Two Moncton-area physiotherapy businesses have merged.

Mark Davidson, the owner of Davidson Physiotherapy, announced that the Tidewater Physiotherapy Centre for Wellness & Rehabilitation will be doing business at his 520 Pinewood Road clinic on March 1.

In a call with Huddle, Davidson said he wasn’t certain what word to use to describe what happened. He suggested “merger” was an adequate way to describe Tidewater Owner JoAnn Thompson Franklin moving her practice from Lower Coverdale to Davidson’s in Riverview.

“A merger of services is probably the best way to look at it,” Davidson said. “Tidewater itself will still exist, but the physical practice of physiotherapy is all shifted to here, essentially.”

The decision to move the two practices into one space was informed by Thompson Franklin’s decision to scale back her management role and devote more time to patient care.

“JoAnn is here with us part-time and she wants to mostly just step back from management of the clinic side of things and be able to do physio,” Davidson said.

Merging Tidewater with Davidson Physiotherapy will bring a variety of new services and broaden the scope of care.

“They definitely bring some services in that we don’t use as often, like acupuncture, and JoAnn does some urinary incontinence treatments we didn’t have,” said Davidson.

“JoAnn does some things on the side, like hippotherapy – where she uses horses with rehab – and she’ll still do that on her own since that’s not a service we offer.”

In a release from March 1, Thompson Franklin said she reached out to Davidson, “knowing his clinic offers a similar customized, client-centred approach to patient care.’

“I just knew our Tidewater clients would be very comfortable with a transition there,” she said.

The merging of services at Davidson’s 2,700-square-foot berth brings the total number of physiotherapists at combined practices to 10.

The merger comes at a time of gradual regrowth, from a punishing pandemic that saw businesses like Davidson’s shuttered by mandates for two months. The rebound, after reopening was slow for about a year, Davidson said but picked up most in the past six months.

“We had masks on and all that, but people were still kind of skittish, so we ended up with a lot of cancellations,” he said.

Davidson said the practice is back up to normal numbers, and things are still picking up.

“We are a little bit busier, but it really fluctuates a lot,” he noted.

Davidson said that bringing more physiotherapists to his location is “intellectually stimulating and invigorating,” with more experts in one place.

“In a sense, you can discuss things and it brings a bit of new life to be able to hear new ideas and different approaches to things,” he said.

“From a professional standpoint, you can try and broaden your own scope of understanding things. We’re always learning, constantly taking courses and there is always more to learn.”

Thompson, a 40-year industry veteran in both private and public physiotherapy, launched Tidewater in 1999.

She specializes in chronic pain management, craniosacral therapy, women’s health, urinary incontinence and acupuncture.

Davidson has been in his current berth in Riverview since 2013.

“Originally when I first started, it was literally me by myself. I was in a small little spot just down on Coverdale Road for about 12 and a half years.”

Sam Macdonald is a Reporter for Huddle Today, a content-sharing partner of Acadia Broadcasting.