The client reaches for something on a shelf, bends forward, or turns to look over their shoulder. Before the movement even begins, the brain signals pain. The client’s muscles tighten, their breath catches, they hesitate, and then compensate to find a workaround to finish the task.

The injury healed months ago, but the brain didn’t get the memo. What began as necessary protection has become a learned motor response that keeps the pain pattern going.

When we choose methods that disrupt the brain’s faulty pain predictions, clarify the brain’s sensory map of the body, modulate pain sensations, and give clients a sense of safety and control, the brain quickly learns to expand its ideas about what movement means.  

• Nociception VS Pain. Separate nociception from pain, and learn how memory, expectation, attention, and context tilt the brain’s threat call one way or the other.
• Proprioceptive Richness. Learn how stacking compression, tension, shear, torsion, and rhythm into one technique recruits more receptor types than any single force could alone.
• Novel Stimulation. Learn why the brain treats a dense, unfamiliar sensory pattern as worth paying attention to, and how that attention opens the door to changing old pain patterns.
• Disrupt the Brain’s Faulty Predictions. Choose methods that disrupt the brain’s faulty movement predictions and down-regulate an over-active nervous system.
• Clarify the Body’s Map. Choose methods that help the brain clarify its sensory map of the body to overcome sensory amnesia – what researchers call “cortical smudging.”
• Modulate Pain. Choose methods that immediately modulate pain and introduce sensory input that creates opportunities for clients to explore previously painful ranges.
• Coaching from MAT Educators. Practice MAT techniques with expert coaching from MAT educators and organize techniques into categories that match client pain patterns.

New to MAT? The method categories help you organize what you learn, while the pain-science framework shows you why each type of input matters. If brain-based bodywork is new to you, this workshop will revolutionize how you think about pain.

Already practicing MAT? You already know the power of brain-based bodywork. Now, you’ll better connect the techniques you love to a client’s movement predictions, compensation patterns, protective motor responses, and confidence in movement.