About Natan Gendelman

I think I was born to heal. During my childhood in Tallin in the former Soviet Union, I used to spend hours playing with a make-believe doctor’s kit. But while I dreamt about becoming a doctor, I was developing as an athlete. I became an elite boxer and a member of the National Team of the Russian Federation. I also earned a diploma as a physical therapy instructor from the College of Physical Culture and Sports in St. Petersburg.

After college, I was conscripted into the Russian Army and sent to fight in Afghanistan. Two years later, I was discharged with serious injuries and told by army doctors I would need a cane for life. But thanks to a Dungan healer who used manual manipulations and ancient herbal recipes to care for me, I recovered in three months and was soon walking – without a cane.

This experience rekindled my interest in healing. I enrolled in the faculty of remedial gymnastics at St. Petersburg’s Herzen Pedagogical University and, together with some friends, formed a cooperative that organized sport events and provided rehabilitation and treatment for disabled adults, children and athletes.

I moved to Israel in 1989 and enrolled in a physiotherapy program. After graduation I worked for seven years in various hospitals and clinics in Jerusalem while building a private practice. At the same time, I studied neurology to gain a better understanding of spinal cord injuries and conditions such as multiple sclerosis and stroke. In 1997 I moved to Canada and opened a rehabilitation clinic called Health in Motion after becoming a certified kinesiologist in 1999. In 2006, after completing the five-year program at the Canadian College of Osteopathy, I became certified as an osteopathy manual practitioner.