My Values as a Psychologist
What I Stand For: My Values as a Psychologist
As a counseling psychologist, advocacy for marginalized communities, social justice, and harm reduction were foundational to my training and are part of my professional ethics. Therapy does not happen in a vacuum, and safety matters.
As a gay man, I know what it's like to search for a provider and wonder if they're truly safe, or if their affirming language is more performance than practice. I've sat with that uncertainty myself: reading between the lines of a website, wondering what someone really believes, and whether I'd have to find out the hard way. I am intentional about where I place my trust. As a provider, I believe values transparency is part of informed consent. It allows you to decide upfront whether I am a safe person to trust and be vulnerable with in therapy, without having to guess, test the waters, or find out later.
If you strongly disagree with my values, I may not be the right therapist for you, and that's okay. My role isn't to tell you what to believe or use therapy as a platform for persuasion. It's to practice ethically, minimize harm, and support your capacity for reflection, agency, and informed choice, and I do that as a human being first, not just a clinician following protocol. Sometimes that means challenging assumptions or exploring how systems and power shape what you're going through, not to steer you toward my beliefs, but because thoughtful examination and honest, human connection are what ethical care actually requires.
With that said, here are the values that guide me as both a human and a psychologist.
I’m Committed to Providing LGBTQ+ Affirming Care
As a gay cis man, I don't simply "support" LGBTQ+ clients. I'm part of the community, and my work is grounded in affirming the dignity, safety, and full humanity of people across sexual orientations and gender identities. My practice is welcoming to all, and I work with folks of varying backgrounds.
I also want to acknowledge that the LGBTQ+ community has not always been inclusive of trans and nonbinary folks, despite the fact that trans people, especially trans women of color, have been at the forefront of the activism and advocacy that made rights and visibility possible for all of us. I see this history, and I hold deep appreciation for the sacrifices the trans community has made and continues to make. I proudly work with trans and nonbinary clients. As a cis man, I don't know everything about that experience, and I won't pretend to, but I am committed to ongoing learning, humility, and showing up as an informed and genuine ally.
I understand the fear and uncertainty that can come with coming out, the exhaustion of code-switching or monitoring yourself for safety, and the grief that can follow when relationships cannot adapt to hold your truth. I am very familiar with the ways shame, vigilance, and self-protection can quietly shape daily life, even long after you've named who you are.
Whether you're questioning your identity, navigating transitions, or living openly and confidently, you deserve a therapist who understands the nuances of queer experience and doesn't need you to educate them.
I Take a Weight-Inclusive, Non-Diet Approach
I reject the idea that health is synonymous with thinness or that a person’s body size determines their worth. I work from a Health at Every Size® (HAES®) perspective, which means I support clients in building a more peaceful relationship with food, movement, and their bodies, without the pressure to change their weight.
This includes people in all bodies, including those who have been harmed by weight stigma in medical or therapeutic settings.
If you're looking for support in healing your relationship with food or body image, I’m here to help without judgment. If you’re looking for someone to help you lose weight or achieve the “perfect body”, I’m not your guy.
I Believe Bodily Autonomy Is a Human Right
I believe the government has no business standing between people and their healthcare. I support access to gender-affirming care, reproductive freedom, disability justice, and the fundamental right to make decisions about your own body and life. I also believe that insurance companies routinely interfere with care in ways that prioritize profit over people, restrict access, and create unnecessary harm. Healthcare should be guided by clinical judgment, informed consent, and respect for human dignity, not political ideology or corporate interests.
In line with this, I am an out-of-network provider, which allows me to practice without insurance companies dictating the terms of your care. I recognize this creates a cost barrier, so I'm committed to expanding access where I can by offering a limited number of reduced-fee and pro bono spots.
I Believe in Expanding, Not Policing, Masculinity
I work with many men who were taught that vulnerability is weakness, that anger is the only emotion they're allowed to show, or that their worth comes from dominance, stoicism, or success. These messages often start early, reinforced by family, peers, media, and culture, and they don't just limit men internally. They shape how men move through relationships, parenting, friendships, and work, often leaving them isolated, disconnected from their own emotional lives, and unsure how to ask for help even when they're struggling.
These same messages also reinforce systems that fuel sexism, violence, and emotional disconnection more broadly. My approach is about exploring and questioning harmful ideas about masculinity, not shaming men for having internalized them. Most men didn't choose these scripts; they inherited them. The work is in noticing them, understanding where they came from, and deciding what to keep and what to let go of. I aim to help clients build a broader, more self-connected understanding of masculinity, one grounded in emotional presence, accountability, and genuine care for themselves and others.
This work isn't limited to men. I also work with women and trans and nonbinary clients, and when it's relevant and appropriate, we explore how masculinity and patriarchy show up in their own lives too, whether that's through relationships with men, family expectations, workplace dynamics, or the ways patriarchal norms have shaped their own sense of self, safety, or worth.
Part of this work also means naming and challenging sexism, misogyny, and gender-based violence directly. Supporting men's mental health and addressing the harm of patriarchal systems are not separate goals. They are deeply connected, and I bring that lens into the room regardless of who I'm sitting across from.
I Provide Trauma-Informed Care
Many of the people I work with carry histories of complex trauma, including complex PTSD, and I approach this work with both clinical training and deep attunement. I draw on several trauma-informed modalities in my practice (such as IFS and EFT), and I pay close attention to how trauma shows up, not just in what clients say, but in the body, in relational patterns, in nervous system responses, and in the ways safety and trust are built (or protected) in the room.
Trauma-informed care, to me, means more than using the right techniques. It means recognizing that symptoms are often adaptations, not pathology; that pacing and consent matter as much as content; and that healing happens at the speed of safety, not urgency. I won't ask you to relive what you're not ready to revisit, and I won't ever rush you.
I Stand Against Fascism and Attacks on Democracy
Therapy cannot be separated from the social and political realities that shape our lives. When therapists intentionally avoid or sidestep these realities, they are, at best, missing the mark and failing to fully understand the contexts their clients are living in and, at worst, contributing to harm through silence or invalidation. Psychological work does not occur in a vacuum. Social power, policy, and ideology shape stress, safety, access to care, and mental health outcomes. Attending to these forces is part of ethical, competent, and responsible clinical practice - full stop.
I am firmly opposed to authoritarianism in all its forms, including ideologies and policies that seek to undermine democratic institutions, restrict the rights, safety, and autonomy of marginalized communities, or rely on disinformation and misinformation to do so.
I Name Race, Racism, and Racial Identity Directly
I want to name this directly: race and racial identity shape mental health, access to care, and the therapeutic relationship itself. This includes acknowledging the Indigenous peoples of this land, whose sovereignty, cultures, and lives have been targeted by ongoing colonization, displacement, and violence, and whose histories and present-day realities are too often erased or flattened into broader conversations about race. It also includes naming the specific and persistent harm of anti-Black racism, and the ways Black folks and people of color, despite being the global majority, continue to face systemic oppression, violence, and inequity here in the U.S. and around the world. These are not abstract issues; they shape daily life, safety, and access to care for the people I work with.
As a White man, I am committed to ongoing learning, self-examination, and accountability around the ways privilege and power show up in the therapy room. I approach this work with cultural humility, holding my own perspective as limited and incomplete, and with genuine curiosity rather than assumption.
This means actively examining my own identities, blind spots, and areas of privilege, and seeking consultation, education, and feedback when I fall short. It includes an explicit commitment to anti-racism, harm reduction, and ethical practice, as well as creating a therapeutic space where clients do not have to compartmentalize or minimize parts of themselves to feel safe, understood, or respected. My goal is to remain engaged, responsive, curious, and accountable in how I show up for the people I work with.
I'm Committed to Disability-Affirming and Neurodivergent-Affirming Care
As someone living with ADHD, I understand neurodivergence not just clinically, but personally. I know what it's like to navigate a world - and often a mental health system - that wasn't built with neurodivergent minds in mind, and to feel pathologized for traits that are simply part of how you're wired.
My approach rejects the idea that neurodivergence or disability is something to be fixed, masked, or overcome. Instead, I aim to help clients understand their own minds and bodies with curiosity and compassion, build on their strengths, and find strategies that actually work for how they think, feel, and function, rather than forcing conformity to neurotypical or able-bodied expectations. This includes chronic illness, chronic pain, and physical disability, visible and invisible, episodic and constant.
I also aim to be accommodating in my practice policies wherever possible, and adaptive in my clinical approach, so that the way we work together actually fits your needs rather than asking you to fit a fixed mold. Whether you're formally diagnosed, self-identified, late-diagnosed, or still exploring whether neurodivergence or disability explains your experience, wherever you are in that process, you don't have to mask here.
Final Thoughts
You have the right to know who you’re working with and what guides the care you receive. Therapy should be a space where you do not have to edit yourself to feel safe, respected, or taken seriously. My intention in sharing this is not to persuade, but to offer transparency, so you can decide whether I am the right person to trust with your time, energy, and vulnerability.
If these values resonate with you and you’re looking for a therapist who practices with clarity, ethical accountability, and care for the broader systems that shape our lives, I would be honored to work together.
Ready to get started? Schedule a free consultation and let’s talk.
I'm Dr. Matt Richardson, a licensed psychologist and owner of Rough Waters Psychology, a virtual practice specializing in therapy for gay men, with a focus on anxiety and self-worth and body image and eating disorders.
I offer virtual therapy to gay men throughout Massachusetts, New York, Maine, and Florida. Whether you're in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline, Newton, Worcester, Springfield, Northampton, or Provincetown — or anywhere else in Massachusetts — I'd love to connect. I also work with clients throughout New York, including New York City, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, Buffalo, Albany, Rochester, Syracuse, Yonkers, and White Plains. In Maine, I work with clients in Portland, Bangor, Augusta, Brunswick, Bar Harbor, Rockland, and surrounding areas. And throughout Florida, including Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Jacksonville, Sarasota, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Gainesville, and beyond.
