Véronique Bornet
PT BSc, OMT-svomp®, FFA-BF-M1
IMTA teacher, AFOM and MaiFra member
Véronique grew up in Valais, a bilingual canton in the Swiss Alps. Of Swiss and French origin, she has a heartfelt connexion with these countries, as well as with Australia were she lived for a year. After 4 years of training in physiotherapy in Lausanne, she graduated in 2003 from the HESAV.
With a particular interest in the NMSK domain, she followed a training in the Maitland® Concept in Lutry, finishing her level 3 in 2012. Enthusiastic about the value of this new knowledge which has strongly influenced her clinical practice, she has committed herself to the training of IMTA Teacher Candidate in order to improve her skills and knowledge, and to be able to share the richness of the Maitland® concept with other colleagues. To this end, she also keeps leading a dynamic and stimulating regional working group, connecting physiotherapists practicing the Maitland concept in Valais.
She had the chance to work at the Physiotherapy and Training Center of Pierre Jeangros in Lutry and to develop her own private practice in Sion. Today she teaches IMTA courses in Lutry and works at Horion Physiotherapy in Sion in a team of five colleagues, all trained in the Maitland concept and experts in various fields.
Her career as an IMTA Teacher Candidate has been highlighted by various training courses, including the OMT program followed in Germany between 2013 and 2015. She is today certified OMTsvomp®.
Véronique aims to make this valuable training known and available in the French-speaking world. Therefore she got involved in the creation of the AFOM OMT curriculum and teaches the "Relational skills and psycho-social factors" module in Paris. She is also an active member of the MaiFra, an alumni association of French speaking Maitland® graduates.
In addition to specific physiotherapy training, she enjoyed taking adult education courses allowing her to develop her teaching skills. Thanks to her life and international working paths, she can teach the Maitland® Concept in French, German and English. Certified IMTA Teacher in 2021, she teaches Maitland courses in Switzerland and Hungary. In addition, she collaborates with the swiss PT schools (HES-SO), teaching NMSK topics in BSc and advanced levels and offering OMPT clinical supervisions.
It's been already 20 years since Louis Gifford proposed to focus on Healing and Recovery in his edito "Now for pink flags!" Can you celebrate this anniversary with a "Yes, I do"?
- Reflect on your practice and clinical reasoning : do you focus more on what's wrong, or on what's right?
- Take a look at your medical records: do you mention the factors contributing to the problem more often, or the resources that suggest good health?
If we navigate by following the course set by the ICF (International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health) and the biopsychosocial model, our compass of reflection should also point in the direction of health and recovery.
Oliveira and Costa (2025) remind us the connection between physical activity and health "by a salutogenesis-oriented concept, which emphasis the origins of health, as opposed to the pathogenic model, which focuses on the origin of diseases."

In the model of salutogenesis, a Sense of Coherence enables individuals to mobilize resources to successfully cope with life's stressors.
Want a good New Year's resolution? Focus more on your patients' resources and sense of coherence. Empower them with coping strategies that will help them achieve their goals and boost their feeling of self-efficacy.
And let's Paint yellow flags in Positive Pink!
Véronique Bornet
IMTA teacher, PT OMTsvomp®, AFOM and MaiFra member
You may enjoy reading:
- Editorial: Now for Pink Flags! Gifford L S 2005
- Physical activity and salutogenesis: a necessary dialogue, Oliveira VJM et Costa RMD 2025
- An empirical ranking of the importance of the sources of self-efficacy for physical activity, Egele et al. 2025
#Maitland #Maitlandconcept #IMTA #clinicalreasoning #EBP #salutogenesis #CBT #TCC #rehab #professionaldevelopment #health #manualtherapy #physio #physicaltherapy #physiothérapie #physiotherapy #kinésithérapie
Comments