When Xander Clausen APAM sits down to Sunday dinner with his family, the conversation often drifts towards case studies, clinical reasoning and tricky patient presentations. 

Those in the family who aren’t physiotherapists could be forgiven for feeling a little left out.

‘I feel a bit bad for my dad and my siblings,’ Xander says. 

‘There’s a lot of physio chat that goes on in the household at family dinners. 

'We have to cut it off sometimes or we’ll spend the whole Sunday night dinner talking about case studies.’

For Xander, who has just completed his first year working as a physiotherapist with Monash Health, those conversations include two people who have shaped not only his career but also his understanding of the profession: his mother Shan Morrison FACP and his grandmother, retired physiotherapist Jill Morrison (nee Morris).

Across three generations, the Morrison family reflects the remarkable evolution of physiotherapy – from hospital-based rehabilitation with limited technology to a highly specialised, evidence-driven and increasingly holistic profession. 

Yet despite the changes in education, evidence and scope of practice, one thread connects them all and that is the desire to help people regain independence and improve their lives.

A profession discovered

Jill entered physiotherapy at a time when the profession looked very different. She studied a Diploma of Physiotherapy through the Masseurs Registration Board of Victoria and graduated in 1966.

The physiotherapy-based subjects took place inside Fairfield Hospital rather than at a university campus. 

For the first two years, classes were held in a single hospital room, before students moved into the newly completed Lincoln House and had placements during their final year.

Unlike today’s digitally supported learning environment, resources were limited and much of the knowledge base relied on experience and mentorship rather than a large body of published research.

Even discovering physiotherapy as a career required initiative. 

‘My mum rang around and sussed out there’s this Diploma of Physiotherapy – there was no Google then,’ Jill says.

Deciding she wanted to study physiotherapy at the end of her Matriculation year, Jill then worked for a year as a physiotherapy assistant while completing the entry prerequisite of Leaving (Year 11) physics. 

‘I always wanted to be in some caring career,’ she adds. 

Her early career took her to the Austin Hospital’s spinal unit, where she worked in the rehabilitation wards during a transformative period in spinal cord injury care. 

‘It was a fairly exciting time because it was the start of the Paralympic cycle. It was the start of paralympic sports.’

Working with patients recovering from severe spinal injuries gave her a firsthand view of physiotherapy’s impact. 

‘Especially the spinal unit – it was amazing to see the improvements in patients when they thought their life as they knew it was over and then they started to get stronger and regain some independence.’

Later, after raising three children, Jill returned to physiotherapy in a private nursing home, where she spent 14 years helping elderly residents regain mobility. 

‘People think nursing homes are the end of life. But I managed to get a couple of patients home again, which was quite exciting.’

Throughout her career, Jill never doubted her choice of profession. ‘No, I loved it,’ she says.

Watching a physiotherapist at work

For Shan, a Specialist Women’s, Men’s and Pelvic Health Physiotherapist (as awarded by the Australian College of Physiotherapists in 2011), physiotherapy is not just a career she chose. 

It is something she witnessed in action as a young woman. 

After Jill returned to work when Shan was a teenager, Shan often accompanied her mother to the nursing home. 

‘My younger brother and sister hated it,’ Shan says. ‘They didn’t like the smell of the place. But I went and I was just so taken by it.’

What captivated Shan most was the difference physiotherapy could make.

‘Mum had a lot of people who had had strokes and they said a nursing home is the only place they can go,’ Shan recalls. 

‘And she would rehab them to the point that a few of them ended up going home. It was inspiring.’

Watching her mother’s confidence in herself grow and the close relationships she developed with patients and families left a deep impression. 

‘The relationship she had with them and their families – just the difference she was making in people’s lives. I thought, “Oh yeah, that’s definitely the career I want.”’

Getting into physiotherapy was not straightforward. 

Shan initially missed the academic entry requirements for the sole Victorian course at Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences so she took a different pathway – working as a physiotherapy assistant at Box Hill Hospital. 

This also involved studying two additional Year 12 subjects at night school and spending her four weeks leave volunteering at an asthma camp and observing at physiotherapy private practices. 

That year proved pivotal. ‘It was the best year; I got to support and work alongside incredible physios and see firsthand what they did in an acute hospital setting. It was so fun,’ she says.

After also starting at Monash Health, Shan went on to build a successful career running her Melbourne-based practice
Women’s and Men’s Health Physiotherapy (now known as Pelvic Health Matters), solely focused on bladder, bowel, prolapse, sexual and pelvic pain conditions. 

She is widely respected in her field.

A natural choice

Growing up surrounded by physiotherapy discussions might seem like an obvious pathway into the profession but Xander insists the choice was his own. 

‘Mum was very careful not to push it on me,’ he says. ‘She always let me fall into the path that I wanted.’

In fact, physiotherapy did not become a consideration for Xander until late in Year 12. 

Having realised that he loved people and loved chatting to people, Xander began to seriously consider physiotherapy as his chosen profession after first considering dentistry.

Xander’s exposure to the profession as a child was relatively indirect. 

His mother’s work focused on pelvic health rather than the sports physiotherapy often associated with the profession. 

‘I didn’t necessarily have a lot of exposure to sports or musculoskeletal physio,’ he says. 

What he did have was exposure to physiotherapists as a patient.

‘I was always bouncing off the walls and getting injured,’ Xander says. ‘And I thought physios were pretty cool.’ 

Once he began studying physiotherapy in regional Victoria, his decision was confirmed.

‘As soon as I started the course, I knew that I’d made the right choice.’ 

Now, early in his career, Xander works in the hospital system and is exploring areas such as musculoskeletal and persistent pain.

‘I’m still very fresh. Lots to learn.’

A profession that keeps evolving

Seeing the profession through three generations of the one family highlights just how much it has changed. 

For Jill, technology was virtually non-existent in the learning process. 

Shan Morrison and her son Xander at the recent APASC25 conference.

Students relied heavily on handwritten notes and hand-drawn anatomical diagrams.

Xander discovered this firsthand when Shan unearthed Jill’s old study materials. 

‘Mum tracked down all Nanna’s course notes,’ Xander says. ‘She had these absolutely beautifully hand-drawn cue cards and anatomy diagrams.’

Today’s students, by contrast, can access detailed digital anatomy platforms in seconds. 

But technology is only part of the transformation. 

The evidence base supporting physiotherapy has expanded dramatically too. 

‘There’s so much research now. It’s arguably harder to decipher what is the most relevant and high-quality evidence,’ he says.

But perhaps the most significant shift has been in the philosophy of care.

‘I feel like the scope of physio has expanded so much,’ Xander says. 

Where earlier generations often focused on hands-on treatment and physical rehabilitation, modern physiotherapy increasingly incorporates psychosocial and behavioural approaches, particularly in areas such as persistent pain. 

‘The profession has slowly shifted away from a “fixer” mentality to more of a guiding or coaching role,’ Xander says. ‘Empowering the patient.’

For Shan, whose work centres on complex pelvic health and persistent pelvic pain conditions, this evolution has been particularly significant.

Driven to learn

Despite the changes in practice and training, the Morrison family shares a number of core professional values. One of them is learning through curiosity. 

Xander says this was one of the most important lessons he learned from his mother. 

‘Early on at uni, I asked lots of questions and learnt from Mum to always be curious and explore different perspectives,’ he says.

That mindset became particularly valuable when encountering outdated or conflicting information during his studies. 

‘You’re being taught something as if it’s fact but sometimes it’s already outdated,’ he adds. 

Physiotherapy requires constant learning and adaptation, he believes. ‘The physio world is ever evolving. You can’t just settle.’

Xander has witnessed his mum live the value of lifelong learning. 

‘She’s always doing professional development, reading articles and attending courses,’ he reflects. 

A highlight for them both was learning together at the APA scientific conference in October last year.

Another shared value is the importance of relationships with patients. 

For Jill, helping residents regain independence in a nursing home setting was deeply rewarding. 

For Shan, it was discovering how important creating a safe space, building trust and empathetic listening were for pelvic health patients experiencing very private and intimate symptoms. 

And for Xander, the patient relationship remains critical. 

‘One thing that’s really valuable is the time we can spend with patients,’ he says. ‘You can really get to know the person and be that support person in their healthcare.’

Looking to the future

Being the third physiotherapist in the family comes with a certain sense of responsibility for Xander. He feels as though he has some big shoes to fill. 

His mother’s reputation as a specialist pelvic health physiotherapist and a business owner and his grandmother’s respected work in neurological rehabilitation have set the bar high.

But he also feels fortunate to have such strong mentors within his own family. 

‘There’s so much that I’ve learned from Mum and Nanna that I didn’t get at university,’ he says. 

Beyond clinical insights, their careers have also shaped his broader perspective on the profession. 

‘I think their passion and excitement for it comes through in me.’ 

Physiotherapy, he says, often feels less like work and more like a genuine interest.

As the youngest member of the Morrison physiotherapy lineage, Xander represents the next chapter in the profession’s evolution.

While he has an interest in musculoskeletal and persistent pain, he is deliberately keeping his options open. 

‘If I’ve learned something from them, it’s that they had no idea where they were going to end up either,’ he says.

Instead, he hopes the profession continues to evolve in the same spirit of growth and learning that has defined it for decades. 

‘I hope that when I’m at the end of my career, people will tell me I’ve been getting some things wrong for 20 years. 

'That would mean the profession has kept improving,’ he says.

For the Morrison-Clausen family, physiotherapy is more than a career choice passed down through the generations. 

It is a shared commitment to learning, caring and adapting – qualities that have allowed the profession, and the family within it, to thrive across more than 60 years.