A client described Dr. Stuart Donaldson as “Yoda from Star Wars and/or the wise guru master of brain injuries and mental health.” Stuart's lifelong struggles with health issues and chronic pain gave him a deep understanding and empathy with the challenges his clients were facing.As a child, Stuart suffered numerous broken bones from what his physicians labeled “brittle bones.” He had multiple bouts of pneumonia and in 1953 at the age of 8 was part of the polio epidemic that swept North America. This left him with some residual paralysis, a leg length difference, and post–polio symptoms later in life. While recuperating from polio, he developed Legg-Calve-Perthes disease, which led to hip issues as an adult.A lifelong resident of Alberta, Canada, Stuart attended the University of Alberta and graduated with a BA in psychology in 1968. After graduation, he spent 5 years in Toronto, where he worked in a hospital-based crisis intervention program and received additional training with rotations through psychiatry, pediatrics, general medicine, and neurology as they applied to psychology. He returned to Calgary in 1973 and worked with Alberta Mental Health Services in the rural area south of Calgary, where he met and married his life partner, Mary, in 1974. In 1976 he started graduate school at the University of Calgary, graduating with an MSc in clinical psychology in 1977. A weekend workshop on biofeedback sponsored by the University of Alberta totally changed his career path, showing him new and innovative ways to treat physical problems and achieve his goal of helping people in pain. This led him to biofeedback training in San Francisco with George Fuller von Bozzay, and he opened a private practice focused on biofeedback. This interest prompted him to return to university to focus on chronic pain, pain management, and biofeedback, and in 1979 he graduated with a PhD in clinical psychology.The clinic, named Myosymmetries (Latin for muscle balance), started to flourish. Initially his focus was on low back pain using surface electromyography (sEMG) techniques to balance the muscle activity on either side of the spine. With success in this area, the clinic started to receive referrals for other types of pain, such as carpal tunnel syndrome and headaches. Stuart also was privileged to work with some Olympic athletes. He conducted research and published papers in ever-expanding areas of interest and traveled extensively, lecturing on the techniques he had developed. In 1995 he was recognized by the American Journal of Pain Management for The Outstanding Contribution to the Interdisciplinary Pain Management Literature. He was excited to have Dr. Janet Travell present his award because she was a leader in the field of muscles. In 1995 the clinic added neurotherapy to its program and became involved in treating fibromyalgia. In 2000 this led to Stuart's appointment by the National Fibromyalgia Association and the Government of Canada to sit on an Expert Consensus Panel to develop a document on fibromyalgia.The year 2000 was the beginning of further health problems as a fall on ice on New Year's Eve led to undiagnosed fractures in the left hip, and Stuart became a chronic pain sufferer. This eventually led to a total replacement of the left hip in 2008 and the right hip in 2009. A diagnosis of idiopathic thrombocytopenia (low platelets of unknown origin) made surgery challenging. His book, The Other Side of the Desk (2012), details his journey with chronic pain. Although the hip replacement alleviated some of the pain, he continued to have debilitating pain and depended on a walker or mobility scooter. He continued to write, travel, and lecture despite the challenges, and in 2014 he served as president of AAPB. It was during this time that his interest shifted to postconcussion syndrome, and he began working with hockey players and doing research in this area. In the fall of 2017, the right hip replacement failed, leading to a spiral fracture of the femur that required an emergency hip replacement involving screws and wire to hold the fracture together. Months of rehabilitation followed, but mentally active as ever, he established the Foothills Concussion Rehabilitation Centre, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to helping people with concussion and financial challenges.Stuart was gradually getting more active, presenting and traveling when COVID-19 lockdown measures in March 2020 forced the clinic to close for 2 months. He worked from home and found time to complete a book of case studies, which he finished just before his death from a massive brain hemorrhage in April. Staff hope to publish this book in the future. Stuart is greatly missed by his wife, Mary, family, staff, clients, friends, and colleagues. A final recognition that would have both amused and honored him is that Lexi Linardakis has named her mobile biofeedback van STUART in his honor.
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Jan 1, 2022
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