Table 4 Theme 2: Desired characteristics of balance interventions

2a) “The importance of tailoring the program” (PT2)

Q14: “… so it does require some thought about what’s right for that person and what are some of the underlying issues that person is having and how best to approach assessment and treatment.” (RT3)

Q15: “… understanding the person’s goals, truly meeting them where they’re at, and then constantly thinking of, you know, ways to challenge them and progress.” (PT2)

Q16: “… and just doing your assessment and seeing where the limitations are coming from and working towards that.” (PT1)

2b) “The importance of the fun and engagement factor” (PT2)

Q17: “I enjoyed that a lot. I enjoyed the [balance intervention] because it was good for me.” (SCI/D2)

Q18: “[Balance intervention] was really fun, yeah.” (SCI/D1)

Q19: “… is the importance of the fun and engagement factor. …what can people find engaging and interesting or somewhat fun? Because yeah, to stick with the same program, it can become, you know boring, and so we want to try and find ways that…maintain that engagement, but while still targeting what needs to be targeted.” (PT2)

2c) “The balance between risk and safety” (RT3)

Q20: “… when you think about balance, you have risk and safety… Sometimes I think safety number one, so I don’t worry about my balance, but sometimes I have to risk it.” (SCI/D1)

Q21: “I agree that, you know, there’s always risk doing what you’re doing, but I think the risk is necessary…you’ll have analyzed what the risk is going to be. You try to minimize that of course, but then you accomplish something and … you get a bit of confidence.” (SCI/D2)

Q22: “We want to really…give people opportunities to move and improve, so there is often this …. safety versus, you know, allowing some risk to improve balance.” (RT3)

Q23: “Some patients may be willing to take more risk and so that kind of balancing is an issue…might be difficult for the therapist sometimes…so as I said, consider safety first.” (STR1)

Q24: “And, so you retain a level and then you go, “Okay, we’re going to try this.” Again, there’s a risk, but you analyzed it, you worked on it, you try to accomplish it safely, you get more confidence.” (SCI/D2)

2d) “Relevant to their lives”  (HA1)

Q25: “…anything that people could find really relevant to their lives or like relevant to a task that they needed to complete or that they could relate to, I felt really helped with people feeling like how that would relate to their function at home or their goals…” (HA1)

Q26: “We did a lot of things [in balance intervention] that might not have been, I couldn’t identify as, relevant to my everyday life, but I could identify as being beneficial to my balance, which when I came home, I certainly noticed a difference with reaching up or range of motion sideways. What I particularly enjoyed down there was the working on the uneven surfaces because that certainly challenges your core, challenges your balance.” (SCI/D2)

Q27: “…different patients that have come to us and said, “Oh, we want to like, kayak or canoe” or something on water. So I guess one part of challenging balance training for that would be like simulating the environment… So, we’ve tried like sitting on Bosu balls… I guess just like always simulating the environment to really truly make sure they would be safe when they’re trying it for the first time. Because we won’t be in Florida with them. ” (PT1)