Matt has a really interesting background and career, and is very knowledgeable. I started to read more about mind-body medicine and it’s clear that he is doing some very interesting stuff. I’m particularly interested in the work that Matt and his wife Noshene Ranjbar are doing in Indian country.
I can see many interesting discussions lie ahead. Thanks for linking up with us, Matt!
‘Matt was born and raised on the Great Plains in northwestern Iowa and grew up with a deep affinity for the history and culture of the Siouan tribes. He and his family were adopted in a traditional hunka (“making of relatives”) ceremony by an Oglala Lakota elder and iyeska (“interpreter”) from Pine Ridge, South Dakota and has since spent many years immersed in the language and spiritual practices of his family and the people.
Matt received his Bachelor’s (Biology) and Master’s (Physical Therapy) degrees from the University of Iowa. Upon graduating he spent over 15 years learning, healing and working in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the extreme weather became a primary teacher and mirror to his own unconscious.
Upon discovering the small group model of mind-body medicine that was taught and developed by Dr. James Gordon and the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, he immediately saw deep parallels between the work and the culture of his adopted community, and has since organised and worked with a team of individuals to expand this work in Indian Country.
Now married to a psychiatrist and native of Iran, the two are working together with others on the vision of expanding awareness and utilization of mind-body medicine and integrative care in indigenous communities impacted by the inter-related effects of both historical and present day trauma.
However, he understands that inter-generational trauma impacts us all to various degrees, regardless of our ethnicity, and brings this understanding into his interactions with all persons.
Matt has a deep experiential understanding of trauma, having navigated many facets of trauma healing himself, and has grown to personally and professionally integrate information and wisdom from many areas including neuroscience, mind-body medicine, psychology, shamanism, ceremony and ritual, bodywork, movement, exercise and many aspects of physical therapy including posture and body language studies.
He has a deep understanding of the biology and neuroscience that underlies the polyvagal theory and speaks regularly on the clinical understandings and practical applications of this.
He works regularly with persons experiencing chronic pain, insomnia, headache, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and other conditions that are marked by dysregulation of the autonomic and central nervous system and finds that the medical community continues to compartmentalize such conditions from comorbid mental health symptoms such as anxiety, depression and PTSD.
He works tirelessly to normalise mental health symptoms and explain the physiology and shared workings of the body and mind. He is also interested in neurophilosophy and the origins of consciousness from the perspective of both the linear and non-linear sciences and is fascinated by the notion of the evolution of individual and collective consciousness.
In addition to his work with the Center for Mind-Body Medicine and his work in Indian Country, he has a passion for educating physical therapists and is working to expand the role of physiotherapy in psychiatry and mental health in the US. He currently maintains a clinical practice as well as a consulting business in mind-body medicine and wellness, and travels regularly from his home base in Tucson, Arizona to learn and teach with others in these fields.’
>> Matt at The Centre for Mind-Body Medicine (scroll down)