Daphne Panayotopoulou
​From a young age I had and still have the curiosity to learn the possibilities of the human body. While I was growing up, my desire to know the way our body works as well as my desire to provide care and help to others led me in 2008 to the School of Physiotherapy, in Patras.
During that time I started my first yoga lessons. The awareness that we can gain in combination with the strengthening and stretching of the body, led me from the first moment to look for how I could combine it with physical therapy and more specifically as part of rehabilitation through therapeutic exercise. As part of my training, I conducted a research (Systematic Review) on the therapeutic effects of yoga in musculoskeletal diseases. The final conclusion of the work was positive for yoga.
Starting my career as a physical therapist, I completed the Thai Massage course with Nikos Paraskevopoulos. Then I attended the H-OMT-D (Hellenic Orthopedic Manipulative Therapist) postgraduate course on Manual Therapy, a special part of Physiotherapy for the rehabilitation of neuro-muscular-skeletal problems, based on clinical reasoning and using specialized approach techniques that include manipulations & therapeutic exercises.
At the same time, I finished the training for Pilates Matwork and Equipment (Reformer, Chair, Cadillac) of Base training, recognized by the Pilates Academy of London. I attended seminars on Clinical Pilates (Samantha Wood, Georgia Kissa, Rael Isacowitz), so my professional activity became more specialized in rehabilitation through therapeutic exercise.
I worked with great physical therapy centers in Athens. At the same time, I attended seminars and workshops in Yoga with important people (Leslie Kaminoff, Nancy Gilgolf, Simon Borg-Olivier, Petros Haffenrichterpt, etc.). Today, I work as a physical therapist, collaborating with Christos Harikiopoulos organizing Yoga Anatomy & Therapeutics seminars. I have completed Yoga House’s 250-hour training program and teach the anatomy classes at the same time.
My love and respect for Yoga has made me a strong supporter of this method as a way to restore and improve our physical and mental health. To this day I continue with the enthusiasm and appetite that characterizes me, to be inspired, to discover, to research, to read and to constantly evolve, so as to fully immerse myself in the world of physical therapy and Yoga.