Birgitte Ahlsen - 30 DoS - Day 12

For the time being, I am busy planning and developing a new Master’s program in psychomotor physiotherapy. Psychomotor physiotherapy, as a treatment approach, was developed in Norway in the late 1940s in collaboration between a physiotherapist and a psychiatrist and is usually referred to as Norwegian psychomotor physiotherapy (NPMF). In short, this approach implies an understanding of the body both as biology and biography, that is, as the place of the individual’s lived experiences. Local pain and symptoms are seen considering the body’s mobility and muscle tensions in general, and the treatment is explorative and interactional. Psychomotor physiotherapy is a specialisation within physiotherapy in Norway. Much can be said about NPMF. However, in order to grow and develop, I believe that psychomotor physiotherapy must be internationalised and connected with traditions or mindsets beyond Norway’s borders. This is one of my main concerns right now. I would like to connect with people abroad and make psychomotor physiotherapy an international interest.

I am a researcher doing qualitative research on patients’ experiences of chronic illness, and physiotherapy practice. In my opinion, qualitative research is critical in its essence. I have focused especially on the theoretical foundation of medicine and physiotherapy and its implications for clinical practice. I work to illuminate physiotherapy in new ways, and as such, contribute to a rethinking and discussions about what physiotherapy is and can be in the future. I have an interest in Medical humanities and Narratives in medicine, and I would like to develop some of these ideas and perspectives within physiotherapy and maybe establish a sub-group among critical thinkers, which may be called: Narratives in Physiotherapy or Humanities in Physiotherapy.