Mariella trained in Great Britain and developed her Parkinson’s specific knowledge and skills at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London.
She is a physiotherapist with a special interest in the care of people with Parkinson’s, active in professional and patient associations and engaged in international multidisciplinary networks in the care of movement disorders. She is one of the authors of the European Physiotherapy Guideline for Parkinson’s disease and represented Luxembourg in the Guideline writing group.
Mariella was engaged with Parkinson Luxembourg (Patient association) from 1997 until 2014. She was Vice President, Member and coordinator of the Scientific Committee, and amongst other activities she run regular workshops for people with Parkinson’s and their families and contributed to the yearly organization of the World Parkinson’s Day.
She was a member of the board of the European Parkinson’s Disease Association from 2004 to 2017and is currently president of the Association of Physiotherapists in Parkinson ’s disease Europe. Mariella gives courses for health professionals and lectured at several Summer Schools of Physiotherapy organised by the Movement Disorder Society in Europe and beyond. She also developed Multimedia tools, like the DVD “Common Mobility problems in Parkinson’s Disease and how to address them”, and the “Coping strategies for People with Parkinson’s” DVD, both translated into several languages.