I agree that some of the views that physiotherapy is being "diluted" is based on the promotion of our profession. We need to sell what we do. With the strong emphasis on evidence-based practice, we have a lot of research at our hands to ensure that other health professionals recognize our knowledge base. BUT...they don't read our research (and we don't read much of theirs!). So we have to market ourselves to them. Although a doctor's referral is not required for treatment in Canada (and in many other countries), doctors are still my main referral source. So we need to ensure docs know exactly what we do. However, related to that, maybe the docs wouldn't be our main referral source and clients would self-refer if they knew what we did.

As for the comment about other services taking over like Pilates. I have to argue that point simply because retraining "core stability" is SO MUCH MORE than just having someone go through a set of exercises (particularly someone who has had an injury....i.e. our clientele). Doing exercise with good technique is important and enough for most but it's not enough for those folks with injuries.

While we and our professional associations are trying to market our profession to a larger community, as therapists we can do some pretty easy marketing by doing what we do. We have the knowledge to do a thorough assessment, to critically evaluate our findings, to plan a treatment plan etc. etc. and most importantly.....to EDUCATE our clients. Although some of them just want us to "fix them" most are really interested and reassured when we cite research, talk about a conference we were at, show them pictures in the anatomy text etc etc etc. We also need to know what everyone else (other members of our health care team) does so we can refer appropriately and bounce thoughts/ideas off each other. So basically, we need to market ourselves by taking the time to really apply all the knowledge we have!!!