Matt Wilson, DC, FIACA— Chiropractor in West Des Moines, IA
Dr. Matt Wilson built Ashworth Clinic around a straightforward premise: treat patients the way you’d want to be treated if you were the one in pain. That means a correct diagnosis, a treatment plan matched to what the problem actually requires, and a practice that measures success by how quickly patients stop needing it.
That philosophy is reflected in the outcomes:
- 4,443 tracked patient reports
- 80.8% average improvement
- 6.3 average visits to resolution, 97.3% referral likelihood
Patients who get better quickly and completely tend to tell people about it.
Each visit is focused on identifying what’s wrong, treating it effectively, and building toward discharge — not extending care beyond what the patient needs. What makes that possible is genuine attention: knowing patients well enough to catch the detail they mention offhand, the activity they don’t think is relevant, the pattern that only becomes visible when a provider is actually tracking this person over time.
In the Community
Dr. Matt was born and raised in the Quad Cities and has been part of the Des Moines metro for over fifteen years. Outside the clinic, he volunteers as an administrator for the Iowa Youth Rugby Association and spends most of his remaining time with his wife Laura and their three kids — Reese, Drew, and Ben.
The Clinical Approach
Matt trained at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport — honors graduate, clinical internships in sports and soft tissue rehabilitation. Palmer-trained means the manual adjustment is precise and it shows. But technique has never been the starting point here.
The starting point is the question nobody else is asking: why is this person’s body holding this position?
That question comes from Matt’s training in the Postural Restoration Institute — a post-graduate clinical framework built around the inherent asymmetry of the human body. We are not bilaterally symmetrical by design. Your liver is on the right. Your heart tilts left. Your diaphragm moves differently on the left and the right. Those asymmetries drive compensation patterns — in stance, in movement, in how we hold our head — that are often nowhere near where the pain is.
Most chiropractic analysis asks where the restriction is. PRI asks what is driving the compensation pattern. Add those together and we start to figure out why the restrictions happen in predictable patterns. It’s a different question. It produces different answers. It changes what gets treated and in what order — and it measurably dropped Matt’s visit count while improving resolution rates.
Beyond PRI, the technique arsenal is intentionally wide:
- Manual (Diversified) adjustment — Palmer-trained, high-precision
- Instrument adjusting/Activator
- SOT (Sacro-Occipital Technique)
- Thompson Drop Table
- Cox Flexion-Distraction
- Cranial Osteopathic work
- Nasal Release Technique
The technique is never the starting point. It’s where you end up after the analysis tells you what’s needed.
EDUCATION & ASSOCIATIONS
- Contracted Provider: Immanuel Pathways PACE® Program: All-inclusive Care for the Elderly: Conservative Pain Management: Acupuncture and Chiropractic Care
- Honors Graduate: Palmer College of Chiropractic (PCC)
- Clinical Internship: PCC Sports and Rehab Clinic
- Clinical Internship: Burt Clinic of Chiropractic
- Certified: Chiropractic Wellness Practitioner (CCWP)
- Fellow: International Chiropractic Acupuncture Diagnosis and Treatment (FIACA)
- Certified: Graston M1 Technique for soft tissue injury
- Certified: Functional Movement Techniques – Basic and Performance
- Certified: Functional Movement Technique – Blades (FMT-B)
- Completed Education: Battlefield Acupuncture Technique
- Completed Education: Integrative Neuromuscular Acupoint System (INMAS)
- Completed Education: Low-Level Laser Therapy for Chronic Pain and Healthy Aging
- Completed Education: Dry Needling for pain and trigger point dysfunction
- Completed Education: PowerAthlete Coach – Block One
- Completed Education: Postural Restoration Institute: Pelvic Restoration, Myokinematic Restoration, Postural Respiration – Primary Courses
- Completed Education: Postural Restoration Institute: Cervical Revolution, Impingement and Instability, Advanced Integration – Secondary Courses
- Completed Education: GI Map Test, Organic Acids Test, Micronutrient Testing and DUTCH Test – Advanced Functional Medicine Protocols
- Completed Education: Hormone Testing, Fertility to Menopause – Functional Medicine Protocols
- Completed Education: Inflammation Mastery: Clinical Nutrition and Functional Medicine
FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE
Acupuncture & Dry Needling
Dr. Wilson is a Fellow of the International Academy of Chiropractic Acupuncture (FIACA) — a post-graduate certification requiring extensive clinical training beyond standard chiropractic licensure. He incorporates acupuncture for musculoskeletal pain, headaches, neurological conditions, and systemic presentations including allergies and hormonal symptoms.
He explains acupuncture in physiological terms — neurovascular stimulation, modulation of inflammatory mediators, nervous system regulation — because patients deserve to understand what’s happening in their body, not just accept that it works.
Dry needling targets myofascial trigger points directly — the hyperirritable spots in muscle tissue that refer pain to other areas and restrict normal movement. It works by changing the way the brain and muscle communicate, allowing the system to reset toward a more normal pattern.
LASER THERAPY
Through extensive training and clinical experience in Low-Level Laser Therapy, Dr. Wilson effectively treats acute and chronic pain, accelerating the healing and rehabilitation process. This non-invasive therapy saves patients time and effort by reducing the number of clinical visits required while achieving excellent results.