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Matthew is a dedicated massage practitioner and instructor who has been honing his craft as a hobbiest, enthusiast and explorer since his mid-grade school years in 1989.
Growing up in rural Virginia, Matthew was introduced to the world of bodywork through a severe muscle injury at age 11, teaching himself in the years that followed how to successfully restore his body despite constant professional discouragement that nothing would help.
By high school graduation Matthew was already an effective practitioner, and after a brief detour through James Madison University for a Bachelor's in Computer Science, and a corporate stint as a software developer for The Rosetta Stone, he returned to his path as a healer, attending the Virginia School of Massage to become a licensed therapist in 2003.
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Matthew was soon after initiated into the Thai healing traditions by Pierce Salguero of the Tao Mountain School of Traditional Thai Massage, and was so enamored by this holistic approach to bodywork that he converted nearly overnight. Following advanced trainings, internships and assistant teaching positions with Pierce, Matthew was certified as an instructor by the Tao Mountain School in late 2004. He then traveled to Thailand many times in the following years to study with honored instructors and institutions, most notably the "Old Medicine Hospital" (or Shivagakomarpaj Institute), Wat Pho, the Lek Chaiya Nervetouch School, and Pichest Boonthumme in Hang Dong.
Alongside learning Thai traditions, Matthew has completed training as a yoga instructor with Yoga Works in 2007, adding new perspectives in body awareness and movement therapy to his practice. Following a research trip to Thailand that same year, Matthew enrolled with the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration where he became fully aware of the body's interconnective myofascial body. With the help of Advanced Rolfer Thomas Myers' work on myofascial meridians, "Anatomy Trains," Matthew recognized similar threads of energy manipulated by Thai, myofascial and structural therapists, and has since worked to understand how they are entwined to bring this complementary knowledge to his students and clientele.
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