MATT BACHMANN, LMSW

In my practice, I collaborate with my clients to build a safe and affirming therapeutic space from which we can explore difficult feelings and past experiences with curiosity and compassion. I work with children, adolescents, and adults struggling with loss, difficult transitions, depression, anxiety, or traumatic experiences.

Music has played a central role in my life and allows me to incorporate creativity, deep listening, and playfulness into my therapy practice. I often use art and music as alternative forms of expression, understanding, and communication. I invite my clients to also bring their full selves to our sessions, weaving in humor, play, and their interests to enrich our work together.

My work with children and families draws from Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment (SMART). I use this attachment and nervous system framework to help children feel more regulated and help families strengthen their connection and communication. I am also trained in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), incorporating self-reflective and trauma-informed elements into my practice. My work with adults is experiential, focusing not only on thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, but also integrating what’s coming up in the body, to create more lasting change.

I earned my MSW from the Hunter College School of Social Work, graduating with honors in a trauma-focused program created by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). Before entering private practice, I worked with children, adolescents, and families at the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and with unhoused adults at Breaking Ground’s Williamsburg Safe Haven. Before my work as a therapist, I taught music at private schools, led after-school rock bands for adolescents, and taught private lessons for children, adolescents, and adults. I maintain a fruitful musical practice, writing, performing, and recording music and working as a mastering engineer.