Presenters

Thea Dillon

Pre-Conference Workshop: Hands-On Success: Great Outcomes, Simple Approach

Thea Dillon has over 20 years’ experience in the Remedial and Sports Massage industry and holds a Diploma of Remedial Massage, Adv Diploma of Myotherapy, plus an Honours Degree in Exercise Science… a perfect combination for delivering highly skilled treatment and individually tailored advice. She regularly works with a number of elite athletes and teams, including the 2016 and 2020 Australian Olympic Team and Australian Swim Team.

Thea regularly runs hands-on post-graduate educational workshops and tutorials for therapists of various experience levels. Her approach is always practical, light-hearted and focused on keeping things simple and meaningful to the goals of treatment. Having worked extensively alongside other practitioners within multi-modality clinical and sporting team environments, Thea has been fortunate to continually broaden her skillset and approach to achieving great outcomes. She has a special interest in the use of specific soft tissue techniques (including myofascial dry needling) to treat musculoskeletal conditions that cause pain and dysfunction, and is passionate about the health, wellbeing and performance benefits of quality remedial and myotherapy.

Paul Ingraham

Session: Massage Myth Busting

Paul Ingraham is a Vancouver science writer and a former Registered Massage Therapist. He left that profession over concerns about pseudoscientific beliefs and practices, and went on to create PainScience.com, a website about the science of pain, injury, treatment, and rehab, where he has published hundreds of articles and ten books on these themes, the longest of which is about “trigger points". His blog/newsletter have been active for about fifteen years now. He’s also a reluctant runner and was, until quite recently, an avid amateur ultimate player (the Frisbee sport) for twenty years. He has a substantial history of sports injuries and pain problems that inform his work. He is working on his next book and endless updates to PainScience.com.

Vanessa Collins

Session: Cyber Security

Vanessa has over 30 years’ experience in the insurance industry. Her expertise spans professional risk broking and underwriting including program design and placement in both local and international markets. She has spent over 15 years in roles involving binder and scheme set up and management including wording creation, systems implementation, loss ratio management and program remediation.

Vanessa is a product specialist in the professional risk classes of insurance including Professional Indemnity, Directors and Officers Liability and Cyber Risks.

She has also spent time in compliance and operational roles in both broking, underwriting and claims giving her very broad industry experience.

Monique Sollis

Session: Cyber Security

Monique has 8 years’ experience in the insurance industry. Her experience has been focused on providing insurance and risk solutions for member-based associations and their members. She has spent time partnering with member-based associations to design a risk program for their members including constructions professionals, allied health practitioners, accountants, and medical professionals. Monique is a product specialist in the professional risk classes of insurance including Professional Indemnity, Directors and Officers Liability and Cyber Risks.

Aran Bright

Session: Pain Management for The Massage Therapist - A Review Of The New Diploma Standards We Should All Know

Aran Bright started his career as a massage therapist in 2002 after graduating from the Australian College of Natural Medicine in Queensland. In 2006, he completed his Diploma of Remedial Massage and, in 2007, his Bachelor of Health Science in Musculoskeletal Therapy. Aran has also graduated from University of Queensland with a Graduate Certificate of Sports Coaching, completed a Certificate IV in Fitness and an Advanced Diploma of Myotherapy. He currently teaches at Q Academy on the Sunshine Coast and runs his own businesses, Bright Health Training, with his wife Sheree.

Meredith Spark

Session: Panel Discussion

Meredith is a Remedial Massage Therapist that has been in the industry for 5 ½ years. She loves unlocking the puzzle of what is causing clients discomfort or stress. She’s currently working at a large multi-modality clinic where she rents a room. She has experienced the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to room rentals, and she understands the challenges that therapists have to overcome to make their business a success.

Melissa Woodward

Session: Panel Discussion

Melissa is Remedial Massage Therapist and Women’s Health Coach with a passion for working with women through the significant physical changes that come with pregnancy, post-natal recovery, and menopause. She is on a mission to support women to heal their relationships with food, exercise, and their bodies. With a myriad of qualifications Melissa has reinvented her business as she moved from the big city to Dubbo, NSW in 2022. As a mum of boys aged 4 and 9, she understands the challenges many therapists face balancing work and family, yet her business offering continues to grow to support the needs of women in regional NSW.

Moira Ruff

Session: Panel Discussion

It doesn’t matter if she is running a half marathon or jumping off the local pier to mark the start of winter, Moira loves being part of her local community. This connection has helped her run her home-based business in the gateway to Victoria’s wilderness coast in Far East Gippsland. Qualified since 2006, one of Moira’s strengths is not trying to “go it alone”. She’s actively sought out other therapists so that she has a network of support to ensure that even though she works from home she is never truly working on her own.