• NOMPTI Certified Cervical Spine Specialist
• NOMPTI Certified Lumbar Spine Specialist
Dr. Matthew Speciale received his Doctorate in Physical Therapy in 2015 at Midwestern
University in Phoenix, Arizona. Matthew returned to his native Los Angeles to begin his career,
and gained extensive experience in outpatient orthopedics. After working for 5 years, Matthew
and his wife finally realized their desire to move to San Diego and start the next chapter of their
lives.
Through his past experiences of education, mentorship, and clinical practice, Matthew has
developed expertise to help patients recover from a multitude of orthopedic conditions. He
maintains a strong belief in a treatment approach that combines detailed manual therapy
techniques with specified exercise prescription to achieve patients’ goals. Utilizing this approach
has allowed him to successfully address wide-ranging pathologies across the human anatomy.
He has vast experience treating the entire spine, from the neck through the low back, but is
equally comfortable treating the extremities.
Matthew has a comprehensive background working with both traumatic injuries and repetitive,
chronic pain conditions. This includes considerable experience with post-surgical patients and
motor vehicle injuries, as well as chronic neck or low back pain. He has deep knowledge and
experience with joint and disc replacement surgeries, tendon or ligament repairs, and spinal
fusion procedures. During his doctoral program, Matthew did research on chronic pain
conditions, and has a broad grasp of treatment methods to rehabilitate those patients.
Athletics is another area of immense interest for Matthew. Having grown up participating in
every sport he could, he has always been drawn to the various ways the human body can be
trained and utilized. He played competitive sports throughout high school, and has found ways
to continue athletic endeavors into adulthood. This passion has driven him to work in sports
rehabilitation, utilizing his deep understanding of biomechanics to help athletes get back to
excelling in their sport.
Despite being new to living in San Diego, Matthew has spent his entire life in Southern
California. After growing up in Los Angeles, he attended UC Santa Barbara for his
undergraduate studies before his time in Arizona for Physical Therapy education. As a young
athlete, Matthew found himself in physical therapy clinics on multiple occasions. It was during
these moments that he found himself attracted to physical therapy as a profession. Along with
the opportunity to help people, he loved that his therapists had the chance to listen and speak
with their patients. Matthew continues to see that importance to this day, greatly valuing
communication and understanding each patient’s unique situation and goals.
