Newsletter Autumn Winter 2023 Final (24) - Flipbook - Page 11
Dr Selina Johnson
Pain specialist physiotherapist, The Walton Centre Foundation Trust.
Clinical research fellow, University Liverpool.
Selina qualified as a physiotherapist in 2000 from the University of
West England. A few years after this she had the opportunity to take a
secondment in pain management at the Walton centre Liverpool and
developed a passion for supporting people with chronic pain.
She has stayed working at the Walton centre and had the opportunity to
be involved in various service developments including the CRPS physio service, the pelvic
pain management, and a younger adults healthcare transition service. As part of
evaluating these service developments she was introduced to research methods. This
provided her with the opportunity to be involved in several publications and attend
various research related events linked to the pain research institute which allowed her
interest in research to be further cultivated.
In 2016 she was successfully awarded a NIHR Research for patient benefit grant to
conduct a randomised control trial examining low frequency stimulation for chronic pain
and was also supported by the pain research institute to undertake a PhD in the same
area. This was the start of Selina9s academic career and at the end of 2020 she was
appointed to a clinical fellowship position at the university of Liverpool. This clinical and
research post has allowed Selina to retain her clinical skills and caseload as a pain
specialist physiotherapist at the Walton centre pain management department whilst
also providing the opportunity to gain further research skills.
Whilst in this post Selina has gained further experience in the conduct of systematic
reviews, complex intervention design and aspects of implementation research. She has
begun to build her publication profile and has recently presented some research findings
and delivered a scientific workshop at the European Pain Congress in Budapest 2023.
Selina is keen to promote research and actively support other AHPs in this area. As part of
this enthusiasm, she is Co-lead for Cheshire and Merseyside Council for Allied health
professions research, Co- research executive for the Physio Pain Association and a
deputy co-chair on the University of Liverpool Research Staff Association within these
roles she has helped to organise and support various research related activities and
events. Within her PPA role she is proud to have developed research bursaries to support
physios undertaking research.
This year she was nominated for the University of Liverpool celebrating researchers9
success event and won the Excellence in education, learning and research and
innovation award from the Walton centre. With the support of the Pain Research Institute,
she has been successful in obtaining further funding from the NIHR and HEE bridging
scheme and research capacity funding to extend her role and build a proposal to explore
physiotherapeutic treatment of chronic pelvic pain.
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