McKenzie - Treat Your Own Neck

Robin McKenzie was born in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1931. After attending Wairarapa College, he enrolled in the New Zealand School of Physiotherapy, from which he graduated in 1952. Since 1953, when he commenced private practice in Wellington, New Zealand, he has specialised in the treatment of spinal disorders.

During the 1960s Robin McKenzie developed his own examination and treatment methods and is now recognised internationally as an authority on the diagnosis and treatment of low back pain. He has lectured internationally and, to give some indication of the success of the system of treatment he has developed, the McKenzie Method of mechanical diagnosis and therapy is now taught and practised worldwide. In the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland and in New Zealand, the McKenzie Method is the treatment of choice among physiotherapists for back problems.

In June 2004 the Advance Journal for physical therapists (physiotherapists) and physical therapy assistants in the United States published the results of a survey sent to a random sampling of 320 physical therapists from the orthopaedic section of the American Physical Therapy Association. The therapists were asked which physical therapists or physicians of all time had had the biggest influence in their thinking or performance in orthopaedic physical therapy. The clinician voted the most influential was Robin McKenzie.

The success of the McKenzie Method has attracted intense interest from researchers in various parts of the world, and it is one of the most studied diagnostic and treatment systems for back pain at the present time. An extensive list of scientific studies carried out worldwide demonstrates the efficacy and importance of the diagnostic process and the treatment system. If you are interested in reading more about this, go to www.mckenziemdt.org.

To ensure the orderly development of education and research into the methods devised by Robin McKenzie, doctors and physiotherapists involved in the teaching process formed the McKenzie Institute International in 1982. The Institute is a not-for-profit organisation with headquarters in New Zealand. Robin McKenzie was elected the first president of the Institute.

The contributions Robin McKenzie has made to the understanding and treatment of musculoskeletal problems have been internationally recognised. In 1982 he was made an Honorary Life Member of the American Physical Therapy Association in recognition of distinguished and meritorious service to the art and science of physical therapy and to the welfare of mankind.

In 1983 he was elected to membership of the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine. In 1984 he was made a Fellow of the American Back Society and in 1985 he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the New Zealand Society of Physiotherapists. In 1987 he was made an Honorary Life Member of the New Zealand Manipulative Therapists Association and in 1990 an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists in the United Kingdom.

In the 1990 Queens Birthday Honours, Robin McKenzie was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE). In the New Year Honours 2000, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II appointed Robin McKenzie to be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM).