MEET Dr. Matt richardson
Psychologist specializing in anxiety, body image & eating disorders in gay men
Providing individual and group therapy | Online across MA, NY, ME, and FL
Caught in a constant comparison with other men, measuring their body against every guy at the gym, on the apps, or in the room.
Tracking food in their head all day: what they've eaten, what they've "earned," and how to make up for it.
Anxious or irritable when they miss a workout, even when their body needs the rest.
Avoiding photos, beaches, or taking their shirt off, even around people who love them.
Replaying conversations long after they're over, sure they said the wrong thing.
Anxious in their relationships: reading into things, needing reassurance they hate asking for, and slow to fully trust.
Still carrying the effects of growing up where love felt conditional or unpredictable.
Ready for deeper work, not a quick fix.
The guys I work with are often…
MY APPROACH
I don't just specialize in this. I've lived it, and I found my way out. You can too.
A lot of men struggle with body shame in silence for years, convinced no one would really understand. I know, because that was me. When I was struggling with my own eating disorder, I couldn’t find a specialist who had real experience treating men, let alone one who understood what it’s like to be a gay man going through it. So I became the therapist I needed.
Here, you don’t have to filter. No editing out your sex life, no steering around topics to avoid a therapist’s discomfort or judgment. We can just dive in. I bring doctoral research on body image in gay and bisexual men, clinical training in eating disorders, and my own experience as a gay man, along with years of experience helping men navigate their hardest chapters.
My number one goal, at all times, is that you feel safe, respected, and understood. Within that, I’m warm, engaged, and direct. I won’t just nod along. I’ll notice what you gloss over, gently name the patterns I see, and make room for the things you’ve never said out loud. Sometimes that means telling you something you might not want to hear, kindly but firmly, because I genuinely care how things go for you.
My approach draws primarily on psychodynamic therapy and Internal Family Systems (IFS), though I’m trained in other approaches too and tailor the work to what you need. In practice, that means we’ll look at where your patterns came from and how they still show up in your relationships today. And when a familiar reaction kicks in, like the urge to shut down, people-please, or tear yourself apart, we’ll pause and get curious about it: what that part of you is feeling, what it’s worried about, and what it’s been protecting you from. Once you understand those parts instead of fighting them, you get a choice you didn’t have before.
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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The patterns we work on took a long time to form, and the deeper shifts take time. But most of my clients start to notice a reduction in symptoms within the first few months, and the longer work is what makes it last. If you want a short-term, skills-only approach, I'm not the right therapist for you.
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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 and bisexual men ready to stop editing themselves to feel safe in relationships, in dating, in everyday life.
For gay and bisexual men navigating anxiety, perfectionism, and the exhaustion of never feeling like they're enough.
More about me
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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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I've worked across two large college counseling centers, three group practices, an inpatient psych hospital, and a community mental health center, supporting adults with complex and overlapping concerns from across the spectrum of gender, race, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic background.
Through these settings, I've built extensive experience as a generalist, treating a wide variety of presenting concerns in folks of varying backgrounds, alongside specialist training in eating disorders, body image, and LGBTQ+ affirming care. My training included intensive study of eating disorders and body image, along with outpatient therapy experience and supervision in this area.
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 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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Multi-Service Eating Disorders Association (MEDA)
Massachusetts Psychological Association (MPA)
Eating Disorder Association of Maine (EDAM)
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I read a lot of fiction, mostly horror, crime, and dystopian thrillers. My music taste is best described as a 90s kid who never moved on - alternative rock, pop, and blues depending on the mood. Think Third Eye Blind, Taylor Swift, Hilary Duff, and Beth Hart all in the same playlist. I love catching live shows whenever I can, and on a rainy weekend, I'm probably watching a thriller/horror movie or gaming (usually Black Ops Zombies, GTA, or Assassin's Creed).
Outside of that, I enjoy hiking, exploring new places, being near the water, and getting away for the occasional weekend to reset. I have two very curious cats (Copper and Luna) who are always nearby. If we work together, you'll probably meet them!
You've been holding your breath around food for years. It's time to exhale.
