About

My name is Gal Kantor. I’m a physiotherapist specializing in Manual Therapy, otherwise called Musculoskeletal (MSK) physiotherapy, as well as sports injuries. Every day I treat my patients. I really enjoy and love my work.

I hold various qualifications within the physiotherapy profession and sport, with particular interest and experience in swimming. I also conduct guest lecturing, and I supervise students at local universities. And I run my own educational courses and workshops that I have developed over the years.

My professional experience includes public health services, yet it is mostly within the private sector and at sports events of both Olympic and international levels.

I have owned and managed my own established practice, GK Physiotherapy, since 2005.

Yes, I am not saying that getting to where I am today was easy, or that I accomplished it all without a struggle.

My story is not a fairy tale. It was not at all easy to get to where I am today. I was a busy competitive swimmer in my youth, and my school grades were too low to qualify to study physiotherapy in my own country—and I had no money (and I mean absolutely nothing) to even consider studying abroad. I had to go to work, earn a living, and save money.

At age 23 I was a hard-driving, hard-working young man armed with considerable life experience, but with nothing to fulfil my dream of becoming a physiotherapist, without even a chance of doing it in a foreign country, in a foreign language.

After failing my second attempt to achieve the requisite marks to study physiotherapy in my home country, I decided to move on and do it my way.

I educated myself as a lifeguard and a swimming coach, and in the process learned quite a lot about swimming pool maintenance. During the summers of 1999 and 2000 I worked around pools, and between times I traveled, taking whatever jobs came my way, all the time learning, and improving, my use of the English language.

I ended up in a school of physiotherapy in the very east of Holland, but before the end of my second year I ran out of money, and I reluctantly accepted my parents’ support for a few months. But for my own pride, I couldn’t see my way clear to consider this as anything but a short-term solution.

I was close to being a stony-broke, starving student, when a good Dutch friend found me a job: outdoor physical labor, in the rough Dutch weather, on a huge plantation. Although starting to study the Dutch language from the very start, I understood very little of it by then but was grateful for the little extra income.
I then managed to find additional student grants that I used to successfully finish my studies. After four years of study in Holland, I became a fully qualified physiotherapist, and I was also trained to work in Dutch language.

There were other struggles and useful lessons I learned between then and now: professional accreditations earned in other countries, professional exams as part of completing my Masters degree, numerous professional memberships. I lectured and taught in a university for the first time while, at the same time, made tough, yet rewarding, business, and professional decisions. I will summarize these as I go along. I hope you are able to learn from my experience.

From the first year of my physiotherapy studies in Holland, I knew that I wanted to treat people in a private practice setting. Some of my teachers at the university where what used to be called in our profession ‘Manual Therapists,’ which means that they were officially trained and specialized in Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy.

They demonstrated a high level of clinical reasoning and manual skills, far beyond the average capabilities of other physiotherapists who practiced privately around them. Their successful professional image within the profession and their skills attracted my attention from the outset.
These skilled ‘Manual Therapists’ could also treat sports injuries very successfully, but mostly they were also private practitioners who ran their own practices around the city.

I was more than once in the past told that 'Manual Therapy works!" - that the full clinical physiotherapy way, and I'm not referring to, neither judging other professionals, who manipulate spinal joints regularly and or applying hands-on treatments of any kind. 

I wanted to affiliate myself with every well-educated and experienced practitioner who would agree to take me on, even for one day. In order to learn new skills and gather knowledge, I was ready to do absolutely anything for them for free. Watching them work made me appreciate what it takes to be a truly successful private practitioner in the eyes of both clients and colleagues.

I realized that it was extremely important to develop strong clinical reasoning skills, as well as strong manual skills. However, it took much more than that to achieve the level of success that I had in mind, which I will explain later on.

I continued to observe and learn from the best physiotherapy professionals I knew, both during and after my studies. It is hard to express my respect, and my gratitude, to these people who generously gave of their time, and freely shared, with me, their valuable, hard-earned experience.

After all these years of observing and learning from so many different professionals, I sometimes compare physiotherapy to cooking: you can learn wonderful recipes from almost anyone—regardless of credentials, professional experience, or skill level. I always find this incredibly exciting.

It took five years of postgraduate studies to be awarded a Masters degree in Manual Therapy and to gain prestigious e membership in the Manipulative Association of Manual/Musculoskeletal Physiotherapists (MMACP).

Of course, learning never stopped forme. Besides numerous short-term continuing education courses, I also spent six years completing ten-course modules, offered by the Moscow University Institution of Manual Therapy, in order to gain full professional confidence in this field.

Regardless of my studies and running my own practice,  I made a few attempts to build  up a ‘true’ money-making business. To higher, then eventually fire people, while trying to grow my small business bigger. These attempts were both expensive, and in the end, I was left broke and quite unhappy. My lesson from it was learned the hard way and led me to write my book and to create a trainings on the subject of private physiotherapy.