Our Team
Matthew Sweigart
AOBTA® – Certified Instructor & HeartMind Shiatsu Training Director
Matthew Sweigart, AOBTA® – Certified Instructor, began his training in Eastern Healing Arts with the Ohashi Institute, NYC in 1985. He founded Ohashiatsu® Chicago in 1987, where he taught and practiced the Ohashiatsu® Method for 18 years. His training was founded in Zen practice through ten day retreat trainings at the Dai Bosatsu Zendo, Zen Monastery in upstate New York, and many trainings with Ohashi Sensei in NYC, Chicago and Switzerland. In addition to Ohashiatsu®, Matthew studied with many Qi masters and Shaman over the years, including Li Junfeng, Roger Jahnke, Jeffrey Yuen, Paul Pitchford, Sun Bear, Alberto Villoldo and Brandt Secunde. His healing practice was deeply influenced in its foundations by Holotropic Breathwork practice with Jerry Rothman in Chicago, IL. Moving to Northern California in 2000, he developed the HeartMind Shiatsu curriculum, blending Ohashiatsu, Zen Shiatsu, Qigong, Classical Chinese Medicine, Breathwork, Artwork and Shamanic Wisdom. Over the years, he has offered trainings in Boulder, CO and Northern California. Of note in his Northern California adventure has been his school, Zen Gate Chiatsu in Lake Tahoe, and the Asian Healing Arts program with Paul Pitchford at the Heartwood Institute in Humboldt County. He has written several books and manuals including Pathways of Qi, Touching Ki, HeartMind Meridian Qigong, Elemental Meditations, Harmonizing Heaven & Earth DVD and Companion Manual, and the HeartMind Shiatsu Meridian Gestures and Functions Chart. In 2007, after a series of humanizing, midlife sufferings, he completed the New Warrior Training Adventure with the ManKind Project, and has participated in Men’s Groups weekly ever since. In addition, he has taken Yoga Teacher Training with Vira Bhava Yoga, The End of Trauma Course with Organic Intelligence, and studied and practiced Neurographics drawing for inner peace and tranquility. He has raised two sons to adulthood, and was recently blessed with a beautiful granddaughter. His practice is dedicated to the cultivation of love, peace and equanimity, to offer humanity an alternate path forward from the day to day struggles of life.
Dave Goetz
CMT, RYT, & HeartMind Shiatsu Instructor, Administrative Director
Dave Goetz, is a Certified HeartMind Shiatsu Instructor living in Boulder, Colorado. He currently teaches qigong and maintains a personal and professional development coaching and bodywork practice. He discovered a life-long passion for Eastern thought when he read the Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda at the age of 19. Dave attended Indiana University where he studied Eastern Philosophy, Tibetan Buddhism, Taoism, and Environmental Studies, graduating in 1980 with a B.A. in Economics. He has been a daily practitioner of meditation using the techniques of Self-Knowledge as taught by Prem Rawat since 1979. In 1982, Dave co-founded the Oak St. Market, a natural foods grocery store in Evanston, IL where he was the co-owner and managing partner. In 1990, Dave began studying shiatsu at Ohashiatsu® Chicago where he first met Matthew Sweigart and soon became his teacher’s assistant. In 1997, Dave sold his natural food store to Wholefoods Market and then moved to Boulder in 1998 where he focused his passion full-time on massage, shiatsu, yoga and qigong. He attended the Boulder College of Massage Therapy in 2000, graduated with honors with over 1100 hours of training and was the president of his class. Soon afterwards he completed his Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, CSCS credential and was a personal fitness trainer and massage specialist for RallySport Health club from 2002-2004. In 2004 he formed a collaboration with Matthew and co-produced the HeartMind Shiatsu Meridian Chart and soon after the DVD, Harmonizing Heaven and Earth. In 2006, Dave co-founded the Bodywork Bistro that closed its doors in the summer of 2019. He taught the HeartMind Shiatsu program at the Healing Spirits Massage Training Program from 2007 to 2018. In 2010 he completed his Yoga Teacher Training at CorePower Yoga. Dave has had the privilege of studying with qigong masters, Li Jun Feng, Chunyi Lin, Roger Jahnke and Jim MacRitchie from 2002 until the present. From inspiration ignited by his qigong practice and his experience of CorePower Yoga his qigong and yoga path has transmogrified into a practice he calls Qi-Yoga-Flow. “I love the amazing feeling I get from practicing qigong, and I also love the intensity and strength I get from practicing power yoga, so I’ve unabashedly combined the two.” More information about Dave and his work can be found at davegoetzbodywork.com and he can be reached via email at davegoetzbodywork@gmail.com.
Jessica Van Antwerp
AOBTA-CP, CMT, CSP, RYT, HeartMind Shiatsu Instructor
Jessica is a Certified HeartMind Shiatsu Instructor living and practicing in Denver, CO. She graduated from the Healing Spirits Massage Training Program in Boulder, CO in July of 2009, specializing in Shiatsu and Cranial Sacral Therapy. She stepped into a teaching role as a teacher’s assistant, under Dave Goetz, for the Shiatsu course at Healing Spirits in 2010 and was lead teaching the first level of HeartMind Shiatsu training by 2012. She graduated as valedictorian of the HeartMind Shiatsu Advanced Training in 2012. She graduated from the HeartMind Shiatsu Instructor Training as a Level 2 Instructor in the summer of 2015. Her passion for and pursuit of Qigong has deeply complemented her bodywork, and she started sharing that love in a teaching capacity in 2012. Her personal practice supports an ever-increasing passion for this work, which continues to deepen as a result. She seamlessly integrates body and energy work in her sessions with clients to help them return to a place of balance and ease in their bodies, minds, and spirits.
Becky Whitmer
CMT, RYT, HeartMind Shiatsu Instructor
Becky is a 2006 graduate of Healing Spirits Massage Training Program of Boulder, CO, and has been a practicing massage therapist ever since. In 2007, she began her studies in HeartMind Bodywork and Qigong and is a practitioner and instructor of both, having earned her Certified HeartMind Shiatsu Instructor certificate in 2015. Her path as student, healer and teacher actually started in 1990 as a student of Ashtanga yoga which eventually led to yoga teacher certification in 2003. She has completed over 500 hours of Hatha Yoga teacher training through the Shambhava School of Yoga. In the years since becoming a massage therapist, has been an enthusiastic student of Breema, Thai Yoga Massage, Shiatsu, Tui Na, Amma, to name a few. Becky is also a certified End of Life Doula. An avid whitewater kayaker and all around nature lover, Becky is constantly reminded of the healing power of communing with the 5 Elements, and is inspired to share this with others in the classroom and on the Shiatsu mat. All of this is reflected in her warm and down to earth teaching style which emphasizes both the inner and outer experience of bodywork and mindfulness practice.