Robin McKenzie is a world renowned spinal expert and is  recognized internationally as an authority on  the diagnosis and treatment of lower back pain and neck pain. He is the founder of the McKenzie  Institute. This is a not for profit organization with headquarters in New Zealand and 26 branches through out the world.

In 1982 Mr McKenzie was made an Honorary Life Member of the American Physical Therapy Association, "in recognition of distinguished and meritorious service to the art and science of physical therapy and to the welfare of mankind." In 1983 he was elected to membership of the international Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine. In 1984 he was made a Fellow of the American Back Society, and in 1985 he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the New Zealand Society of Physiotherapists. In 1987 he was made an Honorary Life Member of the New Zealand Manipulative Therapists Association and in 1990 an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists in the United Kingdom. In the 1990 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

THE CHANCE DISCOVERY

"In about 1956 in my clinic in Wellington, New Zealand, I observed by chance a remarkable event  which has changed worldwide the nature of treatment administered for the alleviation of back pain. This serendipitous event led to the development of the theories and practice that have now become the hallmark of the McKenzie methods for the diagnosis and treatment of common painful back problems. The chance observation arose from a sudden change in the condition of a patient  whom we will call Mr Smith. Mr Smith had pain to the right of his low back, extending into the buttock and thigh as far as his knee. He had undergone the conventional treatment considered suitable for back pain in that era. After three weeks of heat and ultra sound his condition had not improved. He had difficulty standing upright, he could bend forwards, but could not bend backwards. I told him to undress and lie face down on the treatment table, the end of which had been raised for a previous patient. Without adjusting the table, and unnoticed by any of the clinical staff, he lay face down with his back arched and over-stretched for some five minutes. When I returned in order to commence his treatment, I was extremely concerned to find him lying in what at that time was considered to be a most damaging position. On enquiring as to his welfare, I was astounded to hear him say that this was the best he had been in three weeks. All pain had disappeared from his leg. Furthermore, the pain in the back had moved from the right side to the centre. In addition, he found he could now bend backwards without having severe pain.
When Mr Smith arose from the treatment table, he could stand upright and he remained improved with no recurrence of leg pain. I placed him in the same position the following day, and this resulted in complete resolution of the remaining symptoms.
The important point to remember about all this is that as Mr Smith lay in this position, his pain changed location and moved from the leg and right side of his back to the centre point just at the waistline. The movement of pain from the leg or buttocks to the middle of the back is now known worldwide as the "centralisation phenomenon."
We now know that when pain moves, as it did in the case of Mr Smith, our chances of helping you with the methods described in this book, are very good indeed.
Thanks to the chance observation with Mr Smith, the McKenzie system is now provided worldwide by thousands of physiotherapists, doctors and chiropractors treating patients with back pain." (Quoted from Treat Your Own Back 5th Edition 1997)