Individual Relationship Therapy in Philadelphia

A quick note on fit: this is individual therapy — just you and me — focused on your side of your relationships. If you're looking for couples counseling, I'm glad to point you toward colleagues I trust and refer to often.

Most relationship struggles aren't really about the other person's bad habits — tempting as that theory is. They're about patterns: the way you go quiet and self-sufficient when things get close, the argument that runs the same loop with the words slightly rearranged, the sense that you're carrying it alone, or the slow realization that you keep ending up in the same dynamic with different people.

You can be thoughtful, self-aware, and good at relationships on paper, and still feel stuck in the ones that matter most. Individual therapy is where you work on the one part of any relationship you can actually change: your own.

"Matt has been featured in Vox, VeryWell Mind, and Oprah Daily on relationships, therapy and related topics."

What Relationship Struggles Actually Look Like

This work rarely starts with "I have a relationship disorder." More often it's:

Withdrawing when things get close — going self-reliant or shutting down the moment you actually need someone.
The same argument on a loop — different words, identical ending, no resolution.
Lonely inside the relationship — connected on paper, unseen in practice.
Repeating the pattern — the same kind of partner, or the same dynamic, with different people.
Not knowing what you want — or knowing, and not being able to say it.
Unexplained distance or resentment — a low simmer you can't quite trace.

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The Pattern Underneath (for some people)

Often these patterns are old. The way you learned to connect, protect yourself, ask for things, or read a room — usually shaped long before this relationship, in your earliest ones — tends to show up most vividly with the people you're closest to now. If you grew up managing a parent's moods, earning love by being easy, or learning that needing things led to disappointment, that template doesn't just disappear; it goes quiet and runs in the background. If that thread is there, we'll follow it. If it isn't, we'll work with exactly what's in front of you.

What I Help With

Communication and recurring conflict — the fights that never resolve, and what's actually underneath them.
Emotional distance and disconnection — feeling alone in a relationship, or watching one slowly cool.
Attachment and intimacy patterns — anxious pursuing, avoidant withdrawing, and the dance between them.
Dating and repeating dynamics — understanding why the same story keeps finding you, and writing a different one.
After a breakup or divorce — making sense of what happened so you don't carry it into the next chapter.
Anxiety, resentment, and people-pleasing in relationships — the ways old habits quietly run the show.
Family-of-origin dynamics — adult relationships with parents and siblings, including emotionally immature or difficult family.

How I Work

This is the work I do best: a warm, sharp thinking-partner to help you see your own part clearly — without blame — and actually change it.

A thinking-partner first — we make sense of what's really happening, out loud, with someone in your corner who'll also tell you the truth.
Your part, without blame — the point isn't deciding who's wrong; it's finding the piece you can actually move.
Pattern and attachment work — we connect the present struggle to the template underneath it, and loosen its grip.
Practical tools, where they help — communication and boundary skills, drawn from CBT and emotion-focused work, woven in rather than assigned.
Clarity about what you want — sometimes the work is changing a relationship; sometimes it's getting honest about it.

Who I Typically Work With

My clients are often capable, established adults in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who are great at most things and humbled by intimacy — which is, honestly, most of us.

High-functioning professionals — used to competence at work and surprised by how hard the personal stuff is. Anxiety often travels with this →
Men working on relationships — navigating closeness, conflict, and the pressure to be self-sufficient. Learn more about therapy for men →
People between relationships — using the space to understand their patterns before the next one.
Anyone tired of the loop — ready to stop repeating and start choosing.

What to Expect

‍Free 30-minute video consultation — a low-stakes start: what's going on, how I work, whether it's a fit. No pressure.
Assessment and goal-setting — early sessions clarify the pattern and what you want to be different.
Thinking-partner work — the core: untangling what's happening and your role in it.
Skills and experiments — concrete things to try between sessions, when useful.
Consolidation — the goal is that you carry the insight into your relationships without needing me in the room.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

No. This is individual therapy — one-on-one work on your side of your relationships. If you want couples counseling, I'm glad to refer you to colleagues I trust and work with often.
Yes. You'd be surprised how much a relationship can shift when one person changes how they show up. We work on your part — which is the only part fully in your control anyway.
That's often the best time. We can look at patterns, dating, and what you actually want before the next relationship, rather than in the middle of one.
Schedule a consultation with your therapist in Philadelphia*
It varies, but many clients feel real movement within the first six to ten weeks. We'll set goals early and track them together.
Yes — in person at my Center City office near Rittenhouse Square, and by telehealth across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Washington State.
That's what the consultation is for. I hold dual graduate degrees from Penn, have 15+ years of experience, and do this kind of relational work daily. Come with questions — it's a conversation, not a sales call.

Start Relationship Therapy in Philadelphia

I offer individual relationship therapy in person at my Center City office, steps from Rittenhouse Square, and via telehealth across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Washington State.

If you keep running into the same wall in the relationships that matter most, working it through on your own terms is a good place to start.