Before looking for a physiotherapist it is worth knowing something that is usually not known: not everyone treats everything, and the distribution is much more unbalanced than websites suggest.
The 2025 National Observatory on self-employed physiotherapy practice by FisioScience asked this to 959 self-employed Italian professionals, category by category, with five possible answers: never, rarely, sometimes, often, always.
The Table, Ordered by How Common It Is
How many people say they treat each type of patient often or always:
| Type of patient | Often or always | Out of 959 |
|---|---|---|
| Persistent low back and neck pain (over 12 weeks) | 715 | 74.6% |
| Acute trauma, overload and tendinopathies | 599 | 62.5% |
| Degenerative and frailty (osteoarthritis, sarcopenia, balance, independence) | 533 | 55.6% |
| Post-surgical (menisci, rotator cuff, joint replacements, fractures) | 472 | 49.2% |
| Cruciate ligament, before and after surgery | 208 | 21.7% |
| Outpatient neurological | 156 | 16.3% |
| Temporomandibular disorders and headaches | 90 | 9.4% |
| Vestibular and balance disorders | 53 | 5.5% |
| Pelvic floor | 34 | 3.5% |
| Outpatient paediatric | 27 | 2.8% |
| Outpatient cardiorespiratory | 26 | 2.7% |
(One row of the original table, on acute pain at the first episode, cannot be read reliably from the PDF extraction: we have left it out instead of guessing it by eye.)
The Number That Explains a Frustration
Turn the table over and look at the «never» answers, which is where the real story is:
- pelvic floor: 815 out of 959 never treat it: 85%;
- paediatric: 729 out of 959 never: 76%;
- cardiorespiratory: 702 out of 959 never: 73%;
- vestibular: 314 never, and another 379 only rarely.
If you have looked for a physiotherapist for leaks after childbirth, or for your child who walks in an odd way, and it seemed hard to find one, it was not your imagination. It is how the profession is distributed.
This is not the fault of individual practitioners. Paediatric care and the pelvic floor require different training, a different way of conducting the assessment and, often, a different setting. Those who do not do them are right not to.
But for someone looking, it changes everything, and it changes the question to ask before booking: not «do you treat it?», but «how many cases like mine do you see in a month?».
What This Has to Do With Us
It has a lot to do with us, and it is one of the reasons why we have two separate pathways instead of one generic page.
- For the pelvic floor and postnatal care: the dedicated area and the pathway for mothers.
- For children and teenagers: Ri-Hub Junior, with guides divided by age.
It also has to do with the opposite question, the one we ask ourselves: if 74.6% of physiotherapists often see persistent back and neck problems, then with those the difference is not made by whether someone treats them, but by how. On the form that the «how» takes, the numbers are here: what a physiotherapist actually does, exercise for 60.06%, massage for 0.94%.
Where They Work, While We Are At It
The same report also measures the main place of work. The two figures that matter most: a practice or multi-practice centre is the main workplace for 514 professionals (75.59% of those who indicated it), and the patient's home is the main workplace for only 96, while for 401 it is a secondary place.
Put simply: the physiotherapist who comes to your home does exist, but it is almost always something added on, not their main work.
In Summary
Three physiotherapists in four often or always see persistent back pain and neck pain. But 85% never treat a pelvic floor and 76% never see a child. If your problem is at the top of the table you will find many professionals; if it is at the bottom, availability is the real bottleneck, and it is worth asking for the numbers, not the declared competences.
On the least frequented area of all, lymphatic and oncological care, the data exist: moving during and after cancer.
Sources
Sources last checked: September 2026.
Need a Consultation?
Start with the questionnaire on Ri-Hub, a few questions about your case, you register, and you see who will follow you: a physiotherapist on the Italian professional register, whom you write to in chat whenever you like. If you prefer to talk it through by voice, the first consultation is free, lasts twenty minutes and commits you to nothing: they arrive having already read what you wrote, and together you decide whether and how to go on.
