Donna was born and raised in Pembroke and is happy to have had the chance to move back to the Valley and establish Physio in the Valley. Donna along with her husband Paul opened Physio in the Valley in 2001 with the intention of creating a practice that would combine the best of traditional physical therapy with the principles and techniques of osteopathic manual therapy. Their belief was to create a physiotherapy practice where the client is treated one-on-one with advanced skills and training. They had previously worked in facilities where clients were seen for quick, short visits; spending most of the time with assistants or being put on machines for their care. The model of care at Physio in the Valley with Donna and Paul and associates is very different from that.
With over 25 years of clinical experience, Donna's practice follows the philosophy that therapy is most successful when people are treated as whole human beings, not as individual parts, and her work is focused on finding and treating the root causes.
Education
Donna, BSc.PT, graduated from the University of Ottawa in 1996 and has been working in private outpatient setting since then.
Career and Professional Achievements
Donna has continued to advance her skills and practice beyond traditional physiotherapy and is now a leader in women’s health and pediatric physiotherapy having worked and studied in this field for over 25 years. Donna has worked and studied advanced manual therapy and osteopathy as well as the specialization of care of pregnant and post-partum women and infant feeding issues. It is her mandate and desire to educate and provide early intervention for post-partum women and newborns so that injury and long term dysfunction can be avoided! Donna combines her varied skill set of manual therapy, exercise prescription and years of dedication to outpatient physiotherapy to each client’s needs. Your sessions are always one-on-one with your physiotherapist.
Therapist Qualifications and Advanced training
Donna’s repertoire of post-graduate training include some (certainly not all) of the following advanced training:
- Manual therapy Level 3/3
- Canadian College of osteopathy: Five Year Diploma in Osteopathic Manual training: thesis pending.
- Acupuncture Level 1
- Advanced certification of the care of Pregnancy and post-partum including high risk pregnancy (American Physical Therapy Association: women’s health division Certification )
- Level 3 Pelvic Floor Rehabilitation: ( American Physical Therapy Association: women’s health division Certification )
- Women’s Health Division Master Class on Menopause and the effect on the Pelvic Floor
- Myofunctional therapy: rehabilitation of the oral-motor system ( mouth and face) and patient specific physiotherapy to aid infant feeding and breastfeeding.
- TMR TOTS: Total motion release for infants and babies
- Scroth Scoliosis Certification: Assessment and Treatment of Adolescent Scoliosis , Adult Scoliosis
- KICK PINK PRACTITIONER: Assessment and Rehabilitation of Breast Cancer Survivor Clients
- YTT: Yoga teacher Training 200 hours
