The autographs of Dolph Lundgren and Vinnie Jones live together with certificates for professional qualifications in his office. The room is small because all the kinesitherapist Georgi Ilchev needs to do his job is a good massage table and his “healing” hands.
He is only 28 years old, but has already finished his bachelor degree in physiotherapy and started a course for a doctor’s degree. Georgi’s work schedule is also pretty busy – till noon he works in an orthopaedy hospital and after that from 1pm til 7pm he’s available at the Slavia Sportesse gym.
However, this is not a hard routine for the young physiotherapist as he enjoys his job. “I like what I do and helping people makes me really happy,” says Georgi.
He is one of the increasing number of young people who have decided to build their career and life in Bulgaria. He confesses that 10 years ago he also wanted to taste the American dream by studying in the United States, but even with a partial scholarship the university taxes were unaffordable.
Although he didn’t go to the US, he didn’t give up his school dream to become a physiotherapist. He doesn’t regret staying in Bulgaria either. “I’m glad with what I’ve accomplished here. I have travelled a lot, but feel good in Bulgaria; as they say in England – there is no better place than home’.”
After five years of practice in kinesitherapy, he could brag about his achievements. However, his modesty doesn’t allow him to do so, although he has put a lot of hard work and effort into his career. But the facts speak for themselves.
He was a therapist for the national bobsleigh team for three years and at the moment he’s working with the golf team. The qualification certificates on the wall are just a hint of his skills.
Georgi’s work biography includes clients like Jonatan Hase, Dolph Lundgren, and Vinnie Jones. It seems that Georgi is also one of the favourite therapists of Bulgarian classical musicians. The first violin of Portugal’s philharmonic orchestra, Veliana Hristova, the director of the Bourgas Opera, Krasimira Kostova, and the composer and conductor Alexander Yosifov are some of them.
To the young kinesitherapist, the best esteem of his work is people’s gratitude. “It’s great to see the appreciations in my patients’ eyes when the pain is gone,” says Georgi. “It’s great to see how people who have undergone some serious surgery finally recover and start walking again,” he adds.
As a medical worker he is also happy that during recent years Bulgarians have experienced some transformation of their health culture. His practice shows that they have stopped ignoring the condition of their health and started taking good care of themselves by visiting specialists as a preventive measure.
Besides his professionalism, his “secret” for healing physical traumas is a Bulgarian medicine which stimulates the recovery of stroma tissue like injured joints or tendons for example.
Georgi says that the individual approach to each person is very important because the cure for one can be harmful for another.
He also has a simple marketing motto of his own: “Pleased patients are the best advertising campaign.”
But to be a good physiotherapist you have to be more than just a professional. You also have to know how to listen, because physiotherapy goes together with communicational therapy. As Georgi says, his job is not only physical, but also psychically burdening.
But apparently Georgi has no problem with communicational therapy as his lawyer and dentist are clients of his. Moreover, some of his patients have also become his friends.
And like a typical workaholic Georgi is suffering only from one thing – the lack of free time, so he uses his only day off – Sunday – to go out with his friends. But that’s the price he has to pay if he wants to fulfill one of his dreams – one day he wants to establish a modern therapy centre of his own.
