Brian trained as a physiotherapist at the NZ School of Physiotherapy and qualified in 1954. Two years later he commenced in private practice in Wellington where he remained until 2000 when he finally retired from active clinical practice.

Brian’s special interest has always been manual therapy since being introduced to the field by Stanley Paris in the early 1960s. He acknowledges as his mentor, Freddy Kaltenborn, but has also found invaluable the contributions of James Cyriax, Geoff Maitland, Robin McKenzie and Robert Elvey.

Brian was one of small group of physiotherapists who formed the NZ Manipulative Therapists Association in 1968. He and his colleague, Robin McKenzie, were the principle teachers on the newly formed Post graduate program for the Diploma of Manipulative Therapy. Brian joined the international lecturing circuit in 1972. Currently he has taught in 91 cities in the United States of America and 20 countries of the world.

In 1983 Brian relinquished his teaching role on the Diploma programme and began teaching his newly-founded techniques. One of his initial students, Barbara Hetherington, took over his Diploma programme teaching role. She later became one of his original teachers when the Mulligan Concept Teachers Association was formed in 1996.