A new book co-published by the Critical Physiotherapy Network and the College of Rehabilitation Sciences, released in September 2025, shares both visions and original research from critical physiotherapy scholars from five continents. Together, the chapters address the recent past, present and future of the physiotherapy profession, as considered through critical social scientific and humanities perspectives.
The book, Inviting Movements in Physiotherapy: An anthology of critical scholarship, was co-edited by Dr. Patty Thille, associate professor of physical therapy at the College of Rehabilitation Sciences, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, along with Roshan Galvaan, professor of occupational therapy at the University of Cape Town, Karen Synne Groven, professor in public health and rehabilitation at Oslo Metropolitan University, and Clair Hebron, principal lecturer in physiotherapy at the University of Brighton.
The international Critical Physiotherapy Network is founded on the belief that physical therapies can make a more valuable and significant contribution to the lives of people today than the profession currently enacts.
According to Thille, the network has been made possible by a growing critical mass of physiotherapists who are eager to challenge contemporary physiotherapy theory and practice, to work towards a more positive, inclusive, critical future for physiotherapy.
“There’s a really big range of different theoretical traditions that people pull on to do work within critical physiotherapy, but it really is about addressing those ways in which we are limited … and imagining other possibilities,” Thille said at a Q&A session for the book at the Prairie Rehabilitation Research Conference on Oct. 24.
She said the contributions in the book aim “to open up the doors to think about a thousand different ways that we can do this thing that we call physiotherapy.”
The book was produced with the support of University of Manitoba Libraries. It is available as a freely open access book at UM’s eScholarship platform.
To keep up with the work of the Critical Physiotherapy Network, visit https://criticalphysio.substack.com.