Bio

Matt Erb, physiotherapist, owner of Embody Your Mind, has a passion for helping others understand the science of mind-body medicine, stress, trauma, and integrative wellness. Matt has extensive experience in health care, non-profit management, population-wide/public health initiatives, and much more. For over 15 years, Matt has served in many roles for the Washington D.C. based NGO, The Center for Mind-Body Medicine, including Faculty, Senior Faculty, Clinical Lead, Consultant, Project Advisor, Associate Clinical Director, and Communications Specialist.

Matt was born and raised in Iowa and received his Bachelor’s (Biology) and Master’s (Physical Therapy) degrees from the University of Iowa. Upon graduating he spent many years learning, healing, and working in Minneapolis, where the extreme climate served an integral role in his own healing process. In 2014 he traded one extreme climate for another and made the move to his present location in Tucson, where the Sonoran Desert now serves as a mirror and teacher to his inner world.

In Matt’s clinical practice of integrative-minded physiotherapy, he has worked extensively with persons experiencing acute and chronic health conditions using an integrative (holistic/whole-person, and mind-body integrated) model of care. He works with all forms of chronic pain, migraines, headache, craniofacial and spinal disorders, dizziness and vertigo (vestibular conditions), chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and many more. Early in his career he saw strong links between stress, emotions, and cognitive patterns and the physical symptoms and diagnoses that his patients were experiencing and saw that his training had inadvertently reinforced a pervasive split between mind and body in healthcare. Since those early years, Matt has studied tirelessly to develop novel ways of breaking down this paradigm and offering patients an experience that sees and cares for the whole person. Matt is an international leader in advancing the role of physiotherapy in mental health care in the US, and co-founded the PT in Mental Health Health Catalyst group with the American Physical Therapy Association, leading to the US becoming a member nation of the International Organization for Physiotherapy in Psychiatry and Mental Health. Matt serves on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the first ever journal devoted to this topic, and is a peer reviewer for multiple academic journals. In recognizing the profound intersection of climate change and mental/physical health, Matt is active with the Environmental Physiotherapy Association alongside other climate-focused organizations such as the International Transformational Resilience Coalition, 350.org, Sustain Our Abilities, and the Planning and Conservation League of California.

In addition to the preceding clinical and professional work, Matt is a guest lecturer for many academic programs and institutions, including teaching regularly for The University of Arizona/Banner University physician residency programs (Family Medicine, Psychiatry). Matt is also an instructor for the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and has served as an Advisor with Sharing Culture, an organization devoted to increasing awareness around historical trauma in minoritized, racialized, aboriginal, and indigenous populations. Matt has worked extensively with tribal/indigenous persons to support the ongoing rematriation of all that has been taken and wounded through the devastating impacts of colonialism, genocide, and cultural genocide. Matt is an outspoken advocate for effectively addressing upstream determinants of health (social determinants, racism, systemic factors, etc.) and works with dozens of other professionals including mostly closely with Dr. Noshene Ranjbar and Keemia Consulting to address individual and community-based stress and trauma healing networks and initiatives around the globe.

For additional information including to request a full curriculum vitae, please email. You can also find me on LinkedIn.

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