Over 60 Years of Physiotherapy in Edmonton
For more than 60 years, Strathcona Physical Therapy has been part of Edmonton's healthcare community, growing alongside the profession of physiotherapy while remaining rooted in the Old Strathcona neighbourhood.
As one of Alberta's longstanding physiotherapy clinics, our history has been shaped by generations of physiotherapists, patients, educators, healthcare professionals, and community relationships.
What began as a primarily orthopaedic physiotherapy practice has evolved into a multidisciplinary clinic offering both general and highly specialized rehabilitation services. Through all of that change, one principle has remained constant: providing thoughtful, individualized care and continually advancing how we help people move and function.
More Than 60 Years in Old Strathcona
Strathcona Physical Therapy has called the Old Strathcona and Whyte Avenue area home for more than five decades.
Our clinic has grown and changed considerably over that time, but our connection to the community has remained an important part of who we are.
Over the years, we have cared for generations of Edmonton patients, from people recovering from everyday injuries and surgeries to athletes, workers, families, and patients requiring highly specialized rehabilitation.
For us, more than 60 years represents more than longevity. It represents relationships, clinical experience, continued learning, and the trust built one patient at a time.
Our Early Years
Strathcona Physical Therapy was established during an important period in the development of physiotherapy in Alberta and was one of the province's early physiotherapy practices.
Orthopaedic and musculoskeletal rehabilitation formed an important part of the clinic's early identity. As physiotherapy evolved, so did Strathcona.
Our clinicians became involved in professional education, sports rehabilitation, advanced manual therapy, and specialized areas of practice, helping establish a culture of continued learning that remains part of the clinic today.
A Tradition of Orthopaedic & Sports Physiotherapy
Orthopaedic rehabilitation has been part of Strathcona Physical Therapy from its earliest years.
Over the decades, our physiotherapists have been involved in sports physiotherapy, manual therapy, injury rehabilitation, professional education, and the broader development of physiotherapy practice.
That history includes involvement with sports medicine and professional physiotherapy organizations as well as clinicians who have worked with athletes at recreational, university, elite, and international levels.
Today, that foundation continues through our orthopaedic and sports injury services, where rehabilitation focuses not only on reducing symptoms but on rebuilding the strength, movement, and physical capacity required for everyday life and sport.
A Longstanding History in TMJ Physiotherapy
One of the most distinctive parts of Strathcona Physical Therapy's history is our longstanding involvement in temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ/TMD) rehabilitation.
Long before TMJ physiotherapy became widely recognized as a specialized area of rehabilitation, clinicians at Strathcona were developing experience in the assessment and treatment of jaw, facial, cervical, and related musculoskeletal conditions.
Over the years, this developed into close multidisciplinary relationships with dental and medical professionals and a longstanding connection with the University of Alberta's Oral Medicine program.
Today, TMJ physiotherapy remains one of Strathcona Physical Therapy's important areas of specialized practice. Our current physiotherapists continue that tradition through advanced education, clinical experience, and collaboration with other healthcare professionals.
Our Connection With the University of Alberta
Education and interdisciplinary collaboration have played an important role throughout Strathcona Physical Therapy's history.
Our clinic and clinicians have maintained longstanding professional connections with the University of Alberta, including relationships involving physiotherapy education and the Oral Medicine program.
Several members of the Strathcona team are University of Alberta graduates, and our clinicians have contributed to clinical education and interdisciplinary care over the years.
These relationships reflect something that has always been important to the clinic: physiotherapy does not exist in isolation. Strong rehabilitation often depends on communication, continued education, and collaboration across healthcare disciplines.
The Physiotherapists Who Shaped Strathcona
The history of Strathcona Physical Therapy is ultimately the history of the people who built it.
Martin Parfitt
Martin Parfitt, now retired, practiced at Strathcona Physical Therapy for more than 40 years and played an important role in the development of the clinic.
His longstanding work in orthopaedic physiotherapy and particularly TMJ/TMD rehabilitation helped establish an area of expertise that continues to be an important part of Strathcona today.
Although Martin is now retired and no longer seeing patients, his contribution remains part of the foundation upon which the clinic continues to build.
Ed Steinbring, PT, BSc
Ed Steinbring joined Strathcona Physical Therapy in 1983 and became a partner in 1984.
Throughout his career, Ed has combined clinical practice with education and professional involvement. He has served as an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Alberta within Dentistry/Medicine and Rehabilitation Medicine and has completed postgraduate education in TMJ/TMD, acupuncture, sports rehabilitation, and manipulative therapy.
His involvement in physiotherapy education, orthopaedics, sports rehabilitation, and TMJ care represents an important part of Strathcona's clinical history.
From Traditional Orthopaedics to Specialized Physiotherapy
Physiotherapy has changed enormously over the past five decades, and Strathcona Physical Therapy has continued to evolve with it.
Our orthopaedic foundation remains an important part of the clinic, but our physiotherapy services have expanded to include specialized areas such as:
TMJ/TMD physiotherapy
Vestibular rehabilitation
Concussion management
Pelvic floor physiotherapy
Schroth therapy for scoliosis
Orthopaedic and sports rehabilitation
Dry needling and IMS
Shockwave therapy
Motor vehicle accident rehabilitation
WCB and workplace injury rehabilitation
Our physiotherapists continue to pursue advanced education and specialized training so that patients can access both general physiotherapy and more specialized rehabilitation within the same clinic.
Strathcona Physical Therapy Today
Today, Strathcona Physical Therapy has grown beyond physiotherapy alone.
Our team includes professionals across physiotherapy, occupational therapy, psychology, massage therapy, dietetics, and rehabilitation support, allowing us to offer a broader approach to health and recovery when multidisciplinary care is appropriate.
Although the clinic has evolved, our identity remains connected to the principles that shaped Strathcona from the beginning: clinical experience, continued learning, individualized care, professional collaboration, and connection to our community.
We are proud of where Strathcona Physical Therapy came from, but we are equally focused on where rehabilitation is going.
Carrying Our History Forward
More than 60 years of history gives us experience, but it also gives us a responsibility to continue evolving.
Healthcare changes. Research advances. Rehabilitation approaches improve. New generations of physiotherapists bring new knowledge and perspectives.
Our goal is to honour the foundation built by the clinicians who came before us while continuing to invest in evidence-informed practice, advanced clinical training, interdisciplinary collaboration, and patient-centred rehabilitation.
From our early years in Old Strathcona to the multidisciplinary clinic we are today, our purpose has remained remarkably consistent:
to help people move better, function better, and return to the lives and activities that matter to them.
Growing Our Community: Bonnie Doon Physiotherapy
As our practice has grown, we have expanded our care beyond Old Strathcona with our second location, Bonnie Doon Physiotherapy.
Located in Edmonton's Bonnie Doon community, the clinic extends the same commitment to individualized, evidence-informed physiotherapy and rehabilitation that has shaped Strathcona Physical Therapy for more than 60 years.
Together, Strathcona Physical Therapy and Bonnie Doon Physiotherapy allow our team to serve patients across two Edmonton locations while continuing the tradition of care, clinical experience, and community connection that began at Strathcona.