Jennifer F. Williams

I have a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education with emphasis in Sports Injury Management and a Master’s degree in Health Education with a strong Exercise Physiology emphasis both from the University of South Alabama. I worked as a Certified Athletic Trainer for about 9 years both on the field and in a clinical setting. I ended up having to make a transition from athletic training after my life had a major unexpected change. I became a widowed/single mom with my two children ages 3 and 5 years old. I needed a job that was less demanding of my time. So, I ended up making a career change to become a Physical Therapist Assistant and went back to school at Pensacola State College in 2010. I became a licensed PTA in 2012 and loved what I was doing for years. I even had the privilege and honor of teaching part-time in the PTA program I graduated. Many years later, I became more and more frustrated with working in Physical Therapy realm because I started realizing so many of my patients needed more hands-on muscle release techniques and found my hands were tied in Physical Therapy. I decided to go back to school, yet again, while still working as a PTA in home health to become a Massage Therapist. I graduated from Pensacola State College’s massage therapist program in Spring 2020 and was licensed 2 months later. Massage therapy is where I fell in love with healthcare again and knew I had found my calling. I attribute my success in massage therapy to my background with Kinesiology, Athletic Training, and Physical Therapy. While attending James Waslaski’s complex shoulder training class, he kept mentioning his friend Erik Dalton. I looked him up and started watching his online videos on Facebook and his YouTube channel and I knew this is what I wanted to learn. On a Florida FB group for massage therapists, I kept seeing posts about Dalton’s class from one of Dalton’s instructors, Tammy McCue. I looked her up and saw that she too had the same credentials as I. I reached out to Tammy. She took the time to talk to me about MAT and knew this was my next educational journey. At the end of 2022, I decided to buy the entire MAT library. I took my 1st MAT class in March 2023 from Scott Oglesbay and fell in love with the techniques and training. The teaching assistants in my classes were helpful and amazing as well. I decided to attended the OKC workshop to train from the man himself, I got to meet Erik Dalton! I also got to see familiar teaching assistant faces and became friends. I was so excited and hungry to learn. I decided I wanted to take my last hands-on training class with Tammy because she was a big part of my discovering Dalton’s MAT classes. I wanted to receive my MMT certification from Tammy to complete the circle. I love the explanations of the techniques in the videos with demonstrations and alternate techniques if needed. I love how I learned to incorporate them into my daily bodywork sessions. Nerve Entrapment videos really changed my way of thinking. I also loved the case study videos in the MAT learning library. I am 47 years old and needed a way to work smarter, not harder since I am not a young LMT and want to still be able to do the therapeutic bodywork to get my clients out of pain. I wish I would have made this career change sooner but I have really achieved a level of learning like never before. I have only been a LMT for 3 ½ years and still have so much more I want to learn. MAT work has improved my ability to work smarter and not harder. I had to break myself of some bad habits of bulldozing through tissues. I learned how to get positive results without wearing myself out or “beating up” my clients. I learned how to better read the body and understand what I was feeling under my hands. I have so many clients referring their friends and family to me. I even have former PTA students (now licensed) that will refer some of their patients to me when they need more bodywork than what PT can offer. I suggest spending time watching Dalton’s free videos on Facebook and his YouTube channel to get an idea of the teachings and techniques. Sign up for Dalton’s Technique Tuesday for a weekly learning experience. I was looking for something to fulfill my practice and MAT techniques were the answer I had been looking for all this time. Erik Dalton’s MAT techniques gave me a whole new set of skills, knowledge, perspective, and tools to help my clients more effectively and efficiently.

Jennifer Williams
Cantonment, Florida