ABOUT
The Bobaths' Story
Dr Karel and Mrs Berta Bobath came from Germany as refugees in the 1930s. Berta trained as a remedial gymnast and physiotherapist, Karel was a psychiatrist. They settled in London and together they changed the face of rehabilitation of children and adults with brain injury (cerebral palsy and adult stroke). Through experimentation, analysis and forward thinking they developed a concept and a rationale for treating children and adults with brain injury, which has been used successfully for over 80 years.
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Dr and Mrs Bobath disseminated their unique clinical reasoning approach around the world, receiving honorary awards from many countries, including the UK, Japan, USA, and South America.
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They were among the very first to recognise and write about plasticity within the nervous system as well as the relevance of sensory disturbances, sensorimotor learning, individualised goal setting, outcome measures, activity limitation, functional participation, home programmes and parental education long before these terms were officially coined. (Bobath B and Bobath K in Foreword to Finnie 1968, Bobath B 1970, Bobath & Bobath 1984).
They developed courses in the 1950s to train therapists worldwide and, due to the success of these courses started to train Tutors to further spread their work. There are now over 250 Bobath tutors spread across 18 European countries as well as numerous Tutors (Instructors) in the USA, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Africa.
The ‘Bobath Centres’ Locations
Berta and Karel opened their first small clinic in 1951, in the Harley Street area. They moved to Upper Wimpole Street in 1955. It was called the Western Cerebral Palsy Centre and soon gained fame and momentum.
Over the years their Clinic’s location moved to Northwest London-a house opposite Lords Cricket Ground in St John’s Wood Road NW8, then in 1975 to a large house in Netherhall Gardens NW3, changing its name to The Bobath Centre. In 1993 it moved to a listed building in East Finchley and in 2018 to its final home in Watford. During the past 30 years due to regional demand, 2 new Bobath Centres opened in Cardiff and Glasgow offering specialist therapy. These Centres are still operational as Cerebral Palsy Cymru and Cerebral Palsy Scotland.