New owner for Robson Physiotherapy

By Rachel Fraser

Vanessa McGibbon wants you to complain. She said many of her patients don’t want to, but she needs to know what hurts and how it’s affecting you, because often she can help.  “The population here is very hardworking, blue collar, McBride has a lot of farmers, so people who are very good at putting up with pain.”

The physiotherapist is the new owner of Robson Physiotherapy, with clinics in Valemount, on the lower level of the Valemount Health Centre, and McBride, in the Community Health Centre building next to the hospital.

McGibbon said when she first began offering services in the Robson Valley, many people didn’t know what physiotherapy was. She said it was interesting to start treating people, explaining the discipline and how it could help them, and the word-of-mouth progression that over the last 5 years has led to her now-busy practice.

The venture began in Valemount in 2020 as an outpost of Jasper Physiotherapy and Health Centre, with McGibbon traveling from her home in Jasper to provide services that weren’t yet available in the Robson Valley. She moved to Tete Jaune in 2022 and made a full-time commitment to the Valley by opening a second clinic in McBride, still under the Jasper Physio umbrella. McGibbon eventually expressed interest in buying out her boss to operate Robson Physiotherapy independently. 

McGibbon said her interest in physiotherapy goes back to health sciences in high school. As she pursued an undergraduate in kinesiology, she didn’t have an affinity for chemistry or pharmaceuticals as much as anatomy and biology, so physiotherapy seemed a natural fit, and she went on to complete a masters degree in physiotherapy. 

McGibbon is intensely passionate about exercise. Not all physiotherapists are as focused on prescribing or teaching exercise, though Vanessa says her practice is a mix of manual manipulation, like massage, and exercise-based therapy. 

She sees a lot of seniors in her practice and at the exercise classes she teaches in Tete Jaune. 

“Every week I get to see my intergenerational friends, where people in their sixties are coming out,” McGibbon says of the classes.

“We have this expectation for seniors… that everything just kind of slows down, but if you look at the World Health Organization’s recommendations for what seniors are supposed to do, it’s everything adults do plus balance exercises.”

Since she began offering physio in the Valley, she’s been trying to break down barriers to exercise, especially when outside exercise isn’t accessible due to injury or icy conditions.  

“People (in the Valley) are active outside, but then you get older or if you have a big health event or an injury, and all of a sudden, you can’t walk on the trails you’ve walked your entire life. If you don’t figure out the thing that you can start to do, you get older faster, and then you get health conditions associated with being inactive.” 

Besides the exercise classes, which she started offering because nothing of the sort existed at the time, she now has a contract with the gym at the Canoe Valley Recreation Centre to do physio sessions at the gym to teach people how to do exercises and use the equipment. 

In a typical city, she might send someone to a personal trainer in the gym, or a kinesiologist who could teach exercises, but here, she finds ways to fill the gaps herself.  She also makes orthotics.

“The nature of the job has always been like, where is the need in the Valley, and trying to fill that need.”

McGibbon plans to continue her advocacy for different avenues for exercise, such as trying to get a walking track at the Robson Valley Rec Centre for seniors in the winter.

“Making people exercise. I’m never stopping,” she said, laughing. “Making women past the age of 55 deadlift heavy weight! That’s my favourite thing to do.”

She’s working on offering some free health talks at the library, such as one about pelvic health, to share information with anyone interested, rather than repeating the same things to individuals paying to see her separately. 

McGibbon has specialty training for pelvic floor therapy, which according to her website can help with stress incontinence, overactive bladder syndrome, pelvic pain, pelvic organ prolapse, as well as pregnancy and childbirth related issues.

“You don’t have to pee your pants if you sneeze or cough or laugh,” she said. “I tell people it’s common, but it shouldn’t be an inherent thing you have to deal with. It’s super treatable.” 

She is also wanting to offer more menopause management support and said she is trying to get more advanced training for the treatment of symptoms of concussion, head and brain injury.

Most extended health benefits, or self-pay, don’t require a doctor’s referral, and potential patients can take advantage of her online booking platform, or call, text or email.

“Or send it by pigeon. Or stop me in the grocery store.” McGibbon said. “One benefit of buying the company is that now I am the admin person, so it’s much easier to get a hold of me personally.”