My passion for living healthily started decades ago. I spent my childhood and teenage years living in Newcastle and then Sydney. I loved swimming in the ocean and running. Long bike rides were a regular adventure for my family. This passion for health and fitness grew as I progressed through school, then deciding to study Physiotherapy, and later, Public Health and Fitness Training. It has been a privilege to work in each of these areas over 25 years. Together with Olive Tree Health, I also work at Physiocise where I love equipping people with knowledge and skills to take control of their aches and pains, look after their bones and joints, and improve their balance and agility so that they can do all the things they love doing in life while living as healthily as possible as they age.
My aspiration to serve women who have survived intimate partner abuse was sparked in 2014, when I was living and studying in Vancouver in Canada. I became aware of my need for deeper healing due to a previous dating relationship marked by coercive control. Also, during this time, I was struggling with ongoing grief due to devastating and traumatic loss that had occurred in my life in 2011. Gradually, as I walked forward in my healing, I became more aware of the connections between my body and my mind, and how interwoven and powerful these connections are. These experiences together with my professional life, have fuelled my passion to offer a unique opportunity for healing to women who are living with complex trauma.
While working alongside treating health professionals, I combine my extensive physiotherapy experience with principles from neuroscience, and trauma theory, to offer the opportunity for women to connect with their bodies, make choices based on the sensations they notice, and to build strategies specific to their emotional and physical needs.
I have completed training by Deb Dana and Stephen Porges in Polyvagal Theory, Bessel Van Der Kolk: “The Body Keeps the Score: Trauma, Attachment and Neuroscience;” and through the HeartMath Institute, Trauma Centre for Trauma-Sensitive Yoga, Blue Knot Foundation, and the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioural Medicine. I hold a Bachelor of Applied Science in Physiotherapy and a Master of Public Health.
When outside of my work space, I love spending time with my husband and my family who all never fail to warm my heart, uplift my spirit, and renew my sense of thankfulness. I also deeply enjoy catching up with friends, doing life together with my community at Northside Baptist Church, swimming in the ocean, building strength through exercising with weights, and learning the craft of acting.
