What Has Stigma Got to Do with Physiotherapy?

A few years ago, I attended a professional development session to learn techniques to treat the sacroiliac joint. Unsurprisingly, the techniques involved palpation and visual examination of the low back and pelvic areas. Afterward, one of the other physiotherapists mentioned that some of the techniques would be very difficult to conduct on someone who was overweight. Another then said that she really did not like touching people who were overweight; she found it “disgusting.” Comments such as these led me to consider what effects these ways of thinking might have on physiotherapy encounters and to subsequently develop an ongoing interest in the intersection between physiotherapy and stigma