Mike Mata, M.A., CMPC
About Me
As a child I was fortunate to be involved in a lot of the classic team sports: football, baseball, hockey, soccer, swimming, etc. Then, in my early teens I shifted my focus toward motorsports, eventually getting involved in the competitive world of motocross. As this gained momentum among my family and friends, we started traveling and racing all around the New England area. As the story goes, I ended up facing a couple of back-to-back, serious injuries. At a young age, I was faced with a choice on how I wanted to use this experience and spend my energy moving forward. Since my family has always been involved in service and giving back to the community, I choose to make efforts to give back and bring people together. Because it comes naturally to me and has been consistently modeled, I choose to live by kindness. And importantly, since my injuries were so severe and I know how lucky I am to be alive and healthy, I choose to live each day with the understanding that it is a privilege and a gift. I remember making these choices through my healing, and I’m proud to say that they’ve guided me since.
At this time, I’m going on about 5 years of professional experience in this field. Throughout, I’ve had the privilege of working in various high-performance contexts. While I remain open to any client profile, some of my specializations involve mindfulness-based practices, breathwork tools, injury rehabilitation optimization, and mental performance in the context of action sports.
For hobbies, I like to swim, ride my snowboard, ride bikes, make videos, plan trips, and play the drums. In addition to being a mental performance coach, I work in the service industry, I do work as the Director of Mental Performance within the non-profit https://www.dawgpatchbandits.com/, and I’m in the process of contributing to an album alongside 4 of my bandmates in Denver, CO.
If any of this relates to you or builds interest, I’d welcome you to reach out! Each of us offers a no-cost intro session, and I’m always open to having a conversation about how mental skills training can fit into your life.
Education
M.A. Sport & Performance Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, CO
B.A. Psychology, Hunter College, NYC