Anna Bennett (nee Hildreth) has 13 years of experience working in the field of adult physiotherapy within community, outpatient and acute settings. In 2011 she developed a keen interest in clinical neurology and has since specialised as a neuro-vestibular physiotherapist having gained experience in various specialist neurology centres and NHS trusts in London. Her experience spans across many fields of adult neurology including highly specialist rehabilitation for acute and long term conditions, acute neurology and neurosurgery, complex care for neuromuscular conditions and vestibular rehabilitation.

​

Anna studied at King’s College London and graduated with an Upper-Second Class BSc Physiotherapy Degree in 2007. She worked as a junior physiotherapist in the North East of England before returning to London where she worked at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust for 4.5 years. During this period, Anna worked across many fields of physiotherapy including inpatient and community intermediate care, falls management both in a primary care falls clinic and within an Older Person’s Assessment Unit, musculoskeletal outpatients, women’s health, hydrotherapy for ankylosing spondylitis, obstetrics and neurological conditions, neuro-medical inpatients, critical care rehabilitation, acute cardiac and respiratory management and stroke rehabilitation.

​

From 2014 Anna worked for the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN) in London. The NHNN is a tertiary centre offering multi-disciplinary services for adults with highly specialist cognitive, psychological, social and physical needs from across the Nation. She worked within the National Rehabilitation Unit, the Neuromuscular Complex Care Centre, the neurosurgical and neuromedical wards, outpatients for neurological and vestibular disorders and the hyper-acute stroke unit.

​

Within the NHS Anna worked as a lead physiotherapist on a bed-based intermediate care unit managing a team of therapists, undertaking regular systematic teaching, supervision and appraisals with all of them and working closely with the multi-disciplinary team. She has led various service development projects including an audit of the intermediate care referral system across a large Borough of London, a service user review of a neuromedical outlier service and the setting up of an evidence-based intervention for the management of lower limb arthritis within the community. Whilst working for Guy’s and St Thomas’ she held lectures and seminars for the MSc students at King’s College London on a variety of neurological topics.

​

In London Anna participated in an observational and feasibility study of the prevalence of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) in an outpatient setting for older adults. Her role was to perform gold standard assessment techniques in addition to usual care to all new patients who met the inclusion criteria and to treat those that were positively identified to have BPPV with the appropriate re-positioning manoeuvres. The study was later published in the Physiotherapy Journal in 2015.

​

Anna has completed a wide range of training and development throughout her career including Vestibular Rehabilitation for Physiotherapists, The Dizzy Course – A Multidisciplinary Approach, Advanced Vestibular Rehab - Challenging Dizziness, The Role of the Cerebellum, My Prosthesis and I, Exploring the Neuroscientific Basis of Neurophysiotherapy, annual ACPIVR Conferences, International Neurophysiotherapy Conference and BBTA Introduction to Bobath concept. In 2016 Anna trained as a yoga teacher which she now uses as an adjunct to her holistic physiotherapy approach.

​

In 2017 Anna moved to Leeds to live with her partner and to build a career within the private sector as a Specialist Neuro-Vestibular Physiotherapist and a Yoga Teacher. She has been working in and around West Yorkshire offering a specialist physiotherapy service including manual therapy, hydrotherapy, rebound therapy and neuromuscular electrical stimulation as well as offering vestibular training within the private, public and voluntary sectors. She finds sharing her expertise highly valuable for clients and colleagues and finds it greatly rewarding for her.

​

Anna’s passion has always been working with people to help them understand their bodies, break through barriers and achieve their goals. She says that “the joy I get from seeing people progress is the best part of every day”.