From the couple months of seeing Dr. Matt Gomes in online sessions, I've come to see him as an incredibly impersonal and uncaring therapist. I was interested in seeing how things would work with him since I've never been with a male therapist before, but very quickly on I noticed "red flags" with how he communicates and helps his clients. In one of our earlier sessions I told him how I was feeling guilt and sadness over the recent loss of my father, and he simply responded by saying "you just gotta stop feeling sad cause your dad wouldn't want you to." Obviously, that message is good overall but I feel therapy is the time to unpack all that stuff so I can move on. Instead, I just felt shut down by him, like I shouldn't even talk about my dad at all. As we did more and more sessions it felt more and more like I was simply a paycheck for Matt and not really a person he cared for. He would frequently forget simple things about me like where I live and what problems I've been going through in my life. When I would talk about the problems going on in my life the conversations often felt one sided, with me doing most the talking. I'd even have to press Matt and ask for specific advice or thoughts on the situations because he would get so quiet in the calls. Things finally ended between me and Matt after a session we had right after the holidays. At the start of the session I asked him about his Christmas with his family and Matt quickly shut down my attempts at a conversation and said "this is a waste of time for both of us cause right now we're just chitchatting. The insurance doesn't like me helping people who don't actually want help." I was just a little dumbfounded by the whole situation and ended up canceling our schedule and ending the call 10 minutes into the session. A week later I realized I never got a letter for an emotional support animal from Matt, which was something I had mentioned to him earlier and he expressed no problem doing for me. I texted Matt about the letter and Matt made me explain why I thought I needed it just to shut me down and write that he couldn't justify writing the letter cause I'm not anxious or depressed enough since I'm not in therapy with him. Overall, I feel like Matt is in this for the money when therapy should really be about the patients. He has shown very little care for me despite me being with him for more than enough time to build a relationship. I do not recommend Matt to anyone who's looking for a therapist that will listen to their problems and provide thoughtful support. read more

I've been a client of Dr. Matt Gomes for a little over two years. In that time, I've talked with Matt about my relationship with my wife, my colleagues at work (tech industry), my son, and several foster children that have lived in my home. In this time, Matt's turned into essentially a life coach for me. Most weeks are focused on how best to handle things going forward and maintenance, but once in a while something just really throws me off and it's helpful to have this in place. Just this week for example, I found myself in an argument with my wife. I came in just furious about it and talked to Matt. He listened and asked questions about how I felt, he offered some ideas of what might have triggered the situation, gave some insight into why my wife might be acting that way, and offered some possible strategies of how to deal with it. By the end of the session I felt pure relief. Instead of feeling angry at my wife I felt actual sympathy for her and want to help her through it. He challenges me, and gets me consider other perspectives, which honestly is no easy task. Being a parent while holding down a job is challenging, but being a foster parent adds another layer of stress to it. These kids can feel abandoned, lonely, angry, and responsible for it all, on top of experiencing serious abuse and neglect in their past. They can take it out on everyone around them and it's hard as a foster parent to deal with. My wife and I see these big reactions (threatened me with a scaling hot frying pan, shattered the glass kitchen table, suicidal ideation, etc.) and often have different ideas of how to handle it, which turned into a huge stress within our marriage. Talking to Matt has not only shed light on the child's behavior, but also on some of the issues within my marriage. Matt has tons of experience. He's a husband and a father and has been a therapist for a long time. He has also previously worked in the tech industry and has seen first hand how office politics and personalities can make work miserable. I work at a well known tech company with, perhaps counter-intuitively, some people that are pure nutcases. One of them with a higher engineering position than I have is very into conspiracy theories, is borderline abusive to everyone there, and literally drinks their own urine. This unfortunately is not an exaggeration. I've become excited to come to therapy and talk to Matt about what kind of crazy stuff I saw this week, why it might be happening, and strategize about how to address it. Matt's been a valuable resource for me. He's certainly partially responsible for my marriage still being around and the recent successes I've had at work. I don't write too many reviews on yelp, because I only seldom feel strongly enough about something to write one, so please know it really means something when I give Dr. Gomes my full recommendation. read more

Matt saved my marriage. I have found him to be a well informed professional and a real human in wonderfully helpful ways. He has given my wife and I tools to understand the sources of our conflicts and ways to support each other's growth. We have fallen in love again. I have complete respect for Matt as a gifted therapist with much appreciation for his careful attention, honesty, nuanced advice and his sense of humor. In my experience with therapists, he is the best. read more

About a year ago, I needed to find a therapist for one of my sons who was dealing with some anger issues (he was 15 at the time). Since I didn't have a referral, I called our insurance company to get a list of names. Matt Gomes, MA, PhD, LMFT at the Kiva Spirit Foundation was who we selected to meet with. I called the office first to make sure they would take our insurance and was told that even if there was a problem, they'd still take it, not to worry. So, I had validation from my insurance company and the therapist. After attending the first session, which was sort of an intake, and included me in the room, my son said afterwards he didn't want to go back. One of the reasons, was that Matt treated him like he was much younger and less mature than he was. He also made many assumptions that offended my son. When he asked if he had a sibling, and my son replied that he had a younger brother, he immediately went to the stereotype of sibling rivalry, and said something about, "oh, he must get annoying." My son corrected him and said they are best of friends and always have been. Then he made some comment about secrets and not to worry, that he can talk about stuff in there he doesn't share with me and his secrets will be safe. My son then proceeded to let him know that he doesn't keep secrets from me. He was truly perplexed by all the sterotypes that were just thrown at him, with the basic message that not getting along with your younger brother and keeping secrets from your mom are normal behaviors. An intake is where you get to know someone, not where you tell them who they are. The whole first session was a mess. So, I shared some of this with Matt and agreed to one more session. My son thought the 2nd one was just as bad and really felt like Matt was not a good fit for him. I let Matt know and we parted ways. After that, I got a couple of invoices asking for full payment, which made no sense. I let the office admin know we cleared this before, paid our copayment at both visits, and would not be paying this bill. About a month ago, we got another invoice basically begging us to pay and implying that they would send our unpaid bill to collections. They stated they'd settle for half. So, I sent them the $127.50 and let them know that if they cashed the check, I would feel obligated to post a review on YELP so that other people don't get taken advantage of. Matt might be a decent therapist, if you're looking for textbook psychology. He might as well have been following a script about how to talk to a 15 year old. As most people know in this profession, one size fits all is about the worst position you can take when working with someone so intimately. Matt in my opinion is not a very skilled or thoughtful therapist and took advantage of our family financially. I would never recommend someone like him to anyone. Sometimes, as in the case with my son, people will only go to a therapist once. It was not easy getting him there. He refused to try anyone new after that and now his lasting impression of therapists in general is not a good one. I wish Matt could have been more professional and owned up to not being a good fit for my son. I also wish he hadn't cashed our check. That shows his lack of integrity on top of his poor skills as a therapist. read more

Began seeing Dr Matt Gomes last year. I have only been to one other therapist in my life but my sessions with Dr. Gomes have been leagues above my prior experience. Dr. Gomes encourages you to come out of your comfort zone, which is often where the most important and fulfilling, albeit difficult, work is done. He creates a safe and inviting environment, but simultaneously will be candid with you. You never have to guess what he is thinking as he is upfront with you. I found myself looking forward to sessions as time went on and would not hesitate to recommend him to anyone. I'm thankful that I was referred to him. read more