Since January 31, 2013 the 2 major Belgian Manual therapy associations BVMT-ABTM and BWMT joined together as a non-profit organization under the name MATHERA.be (Manual Therapy Association Belgium).
At the end of 2012 an obvious majority of BWMT-members has agreed to a merger by acquisition between BVMT-ABTM and BWMT. During a special general meeting of BVMT-ABTM on 31/01/2013 a 2/3 majority by the members approved this merger association. MATHERA.be from then took over from BVMT-ABTM as IFOMPT-member organization for Belgium. In Belgium every university trained manual therapist meets to the international standards of the IFOMPT (International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Physical Therapists), which is a subgroup of WCPT (World Confederation for Physical Therapy), the world physical therapists organization recognized by WHO.
By merging the two organizations and by including all students and graduated manual therapists of both the Flemisch universities (KU Leuven, UGent en VU Brussel) and Wallonian Universities (UC Louvain en U Luik) , MATHERA.be became a powerful group which defend with high priority, both nationally and internationally, the interests of manual therapy in general and the scientific seriousness and professional pride of every manual therapist particularly.
The Board of the association was composed with former board members of BVMT-ABTM and BWMT and also delegates from each Belgian university with manual therapy education programs.
Since December 2, 2014 MATHERA.be is recognized by Axxon PTiB - Physical Therapy in Belgium as the first Belgian Clinical Interest Group. From now on we operate under the new name Axxon BCIG, MATHERA.be' (Abbrev. ABCIG MATHERA.be).
As of 01/01/2021, ABCIG MANUAL THERAPY / MATHERA has been renamed: ABSG MANUAL THERAPY / MATHERA.
All ABCIGs that unite colleagues who hold a legally recognized Special Professional Competency are undergoing a name change from AXXON Belgian Clinical Interest Group to AXXON Belgian Specialized Group (ABSG).