Profile

We are excited to be joined by the UK’s only Maitland® Concept instructor, Matthew Newton, who qualified to teach the Concept two years ago. He also has many years of experience working in the NHS and the private sector and is now available at Blizard Physiotherapy, every Tuesday evening from 5pm.

He has spent many years learning and working in clinical practice employing the highest level of manual therapy skills, since first graduating 27 years ago.

This clearly is great news for Blizard Physiotherapy’s growing team of practitioners, which now numbers five physiotherapists, four of whom work within the framework of the Maitland® Concept.

Matthew is keen to make a difference to as many people’s lives as he can during his time at the clinic:

“One of the main reasons I have joined Blizard is because the team there has a similar vision to mine - in that they want to provide the best possible care for their patients, and they are very motivated to develop an excellent physiotherapy service”, he explained.

He added that “Jenny and Caroline have completed post graduate courses in the Maitland ® Concept and use the approach daily to treat their patients, and therefore it is great to work with similar thinking physiotherapists.”

The practice is also proud to count Kate Stowers and new Blizard physiotherapist, Terri Coates, amongst its team.

So, in simple terms, what does the Maitland® Concept offer patients?

Crucial to the concept is encouraging its practitioners to continue developing their handling and clinical reasoning skills in the physiotherapy treatment of the nervous, muscular and skeletal systems of the body. 

It is an open-minded approach to patient examination, treatment and the assessment of a person’s movement, with the aim of getting the best possible functional improvement for each individual patient.

Thus, Maitland® Concept practitioners employ a specific way of thinking, using methodical evaluation and assessment, before practicing the art of ‘manipulative physiotherapy’ as appropriate to the patient, and the core methods remain crucial in all treatments:

“Know when, how and which techniques to perform, and adapt these to the individual patient”

So how did Matthew become the UK’s only practicing instructor in the Maitland® Concept?

He explained how, after first qualifying as a physiotherapist in 1988, it soon became apparent, after attending various post-graduate courses, that the Maitland® Concept was the only concept flexible enough to change with advancing knowledge, and yet always remain focused on the patient at the centre of the whole examination and treatment process.

He added: “It also remains true to the physiotherapy profession, in that it assesses and analyses the movement dysfunctions patients have, with thinking processes that consider, but are not corrupted by, the orthopaedic or medical diagnoses.”

Matthew was trained by several of Europe’s leading clinicians including previous Maitland® Concept instructors Robin Blake and Kevin Banks.

These hugely influential men introduced him to the postgraduate course system that the International Maitland Teacher's Association (IMTA www.imta.ch ) offers, and, once he had completed the four education levels, he then embarked on the IMTA teacher training programme, which Matthew started in 2001.

The Doncaster-based Maitland® Concept expert explained how well the course system set him up to be the physiotherapist he is now:

“The programme is a gruelling and challenging process, but provides an excellent standard of ongoing post-graduate education, which I believe has greatly helped improve my standard of patient care, as well as enabling me to teach other physiotherapists.”
  
Matthew summed up by rather modestly reflecting on his work now and in the future with Blizard:

“Hopefully the patients will benefit from my experience - it is an exciting change for me, and I am looking forward to being involved in the Blizard development of a centre of excellence, including potentially teaching courses at the practice.”

Matthew’s full professional biography can be read at the IMTA website here: http://s398327813.onlinehome.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Teachers-Profile-Newton.pdf, which provides an overview of his impressive qualifications and experience, all of which our patients will be able to have access to on Tuesday evenings, and perhaps more regularly in the future.