A Physiotherapy That Inhabits Time: Between Doing and Being Reflections for a More Human, Conscious, and Present Practice

A Physiotherapy That Inhabits Time: Between Doing and Being Reflections for a More Human, Conscious, and Present Practice

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.70205/jptmh.v2i1.14473

Keywords:

Humanized physiotherapy, Therapeutic rest, Body awareness, Clinical presence, Client empowerment

Abstract

We live in a world where everything is urgent. Doing, creating, moving forward, never stopping… To the point where productivity has become the contemporary religion. Rest has been pathologized and is now viewed as a privilege, a waste of time, and a luxury that not everyone can afford, not even those of us who work in healthcare.

The system and society measure value by what is useful, fast, and visible. It’s an accelerated society that demands results and considers anything unproductive as inefficient. And in this rhythm — mainly economic, but also symbolic — we’ve inherited a way of understanding health: a “state” achieved by doing more, moving more, accomplishing more, occupying all our time, our body, and our thoughts. Because only by “doing” and being “productive” are we seen as healthy.

Without realizing it, even through discourses that aim to be holistic, we’ve reduced health to constant activity — a pattern even replicated by those of us who claim to have a more human, broader, and sensitive perspective.

If we are health professionals, not disease professionals, we should ask ourselves: Do all people really need to become more active and less sedentary? What if what they need is not activation, but rest? What if health is not built through movement, but through pause?

Author Biography

María Eugenia de León Pérez, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Physiotherapy in Mental Health

Physiotherapist and Master in Family Sciences. Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Physiotherapy in Mental Health, as well as founder of the Guatemalan Association of Physiotherapists in Mental Health. She is the creator of the “Ínsula” program in Mental Health Physiotherapy, co-founder of Salud en Movimiento, and author of the book chapter Gender-Based Violence from the Perspective of Physiotherapy: A Proposal from Mexico and Colombia.

She has clinical experience with neurological and psychiatric patients, as well as in working with children, adolescents, and women survivors of violence. In addition, she has served as a university lecturer at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and is a national and international speaker at physiotherapy, psychiatry, and research conferences.

Published

2025-05-31

How to Cite

de León Pérez, M. E. (2025). A Physiotherapy That Inhabits Time: Between Doing and Being Reflections for a More Human, Conscious, and Present Practice. Journal of Physiotherapy in Mental Health, 2(1), 7–10. https://doi.org/10.70205/jptmh.v2i1.14473
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