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, …
The recent movie Breathe, the inspirational true story of Robin Cavendish’s battle with paralytic poliomyelitis, is a reminder of a disease that is almost forgotten, except by those whose lives were and remain directly affected. …
The quarterly open meeting of the International Physiotherapy History Association will take place on-line at 7am (Auckland time) on Tuesday 14th August. Please check your local times. We’ve been very busy since our last meeting, …
Symbols of Physiotherapy: The old and the new. A história da Fisioterapia também é representada por meio de símbolos. Os símbolos, pela sua natureza, evocam num determinado contexto algo abstrato ou distante. No caso da …
“Critique needs friction or a kind of dialogue. Existing reality must be confronted with strangeness and the historically different can assume the function of this counterpart, meaning present and past must continuously be set in relation to …
Many of the earliest casualties from the First World War were large guardsmen with grievous wounds. For the short of stature like Mrs F Guthrie Smith – the masseuse in charge of a temporary command …
The Oxford Handbook of Disability History (link) Michael Rembis, Catherine J. Kudlick, and Kim Nielsen, eds. Table of contents Part I. CONCEPTS AND QUESTIONS 1. The Perils and Promises of Disability Biography – Kim E. Nielsen …
“Most of us know how valuable massage is for our limbs but most of us also know what a tiring job it is – too! “Here’s a novel pneumatic massage machine, that envelops the patient …
With the new history.physio website, we’re looking to have contributions from across the whole physiotherapy community. Each month we’d like to publish a short piece from 8 to 10 IPHA members who would be our …
One of the most interesting new areas of research in the history of physiotherapy surrounds the work done by masseuses during World War I. Some of the most studied artefacts from the time are the Bliss …
WCPT has set the deadline date for abstract submissions for next year’s Congress in Geneva at Thursday 6th September. That leaves just 11 weeks to draft and submit your ideas. If you include the word …
