Matthew brings 20 years of experience in human service fields helping people find their true selves through understanding what diverted the course of true self expression in the first place. Often life presented hindrances early and often: important relationships that did not meet your basic needs, either by not understanding you, or through outright disregard of who you were and what you needed. Better understanding the impact of those experiences helps us forge the way toward a truer self which feels authentic, which will steadfastly weather emotional turmoil, and which will find deep gratification in life’s pursuits: intimate relationships, employment, leisure. After insight, another part of our work involves finding concrete steps to manage the symptoms of false-self adaptations: a compromised sense of agency, reduced self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and repetitive unsatisfying relationship patterns. Apart from early formational relationships, another pathway toward these life-impeding symptoms can emerge from negative life events: trauma, relationship rupture (i.e. break-up, divorce, interpersonal conflict), employment termination, or confusion in professional direction. These events also greatly impede the ability to go through life mindfully, confidently, and with a clear sense of purpose. Whatever the source of your particular struggles, we can chart a course through them with a collaborative plan involving both insight and skill building. We can move from despair into hopefulness, from lack of control to agency, ultimately arriving at solutions that are consistent with your values and in harmony with your true self.
Areas of Expertise: Matthew’s primary areas of expertise include 1) individuals and couples struggling with unsatisfying personal relationships; 2) people who have experienced themselves as ineffective, and have, as a result, a low sense of self-esteem, and perhaps who also have difficulty controlling their own emotional responses to the ebb and flow of life; 3) veterans and individuals who have experienced trauma, and are struggling to manage the symptoms which emerge from traumatic events; 4) families and couples who are working toward finding union and balance, in which both the person and the system can thrive; 5) any type of athlete, performer, or professional who is finding obstructions to optimal performance. Toward this end, Matt is the founder of Altius Performance Works, offering services for performers of all stripes. For more information on this work please visit: https://matthew-munich.squarespace.com, where you can also find his blog “Floating & Stinging” on facing and mastering impediments to peak performance.
Professional Positions: Matthew has worked in general mental health settings at several levels of acuity: in-patient, day-treatment, and outpatient settings, where he has treated the spectrum of mental health presentations. Matthew has also worked in community agencies where he helped victims of violence recover from the symptoms emerging from those experiences. He has most recently worked at the general mental health clinic Veterans Hospital in Bedford, MA, where, in addition to working on posttraumatic stress disorder in its acute and chronic forms, he also worked with couples, mood disorders, and veterans experiencing upheavals in life circumstances. Matt has received advanced training in several evidence-based trauma protocols, including several cognitive behavioral protocols, and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), a modality useful for those with severe emotional regulation problems. Matthew has also received advanced training in the use of yoga, yogic techniques and mindfulness practices in the service of providing relief for a host of mental health presentations.
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