Mieke Truijen

Mieke Truijen Physiotherapy Clinic on Pender Island has been open since 1996. Prior to that for 10 years Mieke has shared her time between private practice and part time in Long Term Care with the geriatric population and training employees in body mechanics, transfers, and back care. Mieke's clinical experience between 1983 and 1996 is in general private practice (orthopedic and neurology) and pediatric physiotherapy in the Netherlands, Germany, and Canada. Mieke’s physiotherapy training in the Netherlands included manual therapy, movement therapies, and massage therapy. Mieke learned the many different influences and responses of the body to hands-on treatments and through movement. Working with special needs children trained Mieke to have patience and "listen to the whole body" when assessing output (response and adaptations) and input (movement, hands-on treatment, stress, injuries, trauma). During her years with both pediatric and geriatric patients, Mieke learned more about the physiotherapist’s role in palliative care. Helping people be as comfortable as possible while they move through the end phases is a powerful way to create more “space” for living at the end of their lives. Mieke uses a variety of manual therapy techniques, depending on diagnosis and the individual treatment needs of each patient. Different techniques are most beneficial in addressing issues with fascial layers, pain, nerve entrapment, innervation patterns, and restrictions in spinal joints and limbs (shoulder, hip, knee replacements). Mieke’s mechanical input (touching the skin, movement) can guide the body’s own healing potential when it is ready for change. Mieke Truijen Physiotherapy Clinic has Mieke as sole physiotherapist, working as a general practitioner. Always curious and wanting to learn more, Mieke is interested in current research in pain sciences, neurosciences, the role our brain plays, the always-moving human body, and the human spirit.