From home visits in Madrid to a clinic in the Salamanca district. How the project came about and where the name comes from.
Before Fisioin20 existed as a place, it existed as an idea. Or perhaps as a way of working — a way of treating, of listening, of deciding what to do and what not to do with each patient.
It began, as many projects do, out of necessity and circumstance. When I finished my physiotherapy degree, I started working with Fisiogestión, a network that organises home visits for physiotherapists. It was an unusual start — treating patients in their living rooms, in small rooms, without the equipment of a clinic — but it taught me something invaluable: that quality physiotherapy does not depend on machines. It depends on knowledge, on hands, and on the relationship you build with the person in front of you.
Fisioin20 opened as a physical space in 2012, on Calle Velázquez. A small but well-positioned clinic in the Salamanca district — one of the areas of Madrid where private health care is most concentrated. Those early years were intense. Building a patient base, earning trust, learning what it means to run a project rather than just work in it.
Dina joined the project in those years — a colleague whose complementary vision shaped a lot of what Fisioin20 has become. Having someone who shares values but asks different questions is one of the most valuable things for any project.
Opening on Calle Velázquez, Salamanca district, Madrid. The first physical space after the home visit phase.
Move to the current clinic: C/ Don Ramón de la Cruz, 36. More space, better facilities, same philosophy.
In 2018 we moved to Don Ramón de la Cruz 36, the address where the clinic is today. It was a step up in terms of space and facilities, but the most important thing stayed the same: the way of treating, the importance of not rushing, the commitment to evidence-based treatment without unnecessary shortcuts.
One of the things I value most about where we are now is what the Salamanca district of Madrid is: an area where patients generally have high expectations, are informed, and ask questions. That suits us. We like patients who want to understand what is happening to them, not just be treated.
«The best physiotherapy clinics are not the ones with the most equipment. They are the ones where someone really thinks about what you need.»
The "In20" comes from the Cánovas Method — a manual therapy technique that in Barcelona is known precisely as "In20". When we started the clinic, we were strongly influenced by this approach, and we wanted the name to reflect something of that clinical identity. Over time, "Fisioin20" has become its own thing — a recognisable name, associated with a way of working — but it carries that origin.
Twelve years on from the first space, some things remain constant. The conviction that a physiotherapy session has to have a clear purpose — that there should be no treatment for the sake of it, that every decision must be justified. The insistence on keeping up with the evidence, even when it contradicts what was always done. And the attention to detail in each session: not treating a tendon, but a person who has that tendon.
In the next chapter of this series I will talk about what it is like to work in a small private clinic today — the day-to-day, the decisions, what we do well and what we can always improve.