Lisa Bartley [BMRPT/11] has been an avid curler all her life. When she was growing up on a grain farm in Roland, Man., her family spent much of the slow winter season playing the sport.
“I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know what curling was,” she says.
Her love of curling also led to her life’s work: physiotherapy.
Bartley began curling competitively at age 11. But over the next few years, she developed a condition called patellofemoral pain syndrome.
“My knee pain was on my sliding foot, which requires maximum knee flexion with my foot turned out when throwing a rock – the opposite motion to what the knee is built to do,” she says.
She was treated with custom orthotics, a knee brace and quad strengthening. That rehabilitation allowed her to keep playing.
She continued curling for the next several years, competing at the Manitoba Winter Games in 2002 and again in 2006, when she led her team, as skip, to a silver medal.
By the time Bartley went to university, there was no question that physical therapy was her aim.
Graduating from UM in 2011, she took her first job in Yorkton, Sask., at a clinic that overlooked eight sheets of curling ice.
After a year and half, she spent a few years working in Winnipeg before returning to small-town Manitoba.
“I knew in my heart that I was a rural kid, and I always will be.”
In 2020, she settled in at a new clinic in Île-des-Chênes, close to her home in Niverville. There, she specializes in orthopedic physical therapy, treating patients of all ages, including other athletes.
“My favourite thing is getting people back to what they want to do. They could be sidelined from volleyball or have a nagging injury from curling, but it could also be as simple as climbing the stairs or carrying in their groceries.”
In 2017, Bartley completed a master’s degree in clinical manipulative physiotherapy at Western University. That same year, she became a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Manipulative Physiotherapy (FCAMPT), a prestigious orthopedic designation that had been a goal since she started seeing a physiotherapist for chronic knee pain while she was at UM.
“Murray McCutcheon was the physio who first got me interested in the FCAMPT, along with some of my UM instructors,” she says.
Today, Bartley works alongside some of those who inspired her, including Roland Lavallée [BA/80, BMRPT/83] and Mike McMurray [BPE/88, BMRPT/93, M.Sc./09], as an assistant professor at the College of Rehabilitation Sciences.
“It’s come full circle for me. These are the people who influenced me in the orthopedic world,” she says.
As for curling, Bartley last played competitively in 2019 at the Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts. After suffering a knee injury in 2023, she has been working toward a return to the ice.
She says the experience helps her relate to patients.
“It’s about putting in the time with therapy, and knowing that consistency will pay off.
“If my patients are feeling frustrated, I tell them my story and instantly they think, ‘She understands. She’s going to get me through this.’ I think that’s huge with any kind of therapy.”
BY ALAN MACKENZIE