About

Laura Pizer Gueron has been a physical therapist for 34 years. She graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1983 with a BS in physical therapy, received a master’s degree in Public Health Education from the University of Minnesota in 1990, and then her clinical doctorate in physical therapy from Shenandoah University in 2010. She completed her Therapeutic Pain Specialist certification in 2016.

She has considerable experience working with survivors of torture and has been affiliated with the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) for 27 years, including 22 years as a volunteer physical therapist with clients in Minnesota and 5 years as the Physiotherapy Clinical Advisor for programmes in Kenya.

Laura has worked as a physical therapy trainer in many different settings, including Thailand, Israel, India, and Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. She is also a guest lecturer and mentor at the University of Minnesota for doctoral students. Her teaching focuses on topics such as sexuality and disability and treatment principles when working with survivors of torture and trauma.

Laura co-authored a book chapter about this topic with four other CVT physical therapists in 2018, in Physiotherapy in Mental Health and Psychiatry: a Scientific and Clinical Based Approach, and co-created a Facebook group for physical therapists interested in working with survivors of torture and other forms of trauma, in 2016.