My Approach to Helping
Hi, I’m Matt. It's great to be with you. I’m proud of you for summoning the rare courage to take this meaningful step on your healing journey. I know it feels scary to be open, honest and vulnerable with someone new. You're not alone – I’m here to help you feel safe.
When we feel safe, we can open up and honestly express our thoughts and feelings. When we open up we can finally put down what we’ve been carrying. In therapy, you get to take the filter off. You get to let it all out. Doing so gives us perspective, it allows us to see things differently. This is the first step of building awareness, empowerment and freedom from the thoughts that make us feel like we’re not good enough. Here’s the thing though: you are good enough and you always have been. Over time, working together, I know you’ll see yourself like this as well. Therapy will empower you to start a new chapter as the conscious author of your own story.
I know why you’re here. Something is happening to you that is overwhelming your capacity to cope as you always have before. Moments like this are a fork in the road. Will we choose the well-trodden path of soldiering on as we always have? Or, will we conjure the bravery to try something new? When I’ve faced the same, these words of wisdom have served me well. “Our lives are actually defined by how we make use of our moments of greatest adversity.” Everything you’ve already overcome to bring you to this moment, has given you all you need for the journey ahead. This path will lead you to who you were always meant to be.
Being a therapist is my true calling. Personal mental health challenges as a young adult exposed me to the healing power and transformative potential of therapy. I know what it feels like for debilitating mental health challenges to upend your plans and life. I know what it feels like to wonder if you’ll ever be on the other side.
My own experience profoundly changed me – it opened my heart. It gave me a deep well of empathy and respect for all those who suffer from mental health challenges. And so, I devoted my life to helping others suffering as I had.
That led me to Columbia University where I completed my graduate education and worked for a decade in the mental health field in New York. During this time, I’m grateful to have been able to work with so many clients from diverse backgrounds. I value inclusion in my practice and welcome diversity in all its beautiful forms. We all come from different upbringings and each person has a different world view, meaning different crises break them down in different ways. You know, whatever brought you here today. But, what’s the same is that a crisis can always be a catalyst for transformational growth. I’ve lived through these cycles personally and I’ve guided clients just like you through them professionally. Now, it’s your turn.
Of all the ways my clients have expressed that working with me has changed their lives, I’m most proud when I hear that our work together showed them what therapy can, and should, be. Let me take you through how I work with my clients at McDavid Creative Therapy:
It starts by validating the real mental health challenges my clients experience, but not to the point where a diagnosis becomes one’s identity.
Next, I build on this foundation by helping my clients see that the mental health challenges they are experiencing stem from what happened to them, rather than what’s wrong with them. This simple re-framing has a profound ripple. It allows us to unlock compassion and pride for ourselves and release misplaced shame and blame.
Finally, I introduce clients to a strength-based mindset where they can learn to accept all of their feelings, especially, the ones that make them uncomfortable. There are no bad feelings. All of our feelings are always trying to help us.
This framing makes it possible to greet our “negative” feelings as friends. When we allow ourselves to be present and connect with our feelings we can reconnect to ourselves and unlock joy.
I’ve seen time and time again that my different approach does more than just relieve painful symptoms -- it leads to peace, love and compassion. Our work together will show you how this can happen for you.
