PRACTITIONER PROFILE
Warren Lowry
What has kept you practising for 30 + years ? After operating my private clinic for 5 years in Deniliquin and Griffith I began doing many courses based on where I thought my career would like to take me . In the early stages of my career I was fortunate to meet the right people in the right places that catapulted me forward at a rate of knots and in a direction I could not have dreamed of .
I managed to secure a 2-week placement at the Institute of Sport in Canberra . I was immediately in their system and before long I had job interviews for sports massage therapists in Canberra . My world of Remedial Massage had just been given a giant boost . I was so excited . I felt at home .
I was employed by the Australian Institute and the ACT Academy of Sport . I was involved in four Olympic Campaigns and was sent to 37 different countries as a Public Servant Sports Therapist .
I was placed into the University of Canberra to study in Biomechanics and Functional Anatomy which was crucial for my work . This was a pivotal part of my career and it gave me so much direction , drive , knowledge and the opportunity to treat and manage elite athletes in their training and recovery . I felt at home using massage to manage injuries through understanding biomechanical actions and a better knowledge of the nervous system and its firing patterns .
I believe the insight sport gives us of the toll on the human body can help us understand the everyday toll that we therapists have to consider when helping our clientele .
What have been the most important changes to natural medicine you have seen during your career ? In my own personal experience I can only speak for what I believe has changed in my role , and in my own practice , as I don ' t get out and speak to that many therapists . I have found that experience and the countless conversations with our clients gives us a better understanding of how society affects their body and what they are or are not doing about it .
I think it ’ s great to see us being a part of the health system and massage being finally recognised as an integral part of the healing process .
I happen to treat many GPs from my region and it is comforting to get the referrals even though massage is not formally part of the medical referral system .
How do you envisage natural medicine developing over the next 30 years ? I ' m not sure . But I want to keep working and helping people . I know the challenges are there and I want to keep improving . Health funds and their recognition of us will become more and difficult , so there ' ll be changes there .
I would love us more experienced therapists to be recognised for our time spent practising and not being forced to courses for CPE that we honestly have no interest in . How much can we fit in these old heads when we have spent years developing skills from our knowledge and our success is proven .
What advice do you have for today ’ s emerging practitioners ? Go to the trouble and buy an up / down table for your main practice room . The height that you treat has to vary depending on what you are treating and is paramount to the longevity of your career . You may still need a portable table for obvious reasons . You don ' t get to 34 years of treating bodies without looking after yourself - the therapist .
A skeleton and a white board . Every time you explain something on your skeleton or whiteboard you are continuing your own learning ...
Think outside the box .
EARN 20 CPE POINTS BY JUNE 30 Members must accumulate 20 CPE points each financial year to stay accredited with ATMS
We can stay within our boundaries but be a bigger part of the health and wellness system .
Be part of a connected network for your client . Link them up and stay linked up yourself with other practitioners who can help . Remember the client might really benefit from your advice to use others and form a group of practitioners who have similar goals - that is the client ’ s outcome , ( not the practitioner ’ s bank balance ).
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