From rehab owner to SAINT provider: Matt Lahn's story
After the 2008 crash took his businesses, Matt Lahn found TMS for his own depression, put the first TMS chair in a rehab, and built Neuro Wellness TMS Centers of America in Coral Springs, Florida.
About this episode
Kyle sits down with Matt Lahn, COO and co-founder of Neuro Wellness TMS Centers of America, for a long, candid conversation about depression, addiction treatment and where interventional psychiatry is going.
Matt describes losing three businesses in 2008, realizing he had lived with high-functioning depression for two decades, and getting a friend into a rehab that turned out to be a disaster. That experience led him and his wife Shelly to open their own treatment center for medically complex patients. TMS saved his own life, and the demand from people without a substance problem led them to spin off Neuro Wellness.
The two cover SAINT TMS and how it targets treatment, accelerated protocols, ketamine, psychedelics, insurance coverage, veterans and first responders, and why so few eligible patients ever hear about TMS.
The guest
Matt Lahn
LinkedInCOO & co-founder, Neuro Wellness TMS Centers of America
A former commercial mortgage lender, builder and real estate owner, Matt reinvented himself after 2008 by opening an addiction treatment center with his wife Shelly. A TMS patient himself, he now runs an 8,000 sq ft clinic offering SAINT TMS, PrTMS, accelerated TMS, ketamine and therapy under one roof. He is also a certified life coach and interventionist.
The host
Host, I Talk TMS · Founder, Empower TMS
Kyle Hartfield hosts I Talk TMS, bringing deep conversations with clinicians, founders, and innovators transforming interventional psychiatry. He is the founder of Empower TMS, expanding patient access to advanced neuromodulation therapy.
Key takeaways
- Treat root causes, not symptoms. Matt saw that nearly every rehab patient arrived depressed. Many substance problems are self-medication for an untreated mental health condition.
- No single tool is enough. His model puts medication management, therapy and advanced treatments under one roof, with one team that actually talks to each other.
- Precision is the big change in TMS. SAINT uses a functional brain MRI and an algorithm developed at Stanford to find individual targets, then delivers 50 sessions in five days.
- Awareness is the bottleneck. Matt cites roughly 3 million eligible, insured Americans and only about 150,000 who got TMS.
- Insurance is moving. Neuro Wellness has pushed coverage for SAINT, now with 19 Blue Cross Blue Shield plans plus Federal BCBS by Matt's count.
- TMS is a tool, not a magic wand. The patient still has to do the work.
- Plan for what comes next. Retirees, first responders and veterans often lose their identity with their job, and the mental health system rarely addresses it.
In his words
“TMS saved my life. Ketamine revolutionized my life.”
“I'd rather somebody be alive and on medication than dead and sober.”
“There are people that make life happen and people that let life happen. My goal is to flip that switch back.”
“A TMS machine is not a magic wand. You've got to open up the toolbox and start using it.”
Chapters
Tap a timestamp to jump to that moment in the video above.
Treatments mentioned
- SAINT® TMS
- Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy — an FDA-cleared, fMRI-guided, accelerated form of TMS that delivers 50 sessions over five days for adults with major depressive disorder who have not improved on antidepressants.
- PrTMS
- Personalized repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation — an individually targeted TMS protocol that uses EEG-based mapping to tailor treatment.
- Accelerated TMS
- TMS delivered on a compressed schedule (multiple sessions per day over several days) rather than the conventional six-week course.
- Ketamine
- An anesthetic used off-label at sub-anesthetic doses for rapid antidepressant effect, often in a clinical setting for treatment-resistant depression.
- Psychedelic-assisted therapy
- Therapy that combines a psychedelic compound (e.g. ketamine, ibogaine) with guided psychological support; legal status varies by state and substance.
- Pharmacogenetic testing
- A genetic test that helps estimate how an individual is likely to metabolize and respond to specific psychiatric medications.
SAINT® is delivered only by verified providers on the Magnus Medical system. Programs described as SAINT “alternatives”, “equivalents” or “fMRI-guided accelerated TMS” are not SAINT®, are not affiliated with us, and SAINT® results do not apply to them. Read our SAINT® disclaimer.
Learn more about SAINT® TMS
What Is SAINT® TMS?
The 5-day, fMRI-guided treatment explained in plain language
How Does SAINT® TMS Work?
How fMRI targeting and accelerated sessions treat depression
Is SAINT® TMS Covered by Insurance?
Medicare, BCBS, commercial plans, and how prior authorization works
SAINT® TMS in Coral Springs, FL
Our Coral Springs clinic and what to expect
Who Qualifies for SAINT® TMS?
Eligibility, FDA criteria, and contraindications
SAINT® vs. Traditional TMS
Key differences in targeting, schedule, and time to remission