With Christmas approaching – something that TV advertisements and supermarket displays constantly remind us about – many people’s minds will be turning to finding the ideal present for a colleague or loved one.

PhysioUpdate has teamed up with Handspring Publishing to bring you a special seasonal discount on a major new book titled The Head and Neck: Theory and Practice. While everyone is counting the pence and pounds these days, the discounted price might even tempt you to buy a copy for yourself!

According to one of the book’s two editors – Roger Kerry, Professor of Physiotherapy Education at the University of Nottingham – the aim was to create a ‘go-to resource to support practice’ in the field.

Professor Kerry sets out his stall in an opening section to the 526-page book. ‘The book is a collection of work from the most committed, motivated, person-centred authors across the world. The contributors are from diverse clinical and academic disciplines.

‘The book is written to speak to all clinicians from across the therapies – physiotherapist, physical therapists, osteopaths, chiropractors, soft tissue therapists, sports therapists, medical doctors, and surgeons – and anyone interested in improving a clinical, person-centred contemporary understanding in this area.’

‘[The book} provides the reader with a unique and accessible resource that holds potential for significant positive impact on education and practice for clinicians working with and learning from people looking for answers to their painful condition’ [from foreword]

Professor Kerry, who originally trained as a physiotherapist at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, West Yorkshire (University of Leeds), in the 1990s, explains that the numerous authors he and co-editor Barbara Cagnie commissioned to contribute chapters focus on non-surgical management approaches. Medical and surgical approaches to dealing with people with neck and head pain are not directly addressed, he explains.

Professor Kerry led on the redesign of the undergraduate physiotherapy programme at the University of Nottingham which redefined physiotherapy curricula in line with World Physiotherapy education frameworks and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy’s vision of a future physiotherapy education. 

Belgium-based Professor Cagnie graduated in physical therapy in 1999 and in manual therapy in 2001 and completed a PhD in 2005. She is a full-time professor at the department of rehabilitation sciences and physiotherapy at Ghent University.

Until 31 December 2025 at 23.59 PhysioUpdate readers can obtain a 15 per cent discount from the publication’s normal price of £75 by using the following code: THNPHYSIO15. You must enter code at the checkout in order to claim the discount, which can’t be used in conjunction with any other offer.

‘Unique and accessible resource’

Three international experts – Alison Rushton, James M Elliott and David M Walton – give the book a ringing endorsement in their foreword. ‘The publication of this book could not have been timelier,’ they state. ‘It provides the reader with a unique and accessible resource that holds potential for significant positive impact on education and practice for clinicians working with and learning from people looking for answers to their painful conditions.’

The trio applaud the authors’ focus on ‘the most important person in healthcare – the patient’. This approach is ‘demonstrated through extensive use of real world case studies throughout each chapter,’ they note. ‘We also appreciate the ways that the chapters represent a mix of scholarly evidence with applicable clinical experience. Use of tables, figures and illustrations are valuable for explaining and illustrating key concepts. Each chapter concludes with a list of valuable contemporary references for further reading.’

Alison Rushton and David M Walton are based at the School of Physical Therapy at Western University, Ontario, Canada, while James M Elliott works at the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Medicine and Health.

They offer the following guide to the book’s structure

• The focus on theory in Part 1 is a critical addition over previous texts, as the experience of head and neck pain is often under-theorised in medical and rehabilitation contexts.
• Part 2 presents readers with perhaps the most applied collection of works in the text, delivering concrete recommendations and frameworks for clinical reasoning and patient assessment across a range of relevant clinical conditions, from mechanical through post-traumatic, neurosensory-dominant, and paroxysmal (dizziness, tinnitus) presentations.
• Part 3 then re-centres the case studies and represents the section of the book that may be of most relevance for early-career clinicians as the authors demonstrate how current evidence can be applied to individual patients.
• The book, they note, concludes with an eye to the future of healthcare, including use of virtual, mixed, or extended reality hardware with examples of ways emerging technologies can improve assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and adherence in the management of head and neck disorders. The intended spiral nature of learning engendered through the sequence of content in the book works well, enabling the reader’s understanding to evolve across chapters.

‘Best seller’ prediction

Series editor and renowned London-based consultant physiotherapist Jeremy Lewis predicts the book will become a ‘best seller’. He said: ‘It has been an absolute delight and a true privilege to serve as series editor for Head and Neck Pain: Theory and Practice, expertly edited by Roger Kerry and Barbara Cagnie. This volume represents a remarkable synthesis of cutting-edge research, clinical expertise, and practical insight, brought together by two of the most respected leaders in the field.

Jeremy, who is also a Professor of Musculoskeletal Research at the University of Hertfordshire, continues: ‘Witnessing the depth of scholarship, collaboration, and passion that shaped this book has been both inspiring and rewarding. I am confident that this work will become an instant best seller and an invaluable resource for clinicians, educators, and researchers alike – advancing understanding and elevating practice in the management of head and neck pain.’

To read a PhysioUpdate Q&A feature with Roger Kerry, Barbara Cagnie and Jeremy Lewis, the team behind the new book, click

The Head and Neck: Theory and Practice

ISBN: 9781805010593

Publisher: Handspring

Non-discounted price: £75

For more information, click

Image: Shutterstock