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About Us

Mind Over Matter Performance offers a broad range of performance services incorporating sport counseling, neuromuscular and motor development training, and sport specific skill building (utilizing a network of top coaches, athletes, and other sports professionals). Mind Over Matter Performance combines the rigors of academic research with the insight of today's top performers to provide practical, yet research supported information, interventions, and techniques to improve human performance.

The Self-Realization (SR) Approach

The SRM consists of four interrelated components: Beliefs, Motivation, Commitment, Perseverance/Resilience.

  • Belief System (beliefs): comprised of identity, self efficacy, and locus of control. * The way one views and defines the world, his/her fellow humankind, self and the interrelationship between these three components. A set of attitudes, opinions, and convictions that affect personal behavior, interpersonal relationships, and attitude toward life. (see conceptual system, Penguin Dictionary of Psychology).
  • Motivation: the process of initiating, sustaining, and directing psychological or physical activities, including internal forces such as impulses, drives, and desires involved in this process. Motives may operate on a conscious level or unconscious level, and are frequently divided into physiological (primary, or organic, such as hunger elimination) and psychological (secondary, or personal/social, such as affiliation, competition, and individual interests and goals). (Penguin Dictionary of Psychology). The physiological or psychological drive or desire. ... motivation can be understood as a person's present state or stage of readiness for change. It is an internal state influenced by external factors. (Miller & Rollnick). Must consider value system which is strongly influenced by the environment (i.e. Familial, cultural, societal, etc.) see Belief System.
  • Commitment: The dedication of the necessary resources (i.e., attentional, physical, etc.) to accomplish a task. Commitment to action motivation - the probability that a person will enter into, continue, and adhere to a specific change strategy (Council for Philosophical Studies, 1981; Miller, 1985) Adherence to advice or a plan (Miller & Rollnick).
  • Perseverance: the behavioral tendency to persist (Penguin Dictionary of Psychology) persevere - to persist in a state, enterprise, or undertaking in spite of counter influences, opposition, and discouragement change (Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary) resilience - an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change (Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary)

About Dr. Earl Walker Jr.

Dr. Earl Walker holds a doctorate in Counseling Psychology, specializing in Sport and Exercise Psychology and is also a National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) ­ Certified Personal Trainer. He has taught sport psychology, sociology of sport, exercise physiology, health education, and fitness education at Mount Ida College in Newton, MA. He has also served as an assistant wrestling coach at Boston University for six years, coaching several NCAA tournament qualifiers, and one eventual NCAA All-American.

As a competitor, he achieved Division I NCAA College Wrestling All-American status, was a former #1 Nationally ranked collegiate wrestler, National High School Wrestling Champion, and 2x Delaware State Wrestling Champion. He was also honored as the male collegiate athlete of the year at Boston University in 1993 and has been inducted into three athletic hall of fames (Delaware Wrestling, South Jersey Wrestling and Boston University Athletic). He remains Boston University's highest placing NCAA Division I Wrestling All-American.

Utilizing his athletic experience and academic training, Dr. Walker developed the Self Realization Model and Approach, which focuses on improving the most essential components of optimal performance and helping one reach his/her potential. Some of his other areas of research include exploring predictors of sexual aggression and the influence of athletic identity on performance.

Publications