Matthew Sanford

Rehabilitation & Disability

Healing Mind and Body: For Patients, Families and Personal Caregivers

Using Matthew’s heart-wrenching, real-life story as a template, participants explore the nature of trauma, loss, disability and the meaning of healing other than to cure. They will gain practical insights into how a more integrated mind-body approach can positively impact recovery, outcomes and quality of life. Participants examine the mind-body nature of disability and what it means to maximize healing throughout one's lifetime. This presentation also introduces some basic postural and breathing techniques.

A Mind-Body Approach to Rehabilitation and Long-Term Recovery

Matthew shares his personal experience as a patient to demonstrate the impact a more integrated mind-body approach can have on outcomes, recovery and overall quality of life. Participants gain insight into how outcomes are profoundly affected by the words we use and the stories we tell. Attendees also discover how self-awareness and mind-body behavior in the caregiver are integral to teaching such skills to patients. This presentation is intended for doctors, nurses, rehabilitation professionals and support staff.

Transforming the Relationship Between Caregiver and Patient

Too much therapy is done to the patient, not with the patient. Not only does this put the patient into a passive mode of healing, it drains the caregiver. Matthew uses his unique experience to explore a healthier therapeutic relationship, one where the caregiver can give without sacrificing and the patient can take ownership of his or her own recovery process. In this interactive presentation, Matthew argues that this simple shift from “doing to” the patient to “doing with” the patient is the key to transforming our healthcare system.

FOLLOW-UP WORKSHOPS 

Adapting Yoga for People Living with Disabilities

This workshop showcases what an adaptive yoga class looks and feels like. It is intended for people living with disabilities and their personal and professional caregivers. The goal is for everyone to share in a mind-body practice.
 
Learning to Touch with Mind, Body, and Spirit

This workshop utilizes basic yoga principles of alignment, precision, breath and self-awareness to improve the quality of contact and interaction that we experience with other people.

Waking Mind and Body

Learning to manage one’s mind-body relationship is a secret to living well. This means more than eating well and regular exercise. It means learning to refine and enhance the quality of sensation that is experienced between mind and body. In this workshop, participants learn specific strategies and techniques to refine this level of sensation and utilize it in everyday life. Deepened mind-body awareness not only makes one feel better, it has mental benefits as well.