November 17, 2025 • 27 mins
Matt Johnson
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On A Winning Heart today (Monday, November 17, 2025), Best-Selling Author, Win C welcomes Matt Johnson. Matt is a hypnotherapist and NLP coach who turned his recovery journey into powerful methods to help others break free from subconscious blocks. After a devastating brain injury left him living in darkness, Matt discovered that hidden PTSD was sabotaging his healing. By rewiring his subconscious with hypnotherapy and NLP, he not only recovered his health, he developed a method for helping others release deeply rooted emotional baggage and transform their lives. To learn more about Matt visit www.mattjohnsonnlp.com
A single moment on wet rock turned Matt’s life into a blur of pain, darkness, and relentless sensitivity to light and sound. What followed wasn’t a quick fix but a decision—cutting off every path except the one that led back to living. We walk through the gritty reality of traumatic brain injury and the quiet
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:03):
Welcome to a different shapes hut, you guys.
And today with me I have Matt.
And I'm gonna let Matt take itaway and share his story.
SPEAKER_00 (00:16):
Hi, I'm Matt Johnson.
I am a hypnotist andneurolinguistic programming
coach, uh, which is basicallyhelping people work with the
operating system of theirbrains.
Uh I got started in this about10 years ago.
I got a severe brain injury.
I was hiking at uh Point Lomatide pools here in San Diego
when I slipped and landed theback of my head on a slab of
(00:39):
solid rock.
I hit so hard my brainrebounded, it hit the top of my
skull, and I twisted the partwith uh above my eyes, my optic
nerve and all that badly.
I can't even describe the pain Iwas in.
If you've ever been zapped byelectricity and felt that
intense pins and needles typefeeling, that's what was going
on in my head.
For several years after that, Iwas so sensitive to light and
(01:01):
sound, I couldn't even be in aroom with the lights on, it was
just too painful.
And you know, I had a room Inicknamed my dungeon.
I had black hefty bags tapedover the windows, and um
basically, you know, in inprison they call it solitary
confinement, and you know, it'sdefinitely not an easy
environment, but I did somethingon day two sitting in that room
(01:25):
uh that got me out of there, andthat was I made a decision.
Now the word decision comes fromthe Latin root day, which means
from and kaider, which means tocut.
I I had uh no clue how I wasgonna get out of there, but I
just I knew I wouldn't stopuntil I got out.
And so I you know started outgoing the medical route.
I had four differentneurologists.
(01:46):
The first one told me, you know,there's nothing I could do for
you, but then tries to scheduleme for a follow-up visit.
And I'm you know thinking tomyself, you know, why would I
come back?
There's nothing you could do forme.
Just, you know, I didn't saythat, but uh just didn't make
sense to me.
The second one gave me a pillthat you know uh maybe worse.
I I called him uh the next dayand he gave me another one, made
me better, took some of thatsting away.
(02:08):
And so I said, Great, you know,um the pain's at least somewhat
gone away.
Can you help me sleep?
Because I I was having these uhbrutal downward spirals where I,
you know, the pain would make itharder to sleep, which made the
pain worse.
And he told me, No, there'snothing I can give you.
So on to neuro number three, anduh right away she told me, Oh
(02:31):
yeah, let me give youamitrictyline, and it worked.
It did the uh did the trick.
I'm beyond grateful to mydoctors, I would not be where I
am without them.
The only reason I tell thatstory is how many people would
have stopped with that firstone.
You know what I mean?
And so uh I I went about a yearand a half, maybe two years, of
(02:51):
just going strictly the medicalroute.
I read every medical study therewas out there on healing a brain
injury.
Um I came up with a three-pagedocument of everything that
helped me, you know, everysingle treatment, everything
from amino acids to hyperbaricoxygen.
If anyone uh listening to thiswould like a copy of that, uh
let me know.
(03:12):
I I also gave a presentation ofit to the San Diego Brain Injury
Foundation where I go throughthe the method behind each one
of those treatments, and uh Igive both away for free.
I just you know you email me,I'll give you a Google Drive
link.
Uh but about that time Irealized that I knew more than
my neurons did on the tinylittle subject of healing a
(03:33):
brain injury, which terrified mebecause I realized that science
was not gonna get me out of thatroom, and so I'd been a skeptic
my whole life, but I startedthinking, you know, more instead
of saying what else is outthere, and lucky for me, I live
in California, so I had a lot ofthings to choose from.
(03:54):
I started getting into energymedicine and things like that.
One of the first things I triedwas called Reiki, and I told you
I had the pins and needles typefeeling in my head that that
electricity.
The best description I can givewas she took those pins and
needles and kind of made themfly in formation, if that makes
sense.
And yeah, it took that stingaway.
(04:16):
And I'm like, Whoa, I have noidea what you're doing, but
please don't stop.
So yeah, at the end of that uhsession, I asked her, you know,
can you teach me how to do this?
And so I spent a few days withher, learned Reiki, and I got
into pranic healing, qigong, uhcivil holistic faith healing, uh
basically anything I could findthat helped me.
(04:37):
I tried to just dive in and youknow, uh learn it.
And I started to turn the tide.
I made it a huge amount ofhealing over the next couple of
years, but I just could not getrid of that light and sound
sensitivity.
And so at this point, I'mthinking, do I have permanent
damage?
And so I found a special type ofbrain scan.
Most MRIs just look at thetissue, which doesn't, if you
(04:59):
have a brain injury, doesn'treally tell you a whole lot.
Uh this uh the scan that I countthat I found was called a spec
done by Dr.
Daniel Amen.
It actually uh maps theelectrical activity in the
brain, and so I went and got myscan.
Long story short, my brain wasokay, but areas that were
supposed to be dark were lit uplike fireworks, and I was
(05:22):
diagnosed with PTSD that day.
Okay, I'd had it my entire lifeor most of my life and never
even realized it.
And if I hadn't gotten the braininjury, I I never would have
even known, most likely.
But um, you know, at that I'dknown I'd had uh you know severe
anxiety issues, and you know,I'd already tried several talk
(05:43):
therapists and meds and thingslike that, and I knew by that
point that wasn't the path forme.
And lucky for me, I'd seen theincredible power of hypnosis
when it helped my dad quitsmoking.
You know, he tried to quit forover 30 years, and you know,
pills, patches, gums, you nameit, failed every single time
until he got hypnotized.
After one session, he told menever even crave cigarettes
(06:05):
again.
Now, you know, this is one ofthe toughest addictions there is
is wipe it right out.
And I was also familiar with uhneurolinguistic programming or
NLP from a guy named TonyRobbins.
And Tony famously had a womanthat had 152 different
personalities, and he wasactually able to integrate her
right there on the spot in about45 minutes.
That's the hourless stuff.
(06:27):
And so you know I uh went to uhyou know NLP and hypnosis
school, wound up gettingquadruple certified, uh, asked
every single instructor I had,you know, the exact same
question, how do you heal PTSD?
And they all tried to help me,but none of them really had the
answer.
And so I, you know, I went backto digging and I spent another
(06:48):
two and a half years justbinging, you know, hypnosis and
NLP courses, and I finally puttogether uh a protocol that uh I
was able to heal myself, and Ifound my calling in the process.
I I love this stuff, and youknow, again, the the brain
injury, I I definitely don'twant another one, but it it gave
me an incredible gift because Iyou know I was on the wrong path
(07:11):
in life until I got it, and itit showed me what I'm supposed
to be doing.
SPEAKER_01 (07:15):
So long-winded answer to tell me about
yourself, but that's and that'sokay, but I um can ask you this
when you say what you are on thewrong path in life, before the
brain injury, what were youdoing?
SPEAKER_00 (07:36):
I was in tech and I I did cybersecurity for uh uh
almost 20 years, and you know,it was it was a living, it
wasn't you know something Ireally uh you know aspired to
be.
It just kind of just kind offell on that career path, you
know what I mean, like a lot ofpeople do.
And so the injury really gave meno choice but to but to heal
(07:58):
myself.
SPEAKER_01 (08:00):
And so you I know you said you have a TBI, but um
how did you exactly get the TBI?
You said that you were hiking.
SPEAKER_00 (08:15):
Yes, I I slipped and landed the back uh my feet came
out from under me, and insteadof learning landing on my rear,
I landed the back of my head ona rock.
Yeah.
Ow.
Yeah, yeah.
That's what I said.
SPEAKER_01 (08:31):
Did you see um did you see stars or did oh yeah,
you black out?
SPEAKER_00 (08:37):
I you know, when I came to, I couldn't open my
physically could not open myeyes for about 20 minutes.
And you know, um, yeah, I gottaken to the hospital and all
that, but yeah, yeah, yeah.
I was in bad shape for yearsafter that.
SPEAKER_01 (08:55):
So what would you say now to people that have are
listening to this that have newtraumatic brain injuries that
are newly injured with atraumatic brain injury?
SPEAKER_00 (09:15):
First thing you have to do is decide.
Um, like I said, you know, whenyou decide you cut off any other
possibility.
I, you know, I had no clue how Iwas gonna get myself out of
there.
I just knew I wasn't gonna stopuntil I found the answer, and
that took me, you know, severaldifferent ways to to finally
make it make it back to livingmy life again.
(09:35):
Um for me, you know, my my kidswere still fairly small, and I I
wanted to get back out and be apart of their life.
You know, I I could hear themoutside the door, but I you know
I wasn't a dad the way I wantedto be.
And um that really is what gaveme the the motivation to keep
trying.
You know, we'll we'll do morefor other people than we will
(09:56):
ourselves sometimes, and thatwas probably the case here.
Yeah, but um it's when youdecide like that, it it that's
the difference between you knowgoing to that first neurologist
and saying, Oh, well, you know,he can't help me, there's
nothing that can be done versusall right, you don't have my
answer, who does?
You know what I mean?
And that's you know, I askedthat question so many times uh
(10:19):
over those years, and you know,it was never uh a straight
process, it was you know a lotof bumps and you know bruises
along the way and um a lot ofyou know uh things that didn't
work, but uh until I came upwith the system that did.
SPEAKER_01 (10:38):
Now, if um people want to get that report you
mentioned earlier, how can theyget it?
Do they go to your website?
Do they click on a special link?
SPEAKER_00 (10:56):
Yeah, you can um uh you can go to my website and um
it it's uh the link will be upthere.
SPEAKER_01 (11:04):
Yeah.
So it's public link.
They don't need to sign in, theydon't need to do any of that.
SPEAKER_00 (11:12):
I'll tell you what, I will give you a special link
for the show notes so they don'tneed a sign in or anything like
that.
Um please.
But um would you like me to doit right now?
SPEAKER_01 (11:25):
Um you can just email you can just text it to me
and I'll put it.
SPEAKER_00 (11:32):
I'll give you the link to the Google Drive so
nobody has to sign in oranything like that, and they can
just access it all they like.
SPEAKER_01 (11:40):
Yeah, because that's amazing that you um healed your
own brain.
And so to this and when was theinjury?
This was 2016.
So do you still feel adverseeffects from the injury um
(12:07):
today?
SPEAKER_00 (12:09):
Sometimes.
As long as usually as long as Ikeep my sleep uh dialed in
pretty well, I'm okay.
Um, there are some days that youknow I you know I do feel the
effects, but um they're tinycompared to what they used to
be.
You know, I'm I'm I would guessI'm probably around 95% healed,
something like that.
SPEAKER_01 (12:29):
Wow, congratulations.
Thank you.
And as we said, go seek medicalhelp.
But as Matt said, also you needto decide for yourself.
SPEAKER_00 (12:46):
Be in the driver's seat, but yeah, definitely get
the medical help you need.
You know, if you get a braininjury, you gotta get a CT scan
that day, you know what I mean,just to make sure you don't have
a brain or anything like that.
But yeah, yeah, listen to yourdoctors, you know.
Uh but if you know, if whatthey're doing uh doesn't work
for you, or um if they if youask them for help and they can't
(13:07):
give it to you, then you know,start looking around for all
right, you don't have my answer,who does?
SPEAKER_01 (13:13):
And who does?
Yeah, yeah.
The pal of Google, the pal of uhGoogle Basically, yeah.
The pal uh the pal of Facebookgroups locally.
I mean, I'm down here inPhoenix, Arizona, with the Mayor
Clinic five minutes away from myhouse.
So yeah, if I um if I had atrailer, I would go to the mayor
(13:38):
clinic.
But yes, sometimes I people thatknow me in real life and people
that know this podcast know thatI have advocates to help me,
know that I'm my own advocate.
Sometimes I get called impatientinsist, and I get called the
(14:01):
terrible patient because I knowwhat I want.
SPEAKER_00 (14:04):
Yeah, yes, exactly.
Yeah, it's we have a thing inour culture where you know if
somebody's got the lab coat andthe piece of paper on the wall,
what they saw what they say goesfor a lot of people.
SPEAKER_01 (14:14):
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (14:16):
The the whole reason I told that story is you know,
the those people that I went to,they all had the same, you know,
basically the same piece ofpaper, probably from different
schools, but they're allneurologists, and you know, they
but they all had differentpieces of the puzzle, you know
what I mean.
The first guy, you know, hadnever dealt with a brain injury
before, that was pretty obvious.
Second guy had the the thirdone, you know, knew a lot more
(14:39):
than the first two.
So it's again, it's it'slistening to your doctors doing
you know what's medicallynecessary always, but you know,
it um if that's not working, ifthat's not getting you where you
want to go, then you you canlisten to your gut.
Yeah, especially if you'redealing with something, you
know, you know, really bigmedical challenge, you know what
(15:02):
I mean?
You've got to take control of itand say, all right, here's where
I'm going, you know, who can getme there?
And you you just keep goinguntil you find, you know, the
right people, the right answers.
SPEAKER_01 (15:14):
It's so funny because I'm dealing with an
injury, my um leg crapsunderneath me because I have zip
palsy.
And I um now as a result have toget uh have to, I want to get a
(15:36):
full hip replacement, but in andout citizens patient insisted on
a full hip replacement.
No, a full hip replacement isthe best option, and I knew that
from the get-go.
So sometimes you have to trustyour own gut.
SPEAKER_00 (15:55):
Yes, absolutely.
And you know, it's one of thethings here in the states, um,
you know, we were very dialedinto Western medicine.
And it when you've got an acutetype situation like that, you've
you've you know you've got abusted hip or something like
that, yeah, they're the bestgame there is.
But if you've got somethingchronic or things like that, I
(16:18):
highly encourage people to checkout energy medicine qigong.
Yeah, the fountain of youth, itis phenomenal.
Um, you know, chronic healing,all that, it's your body is an
electrical device.
When the electricity stopsrunning through your body is
when you take a dirt nap.
And anything that anything thatyou know impedes that
(16:39):
electricity, which you can getblockages and things like that
all the time, uh it's gonna, youknow, it's gonna harm wherever
you know you've got thatblockage.
And you know, Eastern medicine,you know, very much, you know,
you know, qigong, chronichealing, you know, even
acupuncture, it's all aboutopening up the those uh they
call them meridians, they'rebasically the electrical line.
(17:02):
Yeah, but yeah.
Um I'd never been into that kindof thing before.
I you know, I was in desperationmode and and tried it, and I was
uh blown away by you know howmuch it helped.
SPEAKER_01 (17:15):
Exactly, exactly.
Um and and I was gonna say umthe body knows how to heal
itself.
SPEAKER_00 (17:28):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (17:29):
I have many fallen objects in my body, you guys
know that I know.
Um, but the body knows how toheal itself, and it's
interesting because once you puta fallen object in my body, a
little bit of a movement, alittle bit of TLC, the body does
(17:52):
the rest of the healing, and sothe body knows how to heal
itself given time, given theappropriate attention.
SPEAKER_00 (18:42):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I I would add to that, youknow, I I told you I would I'm a
geek on the subconscious.
Um your subconscious is is whatruns all that, it controls
everything.
You don't have to think aboutyour breathing, heartbeat, body
temperature, how much insulinyou create after a meal, all
that.
And it also controls thathealing process.
And just to give you an idea ofthe power of the subconscious, I
(19:05):
the research has shown that youknow it can reprogram your DNA,
literally.
Uh Bruce, uh Dr.
Bruce Lipton in Biology Belief.
And uh back way back in the day,Dr.
Bernie Siegel from Yale did somereally fascinating research with
multiple personality disorder,where he saw patients' eye color
change, and physical markings,scars, and things would
(19:25):
disappear and reappear dependingon what personality was coming
through.
That's how powerful yoursubconscious is.
Um, we we've all heard about theplacebo effect, and you know, it
it's been shown to have up a upto a 70% cure rate in clinical
drug trials when patients aregetting nothing but a sugar
pill, just the belief thatthey're getting something is
(19:46):
usually, you know, not usually,but a lot of times enough to
actually heal, you know,whatever the malady is.
But um the more I learn aboutit, the more I'm just you know
uh astounded by how how powerfulthe subconscious mind is.
I I remember, you know, when Iwas sitting in a dark dungeon.
If you've ever seen that movie,The Secret, somebody sent this
(20:08):
to me, you know, after I got myinjury.
But um there was a guy who wasin a plane crash, all he could
do was blink his eyes, and thatthat's the way he communicated.
Uh, and he told the nurses thatway, I'm gonna walk out of here.
And they're like, Yeah, right,you're never getting out of this
bed.
He walked out of there, and it'sjust you know, he started just
(20:31):
by breathing deep and you know,um you know, working the one
thing that he could control andjust gradually expanded, you
know, one of you know, babysteps, putting one foot in front
of the other.
Yeah, but yeah, yeah, that'sthat's the incredible power you
have at your disposal.
It's just you know, that powercan be negative and work against
(20:52):
you, or you can harness it andand really, you know, do things
that will astound you.
SPEAKER_01 (20:58):
Sometimes I think it's mind of a man.
SPEAKER_00 (21:01):
Absolutely.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:03):
It is mind of Amanda.
And as we end this fabulousinterview, where can people find
you?
Where could people get a hold ofyou if they choose to do so?
SPEAKER_00 (21:15):
Oh, sure.
It's uh my website is MattJohnson N L P.
That'sM-A-T-T-J-O-C-N-S-O-N-N-LP.
Uh, I help, you know, I told youI, you know, I healed my PTSD.
Um, I help people with you knowmental emotional baggage, things
like that.
You know, if anybody's gotquestions about brain injuries,
things like that, I'm I'm morethan you know open to helping
(21:38):
you out.
Uh Wynn, I'll send you thoselinks uh to uh to the document
to the presentation.
So uh you can put those in theshow notes if you like.
SPEAKER_01 (21:47):
And yeah.
And Matt, I know you havequestions for me.
SPEAKER_00 (21:55):
Uh what would you say, um what would you say has
been a gift in in in yourjourney and your, you know, I I
know you have cerebral uh palsy.
I I've worked with people likeyou know, I've worked with
dyslexics and things like that.
I mean, some of the most famouspeople you can think of have
(22:16):
been dyslexic, you know, DaVinci, Walt Disney, Richard
Branson, uh, you know, uh,you've if you've seen that Ray
Charles movie, you know what Imean?
He incredible music talent,probably because he was blind,
you know what I mean?
So, I mean, what has been, youknow, the superpower or the you
know the silver lining behindwhat you've gone through?
SPEAKER_01 (22:37):
The superpower.
Um, people think that I alwayspeople think that I will always
have a negative attitude.
Why me?
Why do I have a disability?
Why do I need a hip replacement?
So on and so forth.
(22:58):
But the truth is I try myhardest to keep a positive
attitude.
Yes, it's pain some days, andother days it's perfectly fine.
But I tried my hardest to keep apositive attitude towards
(23:21):
everything.
SPEAKER_00 (23:23):
Yeah, that is so important because you know that
that literally shapes yourbiochemistry.
You know what I mean?
It's you know, when you've gotnegative emotions uh going on in
your nervous system, your bodyliterally becomes more acidic,
and which makes your, you know,makes you more vertical,
basically.
And breaks you down.
So keeping that positiveattitude is is huge.
(23:44):
Um, I I'm gonna date myselfhere.
I I remember, you know, back inthe early 1980s, my parents got
us a uh one of those Atari 2600video games, and it had a switch
on it for novice versus expertmode.
And if you put on expert mode, agame that made the game way
harder for you in some way.
Um I I have a belief that lifeis kind of like that.
(24:06):
You know, the some of us come inhere in expert mode, and you
know, it's it just if you knowI'm fascinated by it, and I I
have so much admiration for youknow everybody who comes through
uh life that way.
I I truly believe you're you'rehere to learn something special
or you know, leave somethingspecial, and you know, I I
(24:27):
applaud you for everythingyou're doing.
SPEAKER_01 (24:30):
Well, I appreciate that now, and I'm coming to find
out that my gift followed medown to Arizona, it's now
following me into rehab in thehospital where I'm going to
continue doing content.
(24:53):
I just won't do it in thehospital per se because hospital
wife I is icky.
But um I really feel like mygift followed me, my job, and
then my gift followed me down toArizona.
SPEAKER_00 (25:14):
I believe that.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I just like I said, I Iadmire what you're doing so
much.
Uh it's you're an inspiration toa lot of people.
You're you're showing what'spossible.
SPEAKER_01 (25:24):
Well, I appreciate that.
And as we wrap this interviewup, you guys, I hope that you
enjoyed another fabulousinterview, and I certainly did.
And if you want to reach out toMatt, please do.
We'll have all that informationin the show notes, plus his
(25:45):
presentation that he did to theum the uh San Diego Brain Injury
Foundation.
San Diego Brain InjuryFoundation.
And that's awesome.
And if you look up supportgroups for brain injuries,
(26:06):
there's a ton of them, includingprobably here in Arizona.
I know that um the BellsNeurological Clinic here in
Phoenix has one.
I just Google brain injuriesboard groups.
And because you're not alone inthis journey, you're definitely
(26:31):
not alone.
And so if you want to reach outto Matt, please do.
We'll have all his informationin the show notes.
And I hope you guys enjoyed andalso have to listen to you.
Thanks to you guys.
Bye you guys.
Welcome to a different shapes hut, you guys.
And today with me I have Matt.
And I'm gonna let Matt take itaway and share his story.
SPEAKER_00 (00:16):
Hi, I'm Matt Johnson.
I am a hypnotist andneurolinguistic programming
coach, uh, which is basicallyhelping people work with the
operating system of theirbrains.
Uh I got started in this about10 years ago.
I got a severe brain injury.
I was hiking at uh Point Lomatide pools here in San Diego
when I slipped and landed theback of my head on a slab of
(00:39):
solid rock.
I hit so hard my brainrebounded, it hit the top of my
skull, and I twisted the partwith uh above my eyes, my optic
nerve and all that badly.
I can't even describe the pain Iwas in.
If you've ever been zapped byelectricity and felt that
intense pins and needles typefeeling, that's what was going
on in my head.
For several years after that, Iwas so sensitive to light and
(01:01):
sound, I couldn't even be in aroom with the lights on, it was
just too painful.
And you know, I had a room Inicknamed my dungeon.
I had black hefty bags tapedover the windows, and um
basically, you know, in inprison they call it solitary
confinement, and you know, it'sdefinitely not an easy
environment, but I did somethingon day two sitting in that room
(01:25):
uh that got me out of there, andthat was I made a decision.
Now the word decision comes fromthe Latin root day, which means
from and kaider, which means tocut.
I I had uh no clue how I wasgonna get out of there, but I
just I knew I wouldn't stopuntil I got out.
And so I you know started outgoing the medical route.
I had four differentneurologists.
(01:46):
The first one told me, you know,there's nothing I could do for
you, but then tries to scheduleme for a follow-up visit.
And I'm you know thinking tomyself, you know, why would I
come back?
There's nothing you could do forme.
Just, you know, I didn't saythat, but uh just didn't make
sense to me.
The second one gave me a pillthat you know uh maybe worse.
I I called him uh the next dayand he gave me another one, made
me better, took some of thatsting away.
(02:08):
And so I said, Great, you know,um the pain's at least somewhat
gone away.
Can you help me sleep?
Because I I was having these uhbrutal downward spirals where I,
you know, the pain would make itharder to sleep, which made the
pain worse.
And he told me, No, there'snothing I can give you.
So on to neuro number three, anduh right away she told me, Oh
(02:31):
yeah, let me give youamitrictyline, and it worked.
It did the uh did the trick.
I'm beyond grateful to mydoctors, I would not be where I
am without them.
The only reason I tell thatstory is how many people would
have stopped with that firstone.
You know what I mean?
And so uh I I went about a yearand a half, maybe two years, of
(02:51):
just going strictly the medicalroute.
I read every medical study therewas out there on healing a brain
injury.
Um I came up with a three-pagedocument of everything that
helped me, you know, everysingle treatment, everything
from amino acids to hyperbaricoxygen.
If anyone uh listening to thiswould like a copy of that, uh
let me know.
(03:12):
I I also gave a presentation ofit to the San Diego Brain Injury
Foundation where I go throughthe the method behind each one
of those treatments, and uh Igive both away for free.
I just you know you email me,I'll give you a Google Drive
link.
Uh but about that time Irealized that I knew more than
my neurons did on the tinylittle subject of healing a
(03:33):
brain injury, which terrified mebecause I realized that science
was not gonna get me out of thatroom, and so I'd been a skeptic
my whole life, but I startedthinking, you know, more instead
of saying what else is outthere, and lucky for me, I live
in California, so I had a lot ofthings to choose from.
(03:54):
I started getting into energymedicine and things like that.
One of the first things I triedwas called Reiki, and I told you
I had the pins and needles typefeeling in my head that that
electricity.
The best description I can givewas she took those pins and
needles and kind of made themfly in formation, if that makes
sense.
And yeah, it took that stingaway.
(04:16):
And I'm like, Whoa, I have noidea what you're doing, but
please don't stop.
So yeah, at the end of that uhsession, I asked her, you know,
can you teach me how to do this?
And so I spent a few days withher, learned Reiki, and I got
into pranic healing, qigong, uhcivil holistic faith healing, uh
basically anything I could findthat helped me.
(04:37):
I tried to just dive in and youknow, uh learn it.
And I started to turn the tide.
I made it a huge amount ofhealing over the next couple of
years, but I just could not getrid of that light and sound
sensitivity.
And so at this point, I'mthinking, do I have permanent
damage?
And so I found a special type ofbrain scan.
Most MRIs just look at thetissue, which doesn't, if you
(04:59):
have a brain injury, doesn'treally tell you a whole lot.
Uh this uh the scan that I countthat I found was called a spec
done by Dr.
Daniel Amen.
It actually uh maps theelectrical activity in the
brain, and so I went and got myscan.
Long story short, my brain wasokay, but areas that were
supposed to be dark were lit uplike fireworks, and I was
(05:22):
diagnosed with PTSD that day.
Okay, I'd had it my entire lifeor most of my life and never
even realized it.
And if I hadn't gotten the braininjury, I I never would have
even known, most likely.
But um, you know, at that I'dknown I'd had uh you know severe
anxiety issues, and you know,I'd already tried several talk
(05:43):
therapists and meds and thingslike that, and I knew by that
point that wasn't the path forme.
And lucky for me, I'd seen theincredible power of hypnosis
when it helped my dad quitsmoking.
You know, he tried to quit forover 30 years, and you know,
pills, patches, gums, you nameit, failed every single time
until he got hypnotized.
After one session, he told menever even crave cigarettes
(06:05):
again.
Now, you know, this is one ofthe toughest addictions there is
is wipe it right out.
And I was also familiar with uhneurolinguistic programming or
NLP from a guy named TonyRobbins.
And Tony famously had a womanthat had 152 different
personalities, and he wasactually able to integrate her
right there on the spot in about45 minutes.
That's the hourless stuff.
(06:27):
And so you know I uh went to uhyou know NLP and hypnosis
school, wound up gettingquadruple certified, uh, asked
every single instructor I had,you know, the exact same
question, how do you heal PTSD?
And they all tried to help me,but none of them really had the
answer.
And so I, you know, I went backto digging and I spent another
(06:48):
two and a half years justbinging, you know, hypnosis and
NLP courses, and I finally puttogether uh a protocol that uh I
was able to heal myself, and Ifound my calling in the process.
I I love this stuff, and youknow, again, the the brain
injury, I I definitely don'twant another one, but it it gave
me an incredible gift because Iyou know I was on the wrong path
(07:11):
in life until I got it, and itit showed me what I'm supposed
to be doing.
SPEAKER_01 (07:15):
So long-winded answer to tell me about
yourself, but that's and that'sokay, but I um can ask you this
when you say what you are on thewrong path in life, before the
brain injury, what were youdoing?
SPEAKER_00 (07:36):
I was in tech and I I did cybersecurity for uh uh
almost 20 years, and you know,it was it was a living, it
wasn't you know something Ireally uh you know aspired to
be.
It just kind of just kind offell on that career path, you
know what I mean, like a lot ofpeople do.
And so the injury really gave meno choice but to but to heal
(07:58):
myself.
SPEAKER_01 (08:00):
And so you I know you said you have a TBI, but um
how did you exactly get the TBI?
You said that you were hiking.
SPEAKER_00 (08:15):
Yes, I I slipped and landed the back uh my feet came
out from under me, and insteadof learning landing on my rear,
I landed the back of my head ona rock.
Yeah.
Ow.
Yeah, yeah.
That's what I said.
SPEAKER_01 (08:31):
Did you see um did you see stars or did oh yeah,
you black out?
SPEAKER_00 (08:37):
I you know, when I came to, I couldn't open my
physically could not open myeyes for about 20 minutes.
And you know, um, yeah, I gottaken to the hospital and all
that, but yeah, yeah, yeah.
I was in bad shape for yearsafter that.
SPEAKER_01 (08:55):
So what would you say now to people that have are
listening to this that have newtraumatic brain injuries that
are newly injured with atraumatic brain injury?
SPEAKER_00 (09:15):
First thing you have to do is decide.
Um, like I said, you know, whenyou decide you cut off any other
possibility.
I, you know, I had no clue how Iwas gonna get myself out of
there.
I just knew I wasn't gonna stopuntil I found the answer, and
that took me, you know, severaldifferent ways to to finally
make it make it back to livingmy life again.
(09:35):
Um for me, you know, my my kidswere still fairly small, and I I
wanted to get back out and be apart of their life.
You know, I I could hear themoutside the door, but I you know
I wasn't a dad the way I wantedto be.
And um that really is what gaveme the the motivation to keep
trying.
You know, we'll we'll do morefor other people than we will
(09:56):
ourselves sometimes, and thatwas probably the case here.
Yeah, but um it's when youdecide like that, it it that's
the difference between you knowgoing to that first neurologist
and saying, Oh, well, you know,he can't help me, there's
nothing that can be done versusall right, you don't have my
answer, who does?
You know what I mean?
And that's you know, I askedthat question so many times uh
(10:19):
over those years, and you know,it was never uh a straight
process, it was you know a lotof bumps and you know bruises
along the way and um a lot ofyou know uh things that didn't
work, but uh until I came upwith the system that did.
SPEAKER_01 (10:38):
Now, if um people want to get that report you
mentioned earlier, how can theyget it?
Do they go to your website?
Do they click on a special link?
SPEAKER_00 (10:56):
Yeah, you can um uh you can go to my website and um
it it's uh the link will be upthere.
SPEAKER_01 (11:04):
Yeah.
So it's public link.
They don't need to sign in, theydon't need to do any of that.
SPEAKER_00 (11:12):
I'll tell you what, I will give you a special link
for the show notes so they don'tneed a sign in or anything like
that.
Um please.
But um would you like me to doit right now?
SPEAKER_01 (11:25):
Um you can just email you can just text it to me
and I'll put it.
SPEAKER_00 (11:32):
I'll give you the link to the Google Drive so
nobody has to sign in oranything like that, and they can
just access it all they like.
SPEAKER_01 (11:40):
Yeah, because that's amazing that you um healed your
own brain.
And so to this and when was theinjury?
This was 2016.
So do you still feel adverseeffects from the injury um
(12:07):
today?
SPEAKER_00 (12:09):
Sometimes.
As long as usually as long as Ikeep my sleep uh dialed in
pretty well, I'm okay.
Um, there are some days that youknow I you know I do feel the
effects, but um they're tinycompared to what they used to
be.
You know, I'm I'm I would guessI'm probably around 95% healed,
something like that.
SPEAKER_01 (12:29):
Wow, congratulations.
Thank you.
And as we said, go seek medicalhelp.
But as Matt said, also you needto decide for yourself.
SPEAKER_00 (12:46):
Be in the driver's seat, but yeah, definitely get
the medical help you need.
You know, if you get a braininjury, you gotta get a CT scan
that day, you know what I mean,just to make sure you don't have
a brain or anything like that.
But yeah, yeah, listen to yourdoctors, you know.
Uh but if you know, if whatthey're doing uh doesn't work
for you, or um if they if youask them for help and they can't
(13:07):
give it to you, then you know,start looking around for all
right, you don't have my answer,who does?
SPEAKER_01 (13:13):
And who does?
Yeah, yeah.
The pal of Google, the pal of uhGoogle Basically, yeah.
The pal uh the pal of Facebookgroups locally.
I mean, I'm down here inPhoenix, Arizona, with the Mayor
Clinic five minutes away from myhouse.
So yeah, if I um if I had atrailer, I would go to the mayor
(13:38):
clinic.
But yes, sometimes I people thatknow me in real life and people
that know this podcast know thatI have advocates to help me,
know that I'm my own advocate.
Sometimes I get called impatientinsist, and I get called the
(14:01):
terrible patient because I knowwhat I want.
SPEAKER_00 (14:04):
Yeah, yes, exactly.
Yeah, it's we have a thing inour culture where you know if
somebody's got the lab coat andthe piece of paper on the wall,
what they saw what they say goesfor a lot of people.
SPEAKER_01 (14:14):
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (14:16):
The the whole reason I told that story is you know,
the those people that I went to,they all had the same, you know,
basically the same piece ofpaper, probably from different
schools, but they're allneurologists, and you know, they
but they all had differentpieces of the puzzle, you know
what I mean.
The first guy, you know, hadnever dealt with a brain injury
before, that was pretty obvious.
Second guy had the the thirdone, you know, knew a lot more
(14:39):
than the first two.
So it's again, it's it'slistening to your doctors doing
you know what's medicallynecessary always, but you know,
it um if that's not working, ifthat's not getting you where you
want to go, then you you canlisten to your gut.
Yeah, especially if you'redealing with something, you
know, you know, really bigmedical challenge, you know what
(15:02):
I mean?
You've got to take control of itand say, all right, here's where
I'm going, you know, who can getme there?
And you you just keep goinguntil you find, you know, the
right people, the right answers.
SPEAKER_01 (15:14):
It's so funny because I'm dealing with an
injury, my um leg crapsunderneath me because I have zip
palsy.
And I um now as a result have toget uh have to, I want to get a
(15:36):
full hip replacement, but in andout citizens patient insisted on
a full hip replacement.
No, a full hip replacement isthe best option, and I knew that
from the get-go.
So sometimes you have to trustyour own gut.
SPEAKER_00 (15:55):
Yes, absolutely.
And you know, it's one of thethings here in the states, um,
you know, we were very dialedinto Western medicine.
And it when you've got an acutetype situation like that, you've
you've you know you've got abusted hip or something like
that, yeah, they're the bestgame there is.
But if you've got somethingchronic or things like that, I
(16:18):
highly encourage people to checkout energy medicine qigong.
Yeah, the fountain of youth, itis phenomenal.
Um, you know, chronic healing,all that, it's your body is an
electrical device.
When the electricity stopsrunning through your body is
when you take a dirt nap.
And anything that anything thatyou know impedes that
(16:39):
electricity, which you can getblockages and things like that
all the time, uh it's gonna, youknow, it's gonna harm wherever
you know you've got thatblockage.
And you know, Eastern medicine,you know, very much, you know,
you know, qigong, chronichealing, you know, even
acupuncture, it's all aboutopening up the those uh they
call them meridians, they'rebasically the electrical line.
(17:02):
Yeah, but yeah.
Um I'd never been into that kindof thing before.
I you know, I was in desperationmode and and tried it, and I was
uh blown away by you know howmuch it helped.
SPEAKER_01 (17:15):
Exactly, exactly.
Um and and I was gonna say umthe body knows how to heal
itself.
SPEAKER_00 (17:28):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (17:29):
I have many fallen objects in my body, you guys
know that I know.
Um, but the body knows how toheal itself, and it's
interesting because once you puta fallen object in my body, a
little bit of a movement, alittle bit of TLC, the body does
(17:52):
the rest of the healing, and sothe body knows how to heal
itself given time, given theappropriate attention.
SPEAKER_00 (18:42):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I I would add to that, youknow, I I told you I would I'm a
geek on the subconscious.
Um your subconscious is is whatruns all that, it controls
everything.
You don't have to think aboutyour breathing, heartbeat, body
temperature, how much insulinyou create after a meal, all
that.
And it also controls thathealing process.
And just to give you an idea ofthe power of the subconscious, I
(19:05):
the research has shown that youknow it can reprogram your DNA,
literally.
Uh Bruce, uh Dr.
Bruce Lipton in Biology Belief.
And uh back way back in the day,Dr.
Bernie Siegel from Yale did somereally fascinating research with
multiple personality disorder,where he saw patients' eye color
change, and physical markings,scars, and things would
(19:25):
disappear and reappear dependingon what personality was coming
through.
That's how powerful yoursubconscious is.
Um, we we've all heard about theplacebo effect, and you know, it
it's been shown to have up a upto a 70% cure rate in clinical
drug trials when patients aregetting nothing but a sugar
pill, just the belief thatthey're getting something is
(19:46):
usually, you know, not usually,but a lot of times enough to
actually heal, you know,whatever the malady is.
But um the more I learn aboutit, the more I'm just you know
uh astounded by how how powerfulthe subconscious mind is.
I I remember, you know, when Iwas sitting in a dark dungeon.
If you've ever seen that movie,The Secret, somebody sent this
(20:08):
to me, you know, after I got myinjury.
But um there was a guy who wasin a plane crash, all he could
do was blink his eyes, and thatthat's the way he communicated.
Uh, and he told the nurses thatway, I'm gonna walk out of here.
And they're like, Yeah, right,you're never getting out of this
bed.
He walked out of there, and it'sjust you know, he started just
(20:31):
by breathing deep and you know,um you know, working the one
thing that he could control andjust gradually expanded, you
know, one of you know, babysteps, putting one foot in front
of the other.
Yeah, but yeah, yeah, that'sthat's the incredible power you
have at your disposal.
It's just you know, that powercan be negative and work against
(20:52):
you, or you can harness it andand really, you know, do things
that will astound you.
SPEAKER_01 (20:58):
Sometimes I think it's mind of a man.
SPEAKER_00 (21:01):
Absolutely.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:03):
It is mind of Amanda.
And as we end this fabulousinterview, where can people find
you?
Where could people get a hold ofyou if they choose to do so?
SPEAKER_00 (21:15):
Oh, sure.
It's uh my website is MattJohnson N L P.
That'sM-A-T-T-J-O-C-N-S-O-N-N-LP.
Uh, I help, you know, I told youI, you know, I healed my PTSD.
Um, I help people with you knowmental emotional baggage, things
like that.
You know, if anybody's gotquestions about brain injuries,
things like that, I'm I'm morethan you know open to helping
(21:38):
you out.
Uh Wynn, I'll send you thoselinks uh to uh to the document
to the presentation.
So uh you can put those in theshow notes if you like.
SPEAKER_01 (21:47):
And yeah.
And Matt, I know you havequestions for me.
SPEAKER_00 (21:55):
Uh what would you say, um what would you say has
been a gift in in in yourjourney and your, you know, I I
know you have cerebral uh palsy.
I I've worked with people likeyou know, I've worked with
dyslexics and things like that.
I mean, some of the most famouspeople you can think of have
(22:16):
been dyslexic, you know, DaVinci, Walt Disney, Richard
Branson, uh, you know, uh,you've if you've seen that Ray
Charles movie, you know what Imean?
He incredible music talent,probably because he was blind,
you know what I mean?
So, I mean, what has been, youknow, the superpower or the you
know the silver lining behindwhat you've gone through?
SPEAKER_01 (22:37):
The superpower.
Um, people think that I alwayspeople think that I will always
have a negative attitude.
Why me?
Why do I have a disability?
Why do I need a hip replacement?
So on and so forth.
(22:58):
But the truth is I try myhardest to keep a positive
attitude.
Yes, it's pain some days, andother days it's perfectly fine.
But I tried my hardest to keep apositive attitude towards
(23:21):
everything.
SPEAKER_00 (23:23):
Yeah, that is so important because you know that
that literally shapes yourbiochemistry.
You know what I mean?
It's you know, when you've gotnegative emotions uh going on in
your nervous system, your bodyliterally becomes more acidic,
and which makes your, you know,makes you more vertical,
basically.
And breaks you down.
So keeping that positiveattitude is is huge.
(23:44):
Um, I I'm gonna date myselfhere.
I I remember, you know, back inthe early 1980s, my parents got
us a uh one of those Atari 2600video games, and it had a switch
on it for novice versus expertmode.
And if you put on expert mode, agame that made the game way
harder for you in some way.
Um I I have a belief that lifeis kind of like that.
(24:06):
You know, the some of us come inhere in expert mode, and you
know, it's it just if you knowI'm fascinated by it, and I I
have so much admiration for youknow everybody who comes through
uh life that way.
I I truly believe you're you'rehere to learn something special
or you know, leave somethingspecial, and you know, I I
(24:27):
applaud you for everythingyou're doing.
SPEAKER_01 (24:30):
Well, I appreciate that now, and I'm coming to find
out that my gift followed medown to Arizona, it's now
following me into rehab in thehospital where I'm going to
continue doing content.
(24:53):
I just won't do it in thehospital per se because hospital
wife I is icky.
But um I really feel like mygift followed me, my job, and
then my gift followed me down toArizona.
SPEAKER_00 (25:14):
I believe that.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I just like I said, I Iadmire what you're doing so
much.
Uh it's you're an inspiration toa lot of people.
You're you're showing what'spossible.
SPEAKER_01 (25:24):
Well, I appreciate that.
And as we wrap this interviewup, you guys, I hope that you
enjoyed another fabulousinterview, and I certainly did.
And if you want to reach out toMatt, please do.
We'll have all that informationin the show notes, plus his
(25:45):
presentation that he did to theum the uh San Diego Brain Injury
Foundation.
San Diego Brain InjuryFoundation.
And that's awesome.
And if you look up supportgroups for brain injuries,
(26:06):
there's a ton of them, includingprobably here in Arizona.
I know that um the BellsNeurological Clinic here in
Phoenix has one.
I just Google brain injuriesboard groups.
And because you're not alone inthis journey, you're definitely
(26:31):
not alone.
And so if you want to reach outto Matt, please do.
We'll have all his informationin the show notes.
And I hope you guys enjoyed andalso have to listen to you.
Thanks to you guys.
Bye you guys.
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