About Us

Anel van der Merwe

Clinical Specialist
Paediatric Physiotherapist

Anel is the founder and Director of Children in Motion Ltd.

Anel was driven to be a children’s Physiotherapist from an early age and her work is not only a job, it’s a lifelong passion. Anel’s extensive experience and training, and her love for working with children are immediately evident in her therapy sessions. She has a refined ability to assess posture and movement patterns in children, and as a result produce highly effective outcomes. The children, however, just think they are playing!

Anel has over 16 years experience in the treatment of children with various conditions and she has worked in South Africa, Ireland and the UK. Graduating in 1998, her final year research project at the University of Pretoria (South Africa) was a study of children with developmental co-ordination dysfunction (DCD). Her career has led her to work within the acute hospitals, special needs schools, the private sector and the Irish Health System. In 2003 she started working at the Bobath Centre in London, a specialist Therapy Centre for Children with Cerebral Palsy, where she became a clinical specialist and took part in the Bobath Tutor Training Programme. Anel has always taken a great interest in research and during her time at the Bobath Centre her commitment led her to produce a Case Study titled ‘Investigating functional outcomes following a program to strengthen the gastrocnemius-soleus complex in an adolescent boy with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy’.

Anel has a special interest in working with babies with developmental delay and children whose difficulties are complex and neurological in nature, such as Cerebral Palsy, Syndromes, Muscular Dystrophies and Joint Hypermobility Syndrome. She also takes great pleasure in teaching and delivering workshops to Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists, Schools and Parents.

Anel is an Advanced Accredited Bobath Trained Therapist (Neuro Developmental Treatment) but has also taken further courses and qualifications in:

• Assessment and prescription for Ankle Foot Orthoses Footwear Combination’s as taught by Elaine Owen
• Prechtl’s Qualitative Assessment of General Movement in Preterm and Full-Term infants,
• Gross Motor Function Measure assessment tool,
• in the assessment and scoring of the Assisting Hand Assessment (AHA).
• in the use of Kinesio Tex Tape in children.

Anel has outstanding clinical skills and is exceptionally dedicated to the children and families under her care.

She is a member of:

• Health Care Professions Council (HCPC)
• Chartered Society of Physiotherapists (CSP)
• British Association of Bobath Trained Therapists (BABTT) [former Secretary]
• The Association of Paediatric Chartered Physiotherapists (APCP)