moving stories and images
Agnes Wenham, a physiotherapist who trained in Sweden and England, was a well-known character in the profession, especially in Johannesburg, where she practised for many years. She moved to South Africa from the United Kingdom as a young woman and worked …
It is rare to find physiotherapists writing about their experiences (Nicholls, 2021), which makes Olive Millard’s (1952) autobiography Under My Thumb so important. A summary of Millard’s professional career is written by Goldstone (2024) and is further summarised here: Becoming …
Before the restoration of Ukraine’s Independence in 1991, rehabilitation occurred within the Soviet paradigm, which set itself in opposition to Western ideology – not out of rational consideration, but out of the need to be different. Some of the key …
On the 8th September 1951, delegates representing seventeen national physiotherapy associations met in Copenhagen, Denmark to establish the World Confederation for Physical Therapy (WCPT); now World Physiotherapy. Seventy-five years later it represents more than 600,000 physiotherapists through 129 member organisations, …
While investigating data for our history project on the development of the profession of physiotherapy in the United Arab Emirates, I was reminded of the practice of cupping (hijamat) and have noted its continuing access …
Nearly three years ago now, we put out a call for people interested in compiling a special issue on the history of physiotherapy for the journal Physiotherapy Theory & Practice, and I’m delighted to say that …
Although books dating back to ancient Chinese, Indian, Arabic, Greek and Roman civilisations contained numerous accounts of physical therapies (Galen reports that Roman emperor Julius Caesar used electric fish to treat neuralgia, for instance), De …
Balnea was the name of the ancient spas that would offer any bath and body services such as massage. This characterized both Greek and Roman spas for a long time. In the imperial times, the …
By Gillian Woodford, The McGill Reporter; submitted by Sarah C. Marshall (with permission) Three decades after graduating from McGill, Dorothy Thomas Edding helped found Jamaica’s first and only university-based School of Physical Therapy, allowing aspiring …
A Watershed in Professional Independence in the UK – The McMillan Report NOTE: Readers may be interested to know that Mr E.L. McMillan (Chairman of the McMillan working Party, in whose name the Report was …
1951 a 1957 – Curso Raphael de Barros – Planejado pelo Dr. Waldo Rolim de Moraes, com o objetivo de formar “técnicos em fisioterapia”, funcionou nas instalações do Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade de São …
In 2018 I experienced “physiotherapy” from many years ago; at the Igalo Spa in Herceg Novi, Montenegro. That’s not me in the photo above, just an indication of what is to come. To give some …
On Friday this week (20thNovember 2020), the physiotherapy staff in the acute London NHS Trust where I work, along with other professional groups in the organisation, received a request asking for volunteers to administer Covid-19 …
Abandoned architectural, infrastructural or technological artifacts of the past are scattered all around the world, reminding us that nothing built by (wo)man can ever stand the test of time on its own. The reasons behind …
