Fleur Balmain - Practice Director

Fleur Balmain is a country girl from Braidwood. On graduating from high school she spent a GAP year in England coaching hockey and athletics amongst other things, then returned to complete her undergraduate degree at Sydney University. She has worked in neuro rehab, palliative care, post operative breast cancer management, paediatrics, women's health and orthopaedics. More recently she has dedicated her time to learning how to accurately diagnose specific spinal conditions and in order to treat them, decipher what their root cause is. More often than not, neck and back pain can be related to a postural habit (work or hobbies), a muscle recruitment or motor control dysfunction (typically developed post injury) or a derangement of the joints them selves (such as a disk bulge or facet joint arthritis). Fleur graduated with her Masters in Manipulative Therapy in 2007, which places a strong emphasis on evidence based management, this ensures that you will be given the right treatment for your condition. Fleur spent a couple of years working for Sarah Key, mastering the skills of manual therapy while maintaining her post operative skills at the Mater hospital in Crows Nest.

Fleur became one of the Directors of Bay Active Physio and is striving to develop a friendly, patient focused practice with the most up to date technology to achieve the best results. She now shares her time between managment, exercise classes and one on one therapy.

Patrick Keating Practice Director

Patrick is native to New Zealand he studied as a mature student at Europe biggest Physiotherapy schools the University of East London UK, graudating in 1993, after which he worked at a variety of the big London teaching hospitals. On return to NZ Patrick worked in several private practices before owning his own practice at Massey University in Auckland in New Zealand. Patrick completed a Diploma of Manipulative Physiotherapy part time over two years which includes sports management. He has had a varied career, working as a painter, police officer, performing at an elite level in sports including a member of the NZ team at the World Championships at Kona, Hawaii Ironman Triathlon in 1985. Patrick has more than 15 years experience in musculoskeletal and sports physiotherapy. He has worked extensively with New Zealand national sporting teams including the swimming team for the World Championships and Commonwealth Games, and the NZ Kayaking team for 3 years prior to The Athens Olympics in 2000. Patrick has worked for 10 years with premier club rugby and was physio for the Fiji National rugby team for 2 years. He has competed in 30 marathons and many Iron Man Triathalon, played national league basketball suffering as all crazy athletes do for his sport. Patrick was a clinical educator for 5 years at the School of Physiotherapy, Auckland University of Technology. Patrick has a special interest in neck and upper back pains and how they are associated with shoulder and upper limb disorders.

Patrick has an interest in 'how' injuries or conditions are created which gives insight into how they can be successfully treated in the long term rather than giving symptomatic relief. Patrick is passionatley interested in educating patients with information so that they are empowered to be able to successfully self manage their problems by appropriate stretching strengthening and stabilising as required.

Patrick is a member of Sports Physiotherapy Australia, and The manipulative Physiotherapy. He attends regular training sessions, conferences, courses and lectures for ongoing professional education.

As a director of the company Patrick shares his time between his family, the Bronte Surf Life Saving club, where he is the Director of Education, mentoring the other physios, manual therapy and prescribing exercises for high level athletes.

David Hawkins

David has had an eclectic education and has a particularly curious mind. Originally beginning his training as a Human Movement/PE Teacher, David always had particular interest in human anatomy and physiology. This interest in the human body was later cultivated as a student of the FIne Arts where David has the priviledge to study from anatomical specimens at the UNSW Medical Labs and live models in the art studio. It was at around this time that David was also enjoying particular sporting successes, particularly in Kyokushin Karate, where he competed at both State and National levels.

As the inevitable injuries from full-contact competition began to accumulate, David's interest in injury prevention, management and rehabilitation was seeded. This interest was reinforced in the years following, when David worked as a Personal Trainer, Martial Arts and Group Exercise Instructor, when he realised there was a need to improve the continuity of care for clients with musculoskeletal injuries who continued to have weight loss of fitness goals. However, it wasn't until one fateful day that David was being treated for neck pain by Dr Trudy Rebbeck at Bay Active Physiotherapy, that he was encouraged to consider Physiotherapy as a natural career progression. Taking this advice, David went on to study Physiotherapy at The University of Sydney with Trudy being David's Honour's Superior, assisting with his Dissertation on Cervicogenic headache and ultimately enabling David to graduate with first class honours.

Now as a Physiotherapist, David draws upon this eclectic education and experience to treat a variety of musculoskeletal injiries and conditions. His philosophy is simple:Implement clincially-indicated and clinically-based interventions in combination with education to enable the patient to take ownership of their condition or injury, thereby empowering them to achieve their rehabilitation or return to work or sport goals.

David graduated from the University of Sydney with first class hounours in Applied Science (Physiotherapy).

Jane Parry

Jane has over 15 years experience working as a physiotherapist in private practice throughout Sydney. Jane’s experience extends from being an in-house physiotherapist to an NRL team to providing team coverage to school boy Rugby and Soccer teams to treating the “’weekend warrior” sports person. At the later stages of her career Jane spent 6 years at a city clinic where her focus changed to treating and assessing ergonomic based injuries, and later as a Rehabilitation Consultant Jane developed skills in ergonomic workplace assessments and injury management.

Jane is a qualified Dry Needling Practitioner and is particularly interested in the positive results gained from Dry Needling in the treatment of inflammatory conditions, such as plantar fasciitis and Achilles tendonitis especially in runners.

Jane’s treatment philosophy is one of a partnership between Physiotherapist and patient. The physiotherapist role is to diagnose and guide the client who is encouraged to take an active role in their rehabilitation in both the heeling and injury prevention stages.

Fiona Naayen

Fiona has over 15 years experience working in the public and private sector in Sydney and the U.K. She is the mother of 3 energetic children but has still found the time to previously own and run her own practice in Sydney but has, to Bay Active Physio's delight, brought her expertise in exercise prescription and pilates classes across to us. 

Fiona has always been interested in understanding how the body functions and in achieving optimal performance, both physically and psychologically. She strives to combine her Pilates instruction and practice with her physiotherapy knowledge and skills, thereby providing clients with clinical knowledge and experience based treatment.

Fiona believes that anyone, whether fit or never having done any previous exercise can benefit from the postural awareness and inner core strength that has become integrated into her daily life through Pilates. She thrives on being able to assist others in achieving this by giving them tools to understand and thereby manage their own bodies.

 She is particularly interested changing people's lives by helping people who have suffered chronic pain make it back to full functional capacity, and in doing so reduce their pain.

Bethan Charles-Edwards

Bethan graduated from the University of Queensland with a specific interest in sports injuries. She has twelve years experience in private practice managing all age groups but with a particular interest in school aged children. Her sporting background, together with a specialist interest in sports physiotherapy, has developed her expertise in managing specific injuries such knee, ankle and elbow joint issues.

Bethan also works closely with plastic surgeons managing post operative recovery for breast augmentation, liposuction, tummy tucks and face lifts. Bethan is available on Saturdays.

Linda Tiguemounine

Linda joined Bay Active Physio in 2010 as a member of the admin staff. She has completed her qualification as a Remedial massage therapist at ACNT. Since she has gained her Diploma of Remedial Massage and diploma of Fitness, Linda keep developping her skills, learning from the physios, gleaning the techniques and continuing care of our patients once their symptoms are well managed.

Natalie Martin

Office Manager Natalie Martin and her admin team provide the valuable support every practice needs to keep ticking over. The day to day operations of running a clinical practice require particular skills. Our team is handpicked for their attention to detail, high level organization skills and dedication to caring customer service.

As of January 2012, Natalie is returning to providing occupational therapy services to children. She has 7 years experience in both the private and public sector. She provides standardised assessment and individualised therapy intervention to children who require further development and/or consolidation of foundation skills including fine motor, gross motor, visual perceptual and sensory processing. So, if you have a child who has difficulty with skills such as writing their name with correct letter formation and pencil grip or even just sitting still at the dinner time, contact Natalie.

Be sure to check the 'Occupational Therapy' component in this websites 'Services Provided' section to be informed on school holiday programs and current developments. 

Lynne

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