Events

Hannah Fairburn
BSc (Occupational Therapist), Bachelor Health Science (Sports Science)

Hannah developed a passion for working with children and adolescents throughout her many years coaching gymnastics. Hannah found that supporting children to achieve their goals, such as learning new skills, improving their self-confidence and initiating social interactions to be truly rewarding.  

Hannah’s philosophy is that everyone should have the right to engage within the community and participate in what makes them happy.

Hannah has a particular interest and expertise in assisting children with handwriting, fine motor difficulties, and sensory processing challenges as well as providing occupational therapy management to children with chronic conditions and ASD. Hannah has created and runs an 8 – week handwriting course which runs termly. Hannah is also involved in our yoga classes for children aimed at providing management of chronic conditions.

Previously, Hannah has worked as a support worker for children and adults with disabilities, as a dance teacher for children with disabilities and has volunteered for the Noah’s Ark Toy Library and the Little League Challenger Division. Assisting individuals with physical and intellectual disabilities to achieve goals within the community no matter how big or small. This has brought Hannah a wonderful sense of joy and pride seeing their independence and confidence grow.

Hannah believes in the benefits of good communication between families and healthcare professionals and is enthusiastic about educating communities on the difficulties faced by children with chronic conditions and disabilities.

Outside of work, Hannah loves discovering walking tracks, catching up with friends over good coffee and spending time with her Border Collie, Alice.

Rowan Pearce
BSc (Physiotherapy), BSc (Exercise & Sports Science)

Rowan is an active physiotherapist who is passionate about empowering youth in the management of their injuries and health conditions. He understands that being young is tricky, even without any added challenges – add a hiccup in health and it can quickly seem overwhelming.

Rowan’s focus is firmly on keeping children and their parents in control of their health journey. By being open with information and crafting individualised tools, he helps them to independently manage their health. For Rowan, the unique needs of each child and their family mean that the support they receive must be carefully tailored to suit their context.

Rowan has broad experience working with a range of ages, from babies to adolescents, and is accustomed to work with varying needs and stages of development as a result. But whatever the age, Rowan always ensures that his support is creative, engaging and fun.

A background of community volunteering on kid and teen charity camps leaves Rowan well-placed to build genuine and lasting connections with the young people that he works with.

Outside of work, Rowan loves to keep active and enjoys Aussie rules footy, rock-climbing, windsurfing, surfing and exploring Western Australia.

Rowan has completed a double degree Bachelor of Physiotherapy / Exercise and Sport Science at the University of Notre Dame.

Nicole Pates
M. Advanced Paediatric Physiotherapy, BSc (Physiotherapy)

Nicole is an APA Titled Paediatric Physiotherapist. She graduated from Curtin University with a distinction in Physiotherapy and completed her Masters in Advanced Paediatric Physiotherapy through Monash University. Nicole currently also works at Perth Children’s Hospital. In the past, she has worked in the community setting, in elite sports as a physiotherapist for the West Coast Eagles and on the PACE program run by the Complex Pain Service at Princess Margaret Hospital.

Nicole is the national representative for the WA branch of the Australian Physio Association Paediatric Group and is also a member of the Rheumatology Health Professionals Association. Nicole often provides professional development to other physiotherapists, presenting for the Australian Physiotherapy Association.

Nicole has extensive experience in the assessment and management of developmental, orthopaedic, rheumatological and developmental conditions across childhood and adolescence. Nicole works in a holistic manner to help your child participate in their sports, hobbies and school. She has a strong commitment to seeing every child achieve their full potential.

Nicole has experience in assessing and rehabilitating sports and childhood musculoskeletal injuries, having worked at an in a variety of sports including netball, Australian Rules Football, rugby, running, soccer, hockey, swimming and touch rugby.

In her spare time, Nicole enjoys everything outdoors including adventuring and fishing. However, most of her time is taken up by her son, William and Roger, her mischievous golden retriever.

Lauren Esser
M. Physiotherapy Practice, BSc (Exercise and Sports Science)

Lauren has completed her Masters of Physiotherapy Practice (Curtin University) and a Bachelor degree in Health Science (Deakin University). Since graduating, Lauren has completed postgraduate training in chronic pain, neonatal physiotherapy and neurodevelopmental assessment and treatment. She has gained a range of experience in delivering physiotherapy to infants, children and teenagers.

Lauren has worked extensively across the disability and musculoskeletal sectors, gaining and refining skills related to conditions such as hypermobility spectrum disorders, cerebral palsy, global developmental delay, autism, neuromuscular and intellectual disabilities. She has since expanded her skill set by working at the Child Development service where she continued to refine her skills in working with infants and young children. She is passionate about helping infants and young children to achieve their motor milestones and manage infant-specific conditions such as plagiocephaly and torticollis.

Alongside this, Lauren has a strong interest in chronic pain conditions. Lauren attended the International Symposium on Paediatric Pain in Kuala Lumbar in 2017 in order to stay on top of the latest research.

Lauren has an eagerness and passion for helping others achieve their goals. Her philosophies are strongly guided by the principles of family centred practice. Lauren considers the child in the context of their environment and provides a holistic and functional approach. She seeks to address the causative factors, empower patients to better manage their condition and ultimately promote their independence. Lauren works with great empathy and sensitivity, which is particularly beneficial for those with complex presentations.

Michelle Quinn
M. Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy, BSc (Physiotherapy)

Michelle is an APA titled Musculoskeletal physiotherapist, who has worked in private practice for 8 years, and completed her Masters in Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy at Curtin University in 2015. She has gained extensive experience in assessing, treating and managing clients with acute and chronic conditions, including sporting injuries, as well as complex chronic pain and rheumatological presentations. Michelle has experience working with children of all ages, from babies through to adolescence.

Michelle understands how injuries and pain can impact children, not only in sport, but other aspects of their life at school, home or hobbies, and she is passionate about assisting her clients in achieving their full functional capacity. Michelle is committed to delivering family-centrered, evidence-based treatment and management for her clients, with a strong focus on client education and active management. She combines her knowledge of clinical pilates and functional strength to create fun, play-based and effective exercise rehabilitation and injury prevention programs.  Michelle encourages her clients to be able to independently managed their condition in the long term.

Michelle has traveled interstate as physiotherapist for the Women’s WA state AFL team in 2011, and also works as a sessional academic for Curtin and Notre Dame, supervising undergraduate and postgraduate students on clinical placements.

Outside of work you can find Michelle spending time with family and friends, going to yoga, trying a new hobby (most recently parkour!), taking her rescue dog to the beach, or planning the next adventure away.

Emily Bruining
M. Occupational Therapy

Emily holds a Master of Occupational Therapy (Curtin University), a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Musical Arts (UWA). She is deeply passionate about the philosophies that underpin occupational therapy – just ask her if you have 20 minutes to spare!

Emily’s particular area of interest is supporting young people with chronic conditions, including Ehler’s Danlos Syndrome, Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders and chronic pain and fatigue. She has previously worked as an early intervention therapist with children with ASD and in older adult pain management. Emily was involved in the creation of the TARGiT group, run for teenagers in the community experiencing chronic pain.

Emily believes strongly in educating families, schools and the broader community to understand and support children who experience chronic conditions. She liaises closely with schools to ensure management strategies are implemented successfully. A large part of Emily’s role involves helping young people to develop the cognitive strategies necessary for managing chronic conditions day- to- day. She is also experienced in assessing motor skills and sensory profiles.

Emily has extensive experience supporting children and young people who experience issues with handwriting and have chronic conditions. She writes reports supporting SCSA applications for students entering their final year of high school.

Emily has trained with creators of the highly regarded South Australian Paediatric toileting program, Toilet Time. She is particularly interested in the importance of sensory awareness, routine, and emotional barriers in toileting for younger children.

In her spare time, Emily sings with vocal ensemble Lumina and volunteers as a school group tour guide at a local history village. She has one extremely lazy rescue greyhound, Frank, and one extremely hyperactive puppy, Betty.

Alison Climie-Holmes
Accredited Practising Dietician

Alison is an accredited practising dietitian with many years of extensive training and experience. Graduating from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland in 1992. Alison has worked in hospitals and community settings in both the UK and Australia.

Since 1996 the majority of her work has involved the nutritional care of children and adolescents, working for 4 years at Yorkhill Children’s Hospital in Glasgow and 10 years at Princess Margaret Hospital in Perth, WA. She has worked with the neonatal and Paediatric units at Fiona Stanley Hospital. She has completed the postgraduate certificate in clinical paediatrics run by the British Dietetic Association.

Paediatric nutrition is her passion and some particular areas of interest are:

• Using evidence-based and practical nutritional advice to work with overweight children, adolescents and their families, an increasing and complicated area.
• Nutrition for disorders of blood sugar control such as diabetes type 1, 2, gestational diabetes and polycystic ovarian disease.
• Guiding and advising families of fussy/picky eaters.
• Nutritional issues such as Irritable bowel, constipation, iron deficiency anaemia, coeliac disease and failure to thrive.

A wife and mother of two she is a keen advocate for nutrition and its role in living a healthy life.

Anita Smith
M Psych Clinical, Clinical Psychologist Registrar

Anita has clinical experience working with children, adolescents and adults both in a group and individual settings.  She has a keen interest in working with pain related issues and trauma-related disorders, as well as anxiety, depression and other mental health concerns.

Anita prides herself on establishing a strong therapeutic alliance with her clients and works from a person-centred approach.  She uses a range of intervention strategies including cognitive-behavioural therapy (including trauma-focused CBT), schema therapy, mindfulness, exposure therapy and eye movement desensitisation and reprogramming (EMDR).

Theresa Venz
Yoga Therapist

Theresa has completed yoga teacher training with Byron Yoga Centre in Byron Bay, The Yoga Space in West Perth and Yoga Therapy for Kids with Zenergy Yoga. Having several family members with chronic health conditions sparked her interest in learning more about the therapeutic benefits of yoga and lead her to complete yoga therapy training with Living Yoga Therapy in Perth. She has also undertaken further training in Yoga for Pain and Yoga for Arthritis with Yoga for Pain Care Australia. She has been the training and research assistant on Yoga for Pain Care Australia’s Foundations and Yoga for Carers programs.

Theresa has been teaching yoga since 2011 to a wide range of audiences, including extensive experience teaching people affected by cancer at the Life Now program at the Cancer Council WA and Solaris Cancer Care Cottesloe, and multiple sclerosis at the Multiple Sclerosis Society of WA.

Theresa has significant experience teaching yoga to children and youth with a wide range of conditions from and from diverse backgrounds., from teenagers building confidence, resilience and self-esteem, to refugee children. In her therapy sessions and classes with children and youth, she focuses on sharing the yogic techniques such as; developing body awareness and confidence through the yoga postures, mindfulness, breathing and visualisation techniques for self-soothing and to develop mental peace and calm.

Theresa is passionate about using the techniques and practices of yoga in a therapeutic manner to empower and support children and youths to meet their health and well-being goals. As a yoga therapist, she is skilled at adapting yoga postures and techniques to suit individual needs and wellness goals, no matter what health condition and level of ability. Theresa works within the Perth Paediatric Therapy team to specifically tailor yoga programs to your child’s individual needs. She aims to assist your child in developing skills to support their capacity to participate in activities meaningful to them.

In her spare time Theresa enjoys continuing to learn more about herself through her ongoing yoga practice at home and by attending other teachers’ classes. She also enjoys the beach, reading and spending time with family and friends.