Rate My Professor Sasha Aspinall

Sasha Aspinall, PhD, BChiro, BSc (Hons), serves as Lecturer in Clinical Chiropractic within the School of Allied Health at Murdoch University. Having graduated from Murdoch University as Dux of her chiropractic class, she transitioned to a full-time academic role there in 2019. Her academic background includes a Bachelor of Science with Honours, Bachelor of Chiropractic, and a PhD, with her doctoral research investigating pressure pain thresholds and temporal summation in adults with episodic and persistent low back pain trajectories at baseline and following lumbar manipulation or sham procedures.

Aspinall's research specializations include evidence-based chiropractic care, neurophysiological mechanisms of spinal manipulation, quantitative sensory testing, spine pain, sham procedures in manual therapy, and diversity in the chiropractic profession, such as gender distribution of conference presenters and characteristics of chiropractic educators and researchers globally. In her teaching, she cultivates a collaborative, patient-centred approach and uses diverse images and case studies representing various body types, skin tones, and racial backgrounds to prepare students for real-world practice. Key publications encompass her first-author paper 'Pressure pain threshold and temporal summation in adults with episodic and persistent low back pain trajectories: a secondary analysis at baseline and after lumbar manipulation or sham' (Chiropractic & Manual Therapies, 2020), 'Waste not, want not: call to action for spinal manipulative therapy researchers' (Chiropractic & Manual Therapies, 2024), and co-authored works including 'COVID-19: how has a global pandemic changed manual therapy practice?' (Chiropractic & Manual Therapies, 2021), 'Latent classes of trial reporting and publication practices in spinal manipulation research: a meta-epidemiological study' (Chiropractic & Manual Therapies, 2025), 'The Effectiveness of Spinal Manipulative Therapy in Treating Spine Pain: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis' (2025), and 'Myofascial Pain Syndromes: Controversies and Suggestions for Improving Diagnosis and Treatment' (Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, 2025). Aspinall earned Senior Fellow status in the Chiropractic Academy of Research Leadership (CARL) program upon its completion in 2024, following residencies at the University of Southern Denmark, University of Technology Sydney, and University of Alberta.