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Photo of Matt Vest's office with loveseat, chairs, rug, and plants.

How I can help:

I love working with clients who are facing the kinds of existential dilemmas we all have to grapple with: finding meaning, facing grief, or fear and anxiety around death and illness, making life decisions and coping with transitions, dealing with loneliness, and connecting with others. I see these basic anxieties as challenges to face as we define ourselves. I want to help people take responsibility for their lives, to tame the darkness, and find meaning to light their way through it.

I believe self-acceptance and self-compassion form the doorway to personal growth. The founder of person-centered psychotherapy, Carl Rogers once wrote the following: “The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” I believe that helping clients come to this understanding is fundamental to successful psychotherapy, and I believe it starts with the therapeutic relationship. To help the people I work with, I believe compassion and empathy are crucial. I want to meet them where they are, accept who they are and what they’re experiencing, and to get curious about how they see the world. I also want to show up as my authentic self, transparent and open, to build trust and to invite my clients to join me in that openness. By honestly accepting the person in front of me for who they are, I hope to serve as a model for them to learn to do the same.


I hope to serve as a co-explorer on your journey of self-discovery and healing­—bringing tools, fresh perspectives, compassion, insight, and inspiration. The core of my work is existential psychology, which emphasizes exploring fundamental questions about existence, including freedom and choice, meaning, responsibility, death anxiety, and the experience of being human. I also employ evidence-based interventions such as mindfulness, and elements from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples (EFT), Attachment Theory, Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), Person-Centered Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Psychodynamic Theory, and Motivational Interviewing (MI).

In addition, I have completed specialized training in Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) and am available to assist adult clients with preparation, experiential, and integration aspects of that work. KAP is a form of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) using ketamine, a dissociative psychedelic drug, provided through a licensed prescriber. It has been used effectively for the treatment of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress (PTS or PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and other mental health conditions, and is often considered when other treatments have been ineffective. 

I also have a special interest in supporting those who have chosen to use psychedelics for personal, spiritual, or other reasons, as well as those who have had difficult or traumatic psychedelic experiences. For these clients I can offer help with psychoeducation, harm-reduction, and assistance with integrating and processing psychedelic experiences. 

See my FAQ for more on KAP and psychedelic harm-reduction support.

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I have also completed basic training in Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) for the treatment of trauma.

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My Commitment to Client Autonomy and Client-Led Therapy:

I consider empathy, acceptance, openness, ideological flexibility, and curiosity to be my greatest strengths as a therapist. I feel comfortable working with people from all religious, spiritual, and non-religious perspectives, as well as all political perspectives, ages, sexual orientations, and ethnic or gender identities. I am happy supporting people in bettering themselves according to whatever personal or cultural values, beliefs, or traditions they hold sacred and/or important, and I welcome challenging conversations around these topics with clients.
 

Other clients I enjoy working with:
 

  • Those working on spiritual growth. I consider myself a spiritual person, with nuanced views on the topic, and deep and varied experience in my own spiritual exploration, landing ultimately on a kind of gentle holding of two experiences: A not-knowing-agnosticism, and a deep feeling and intuition of universal connection and oneness. I love helping others find their own way along their unique spiritual paths.

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  • Aviation Professionals. In adolescence, I developed an abiding and lifelong interest in aviation. I still enjoy playing with flight simulators in VR from time to time. (You may notice I named my pllc "Deep Flight." This reflects a call I have always felt to "slip the surly bonds of Earth," but also to go deep within.)

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  • Artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creatives. My previous career was in film editing and filmmaking, and I have always been a lover of and dabbler in creative fiction, poetry, photography, and art. I am fascinated by the creative process and enjoy helping people explore their relationship with their creative selves.

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I work with individuals (of at least 13 years of age) and couples. I am in network with Aetna insurance, and I offer sliding scale options for qualifying clients. Please reach out if you think I might be able to help!
 

(To set up a consultation, please fill out my contact form.)

(For more information on fees and sessions, see Frequently Asked Questions)

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