals, and multiracial or multiethnic couples and families. I understand, as a therapist, that politics and culture affect how people experience and live their lives. I think it’s important for therapy to include a look at how culture–whether the culture of a couple, family or society at large–influences an individual and their experiences.

Action-oriented

I’m a hands-on, active therapist, whose style is warm, energetic, and directive. I’m not afraid to roll up my sleeves and get to work alongside my patients. When patients need me to be on the receiving end of venting or be a good listener, I set back and listen. However, when a patient is in a bad spot, they might need direction and in this case, I give it to them. This is not to say I always tell patients what to do. But, I am not passive in how I approach the struggles patients bring into my NYC therapy office.

Non-Diagnostic

To me, diagnosis and the medical model can be quite limiting to therapy. This is why I practice non-diagnostic therapy. When I say “non-diagnostic therapy,” I don’t mean that I don’t diagnose. In fact, I sometimes do. Rather, I don’t work in accordance with the formulaic methodology as laid out in the medical model, which presupposes universality in both the distress and the cure (i.e. one person’s depression of a given type can be understood and treated following the same protocol as another person’s depression). I also take exception to what is traditionally claimed as the domain of psychotherapy, namely that it is intended to treat mental and emotional distress, that distress is a disorder, and that this disorder needs and has a cure. I’m not prescriptive (Do this, do that and then you’ll “get better”). None of this should imply that I don’t take distress seriously or that I don’t study and stay up to date with what the fields of psychology and psychotherapy are discovering that is helpful to human beings.

Creative

Creativity in therapy doesn’t mean just “making something up.” Psychotherapy has both a history and a science. I think of these as tools and, while I work to be fluent in these tools, I think there’s a tremendous art in their application. In therapy, though, the creative endeavor is not mine alone, but a collaborative one with my patients. I’m also interested in helping people develop in their own creative capacities. Even though psychology offers advancements in certain practices like cognitive behavioral therapy, for instance, I don’t think therapists are unique in our capacity to apply science, wisdom, and passion to helping one another benefit our lives. I want to help my patients discover ways that they can be emotionally creative, meaning that they can create new ways of doing their emotional lives.

Collaborative

Therapy has historically followed the medical model, which traditionally implies that a physician with a set of expertise diagnoses and then, treats based on his or her knowledge of illness. In my therapy practice, I see myself and the patient–or patients in couples, group, or family therapy–as co-creators. In some ways, this understanding of collaboration in therapy is informed by my work in theater and performance. Theater is a deeply collaborative art in which there’s space for artists–actors, musicians, scene painters, lighting designers, directors, vocalists, etc.–who all have very different talents to participate together. In a similar manner, while there is expertise in therapy, to be sure, that expertise is modest in value when compared to what can be created together in the therapy room. By no means is this a stance against expertise or knowledge, but it’s an expression of the value of bringing new things into being and making tools together.