Kirsten Ekerholt zum International Mental Health Day 2022

Dear Austrian colleagues,

It is a great pleasure for me to send you all warm greetings on The International Mental Health Day, October 10. I am a Norwegian psychomotor physiotherapist, MSc, former Associate professor and Professional Head of Advanced Studies in Norwegian Psychomotor Physiotherapy (NPMP) at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway. I have been to Vienna several times teaching Resource Oriented Body Examination (ROBE), which is a psychomotor body examination. ROBE is very well suited for an assessment of the patient’s stress level, regardless of the reasons for
somatic and/or mental symptoms and problems, and regardless of the verbal information that is given to the physiotherapist. This means that ROBE is well suited for patients in mental as well as somatic physiotherapy. 

My course is part of a course series in Mental Health Physiotherapy and has the subtitle “Befund – klinisch-praktische Vertiefung.” The other three courses are taught by physiotherapist Stefan Perner, MSc, BA. These are one introductory course, and two courses with a clinical focus on “Strukturstörungen” and “Funktionsstörungen”. 

Last month, September 19th – 21st, I was in Vienna, and met one Swiss and 11 Austrian colleagues, teaching and co-working with them about the different items in ROBE, such as Assessment of posture, breathing, movements, muscular consistency and body image/ body awareness. We also discussed how a final, joint assessment of the clinical findings from ROBE could be a guidance in the search for a therapeutic intervention that might be adapted to and suitable for the individual patient. 

The participants were very engaged and interested, both in discussing theoretical aspects and in working practically with different parts of ROBE. They also expressed that they would like to learn more about this therapeutic approach. The teaching language was English, and even if neither the participants nor I are native English speakers, we managed to communicate very well! 

During my stay in Vienna this time, I visited once more the magnificent Schloss Schönbrunn, and for the first time, the beautiful Schloss Belvedere. Historical perspectives come so close when one visit these breathtaking buildings, and the beautiful parks, which surround them. Vienna is a beautiful city, filled with history and culture; one should really visit this city as often as possible. 

Finally, I would like to present three articles about Norwegian Psychomotor Physiotherapy. The first article describes patients’ experiences with NPMP; the second article describes concurrent and reciprocal therapies experienced by a psychomotor physiotherapist and a clinical psychologist and the third article presents results from a randomized controlled clinical trial that examine the effectiveness of NPMP as individual treatment.

I hope you will enjoy reading these articles!

Best wishes and kind regards
Kirsten Ekerholt