Our teachers:
expertly qualified, active throughout the world

Pierre was born in La Chaux-de-Fonds in the French part of Switzerland. He completed his physiotherapy training in 1981 in the Physiotherapy School at the University Hospital in Basel under Dr.med. h.c. Susanne Klein-Vogelbach. After working at the University Hospital in Basel and in Lausanne, Pierre opened his own practice in Lutry, Switzerland in 1987 and the Postgraduate Study Centre CFP Lutry since 2000.
Pierre qualified as a teacher with the International Maitland Teachers Association (IMTA) in 1988. He was made Senior Teacher in 1992 and Honorary Member of SVOPM in 1995.
Pierre has published in various journals and is a co-author in different books.
Currently Pierre continues to work as clinician in the CFP Lutry and teaches postgraduate manipulative therapy through Europe. His special interests include the management of complex various types of pain phenotypes and headaches.

Jan Herman completed his Bachelor in Physiotherapy at the Friese Akademie voor Fysiotherapie in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands in 1978. He then moved to Switzerland where he has since worked in various hospitals and private practices. He has been practicing in his own physiotherapy practice in Grenchen, Switzerland from 1987 to 2020. Jan Herman has completed a number of manual therapy training schemes in various concepts in Switzerland and Germany. In 1994 he successfully completed the OMT training scheme in Switzerland and qualified as a teacher with the International Maitland Teachers Association (IMTA). Currently teaches postgraduate manipulative therapy in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Poland and Spain. He has been co-editor of the German language professional journal “Manuelle Therapie” for 25 Years.

Trisha became a Chartered and State Registered Physiotherapist in 1980 at the Oswestry and North Staffordshire School of Physiotherapy in the UK. After gaining 6 years professional experience in the UK she moved to Germany where she has worked at the University Hospital in Munich since 1987. In 1996 she attained her OMT qualification with the Deutscher Verband für Manuelle Therapie (Maitland® Konzept) e.V (DVMT) in Germany. Trisha qualified as a teacher with the International Maitland Teachers Association (IMTA) in 1999 and gained a Master of Science in Medical Education at Cardiff University in Wales UK in 2011. She is leader of the DVMT educational committee and their educational programme. Along with this she is a member of IFOMPTs Standards Committee she. Trisha continues work at the University Hospital Munich and to teach postgraduate manipulative therapy. Her areas of special interest include outcomes measurement, education and integrating evidence into everyday practice.

Hugo completed his undergraduate training in Amsterdam in 1981. From 1982 onwards he has been living in Switzerland. For postgraduate training he went a number of times to Australia, where he completed a Masters of Applied Science in Physiotherapy at the University of South Australia in 1994. As a clinician he worked over a large number of years in the outpatient physiotherapy department of a rehabilitation clinic, and since 2007 in his own practice in Wuerenlingen (www.physio-wuerenlingen.com), a small village in the northern part of Switzerland. Since 1990 he has been an accredited member of the International Maitland Teachers Association (IMTA), and of the NOI teaching faculty since 1994, teaching manual therapy, neurodynamics and pain management. His special fields of interest are frozen shoulder, the neurobiology of pain, and patient education/explain pain.
In order to be able to complete at least four decades of clinical work, his schedule always allows for a significant portion of physical training (TRX, mountain biking and tennis), making sure that personal practice stays in line with clinical preaching.

Elly completed her Bachelor in Physiotherapy at the Akademie voor Fysiotherapie in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 1980. After working in private practice in the Netherlands for a short time, she moved to Switzerland in the same year, where she has since practiced in various hospitals and private practice. She attained her OMPT qualification with the Schweizer Verband für Orthopädische Manuelle Therapie (SVOMP) in 1990 and the teaching qualification "Ausbildnerin Berner Kaderschule" in 1992. In 2000 she graduated from the University of East London, the UK, with a Masters of Science. 2012 she was awarded the title "Clinical Specialist MSK/PhysioSwiss" by the Swiss Physiotherapy Association and has served as a Clinical Supervisor and Coach for those physiotherapists who wish to obtain the same professional qualification.
Elly has published numerous articles and book contributions. She is co-author of the 6th edition of Maitland's Vertebral Manipulation. She published together with Kevin Banks the edition of Maitland's Peripheral Manipulation (2005), Maitland's Clinical Companion (2009). Furthermore, she edited/authored editions of Maitland's Vertebral Manipulation – Management of Musculoskeletal Disorders Vol. 1. 8th ed. (2014) and Maitland's Peripheral Manipulation – Management of Musculoskeletal Disorders Vol. 2. 5th ed. (2014). She is currently working with Gerti Bucher-Dollenz on the books' newest editions, published by the end of 2023.

After qualifying as a teacher with the International Maitland Teachers Association (IMTA) in 1992 she became Senior Teacher in 2003. She was secretary of the IMTA from 1992 until 1994, and Chairperson from 1995 until 2001. Elly is a previous executive committee member of the SVMP (Schweizerischer Verband Manipulativer Physiotherapie) and past member of the educational committee of the Schweizerischer Verband Orthopaedischer Manipulativer Physiotherapie (SVOMP). Currently, she is the coordinator of the educational program in the Netherlands, which leads to OMPT-Qualification based on the IMTA-course program Levels 1-3.
She has moved to Wimberley, Texas, U.S.A. in 2018. She continues to teach in pre- and postgraduate courses in Europe and the U.S.A. and is preparing for her license to practice in Texas.
Her special interests include the treatment of patients with chronic pain; movement-paradigms as the specific basis for the body-of-knowledge of physiotherapists; paradigms of illness experience and salutogenic perspectives; clinical reasoning processes and the role of narrative reasoning in clinical practice; the psychosocial dimensions of physiotherapy and manual therapy; qualitative research methods within physiotherapy research.