About Matt

Motivated by my own personal struggle with anxiety as a young adult and informed by two decades of teaching mindfulness and emotional intelligence in schools, my message is simple: Through increased awareness, knowledge, and skill, you have the ability to transform stress and adversity into emotional strength and resilience.

Through keynotes, workshops, and advising, I have shared this message with Fortune 500 executives, collegiate and professional athletes, and school districts across the country. I am also the author of The Mindful Breathing Workbook for Teens (2021) and Education and Well-Being: An Ontological Inquiry (2016). My work has been featured on TEDx, NPR, Thrive Global, and the National Wellness Institute.

What do I do?

I teach research-based mindfulness and self-regulation tools so that people can live richer, more fulfilling lives.

Why do I do this work?

My professional journey is rooted in my personal journey. Early in life, I earned a “black belt” in the art of stress and anxiety. I was fortunate to find a way to translate my personal search for a better life into a professional mission to help others do the same.

What makes me qualified to do this work?

I think I bring a rare blend of personal, professional, and academic experience and insight to this work. Sometimes, “experts” view emotional dysregulation from a distance because they’re not personally familiar with it. That’s not the case for me—so I have a keen sense of what works and what doesn’t, and I can talk about the topic in an accessible way because I have lived it.

Why is this work important?

An increasingly stressful world combined with a lack of self-regulation tools steals our health, well-being, and personal/professional potential.

What’s my solution?

Increase the ability to identify, understand, and skillfully manage emotions, especially stress.

What’s the benefit?

No one wants live a life characterized by an abundance of avoidable suffering and diminished capacity—but simply not wanting it doesn’t ensure that you won’t get it. This is where learning skills and developing a self-regulation practice come into the picture. By bolstering your self-regulation skills, you can avoid unnecessary discomfort and suffering and enhance all the positive features of yourself and your life. Sounds pretty awesome, right?