MEET Dr. Matt richardson
Therapy that’s warm, direct, and specialized.
Licensed psychologist specializing in LGBTQ+ affirming therapy, men’s issues, and body image and eating concerns. Serving clients virtually in Massachusetts, New York, Maine, and Florida.
I work with driven millennial men who…
Struggle with their body, food, or exercise and feel ashamed or alone in it.
Are gay or bisexual and seeking a therapist who’s also gay and understands the struggle.
Give everything they have to the people in their life and still lie awake wondering if it was enough.
Are anxious in their relationships. They read into things, need reassurance they feel uncomfortable asking for, and find it hard to fully trust the people they care about.
Grew up in environments where love felt conditional, unpredictable, or hard to count on.
Are ready to commit to long-term, depth-oriented therapy.
MY APPROACH
You’re not in this alone anymore.
There are very few therapists in the country who have studied body image in gay and bisexual men at the doctoral level, trained clinically in eating disorders, and lived this experience as a gay man themselves. That shapes everything about how I work, including how I show up in the room.
I'm warm, engaged, and direct. You'll get honest reflections and real observations from someone who actually cares how things go for you. Most of what I do involves getting to know the different parts of you - the driven part, the anxious part, the part that learned early on to keep things private - and getting curious about what they're protecting rather than trying to get rid of them. A lot of clients tell me the relationship itself ends up being one of the most meaningful parts of the work.
We'll also pay attention to how you show up in therapy, because the ways you relate, hold back, or protect yourself in sessions often mirror what's happening in your relationships outside of them. I'm Internal Family Systems informed, with formal training in psychodynamic and interpersonal process approaches, and I draw from CBT, ACT, and emotionally focused work when it fits.
Therapy with me is
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I care deeply about my clients, and am often told that I have a warm and relaxed presence. My goal is for you to feel seen, heard, and understood, and I do that by being an active participant in the conversation.
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Insight matters, but so does what happens outside the therapy room. We pay attention to patterns and work toward shifts that show up in your relationships and daily life.
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You’re not just paying for time, you’re investing in a psychologist with specialized training and a deep understanding of the issues you’re facing. This is work I genuinely care about and enjoy, and that expertise and passion shape how we work together.
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A strong therapeutic relationship is essential to this work. Patterns in how you relate, protect yourself, or hold back can emerge in the room. Noticing and working with those moments supports meaningful change.
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Therapy focuses on understanding what you do well and how those strengths can support meaningful change. Even patterns that feel unhelpful often started as ways of coping.
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Therapy with me is grounded in an understanding of how power, oppression, and inequality shape mental health. I practice from an antiracist, fat-affirming, HAES-aligned perspective that honors your lived experience.
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We look at how family, relationships, culture, and social expectations influence your mental health. Change often happens when those dynamics are named and understood.
Therapy with me isn’t
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I practice from a weight-neutral, non-diet approach (here’s why), meaning I don’t treat bodies as problems to fix, but help clients build a more peaceful relationship with food and their body. While I’m happy to support clients in improving health markers in collaboration with a treatment team, I don’t provide care aimed at changing body size or appearance.
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Therapy with me is a long-term commitment. Most of my clients have been with me for years, not months. If you're looking for short-term, solution-focused work, I'm not the right fit.
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Therapy with me goes beyond brief updates or surface-level processing, and it’s not focused on managing symptoms in isolation. It’s intended for people who want to engage more deeply and work toward lasting change.
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Therapy with me is designed for people who want to do deeper, long-term work and are willing to stay engaged even when it gets hard. We’ll focus less on quick updates and more on understanding what’s underneath the surface and how it shows up in your relationships. This kind of work can be challenging and at times uncomfortable. It requires consistency and a willingness to keep going, which is where real change tends to happen.
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Therapy with me isn’t about reshaping yourself to meet someone else’s expectations. The focus is on understanding what you want and need, not performing change for others.
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This work involves emotional awareness and honest reflection over time. Therapy with me asks for a willingness to notice, name, and sit with feelings as they arise, even when that feels uncomfortable. If you’re hoping to stay disconnected from your emotional experience or avoid deeper exploration, this approach may not be the right fit.
Specializing In:
If food, your body, and how you look in gay spaces take up more mental space than you'd like, this is where we start.
For gay men who look fine on the outside and are tired of carrying the rest alone.
For gay men navigating anxiety, relationship patterns, and the exhaustion of never feeling quite enough.
More about me
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When I’m not working, I usually have an audiobook or podcast playing. Sometimes it’s related to therapy, but more often it’s a horror or thriller novel. I enjoy hiking, exploring new places, being near the water, and getting away for the occasional weekend to reset. I live with two very curious cats who love to supervise my telehealth sessions. If we work together, you’ll probably meet them!
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Massachusetts: PSY10001022
Maine: PS2698
New York: 028040
Florida: TPPY2995 (Registered telehealth provider)
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Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology
University of KentuckyM.S. in Counseling Psychology
Salem State UniversityB.A. in Psychology
Westfield State University
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My training included intensive study of eating disorders and body image, along with outpatient therapy experience and supervision in this area. I’ve worked in group practices, university counseling centers, community mental health, and hospital settings, supporting adults with complex and overlapping concerns.
As an independent practitioner, I stay closely engaged with current research and books on eating disorders, regularly attend advanced clinical trainings, and participate in ongoing peer consultation and supervision to ensure my work remains ethical and evidence based.
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Richardson, M. T. (2023). "It's all lateral violence": How sexual minority men cope with appearance discrimination [Doctoral dissertation, University of Kentucky]. UKnowledge. https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2023.028
Riggle, E. D. B., Folberg, A. M., Richardson, M. T., & Rostosky, S. S. (2023). A measure of hypervigilance in LGBTQ-identified individuals. Stigma and Health, 8(4), 476–486. https://doi.org/10.1037/sah0000306
Rostosky, S. S., Richardson, M. T., McCurry, S. K., & Riggle, E. D. B. (2022). LGBTQ individuals’ lived experiences of hypervigilance. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 9(3), 358–369. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000474
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Academy for Eating Disorders (AED)
Multi-Service Eating Disorders Association (MEDA)
Massachusetts Psychological Association (MPA)
Eating Disorder Association of Maine (EDAM)
