Senior Physiotherapist

Kobi Phelan is a physiotherapist and a strong advocate for the role of exercise therapy in the prevention and management of musculoskeletal conditions with a particular interest in lower limb injuries.

Kobi understands the importance of tailoring treatment and rehabilitation to each patient on an individual basis when returning to sport and activity. With this in mind, Kobi places high importance on actively involving her patients in the design and implementation of their injury rehabilitation.

“I really enjoy seeing someone through the ups and downs of long term rehabilitation, and get a huge sense of satisfaction when these patients are able to return back to their desired activity.”

In the future, Kobi hopes to continue to evolve armed with the latest research and treatment techniques.

In her spare time you’ll find Kobi at the gym, taking her dog for a walk, or completing DIY jobs around the house and garden.

Senior practitioner pricing applies for consultations with Kobi.

CSSM physio Katie Maxted is born and bred in Adelaide but we won’t hold that against her!

Katie has always led an active lifestyle and grew up dancing, fascinated by biomechanics and how the body moves.

“I enjoy supporting individuals throughout their lifespan to feel liberated, comfortable, and proud of their bodies, whilst empowering them to achieve both their health and personal goals.”

Having worked in both private practice and inpatient care, Katie is passionate about post surgical orthopaedic rehab and return to sport injuries as well as pre and post natal clinical pilates. As part of a large team at CSSM, Katie says it’s the can-do attitude of the practitioners that motivates her.

“What I’m passionate about, is taking the time to really get to know the individual, their goals, interests, and expectations, and collaboratively developing a treatment plan that enables them to achieve these factors.”

Away from the clinic, you’ll find Katie on a Pilates reformer, a bike at spin class, or enjoying the sunshine on a casual weekend run.

“I love trialling new food places – so I am always open for restaurant recommendations.”

You’ve come to the right town Katie!

Physiotherapist Grace Rutter believes patients should feel supported whilst being provided tailored education and a comprehensive management plan based upon their rehabilitation and lifestyle goals.

“I have grown up surrounded by family that have been living with chronic pain for multiples years and have seen how impactful it can be to someone’s life.”

Grace has a particular interest in neck injuries (including neck related headache), sporting injuries, women’s health, knee rehabilitation, as well as running injuries.

“I love being able to have the opportunity to help people do what they love, no matter their stage of life. My aim is to help people feel empowered about their rehabilitation journey to achieve their goals.”

With an additional degree in sports and exercise science, Grace also worked with various high performance athletes including the Port Melbourne VFL club.

Grace has experience working in acute hospitals (cardio/ musculoskeletal/neuro), subacute settings (geriatric evaluation and management), and women’s health (acute, private, continence clinic). She has also had experience working in private practice.

Away from the clinic, you’ll find Grace on the driving range, playing netball or out for dinner with friends. When time permits, she also loves to cook and hanging out with her pet Corgi Henry.

CSSM Podiatrist Paula Alarcon become interested in Podiatry after an ACL reconstruction. “I visited a Podiatrist who helped me stabilise my knee after I had noticed the changes that orthotics made in my running cycle when I went back into sports.”

“I have always led an active lifestyle, growing up with sports and dancing. This inspired an interest in how the body moves, and a passion to help people move.”

Paula’s sporting background has provided her with a particular interest in the recovery and management of foot and ankle injuries.

“Our feet are what keep us moving every day, they are the wheels in our daily journey, and they work very hard all year around. Therefore, prevention and proper management of foot problems are essential for our mobility, comfort and health.”

Joining CSSM, Paula says she enjoys being able to work with a great variety of health professionals allowing patients to have a more holistic approach as well as contributing to her own learning process by exchanging opinions and ideas from other practitioners.

While Paula believes Podiatry enables her to choose her own pathway from rehabilitation of the foot and ankle, biomechanics, running gait analysis to skin conditions, she hopes to specialise in the rehabilitation of injuries and sports Podiatry.

A true believer that movement is medicine, Paula is an elite Ultimate Frisbee player having participated in the under 24’s championships world cup with the Colombian team in 2018 held in Perth and the under 24’s Australian team in 2019 held in Heidelberg, Germany. Away from the clinic you will likely find Paula training with her Ultimate frisbee team called Spicy Chilly!

If she has any time left, Paula also enjoys going for hikes on the weekends or going to the beach as well as Salsa dancing thanks to her Latino background.

After multiple injuries and different rehab experiences, Julia Meeuwissen found a love and appreciation of myotherapy.

“I like that myotherapy has a holistic approach that empowers and supports people to take responsibility for their own rehabilitation journey and to gain more confidence, trust and respect for their body and its innate capacity to heal and recover.”

With an interest in the human body, anatomy and biomechanics, Julia enjoys treating tendinopathies, tension headaches, neck pain and TMD.

“I have had all of these issues myself so can empathise and share techniques that have helped me. I’d like to further investigate optimal load management strategies for tendinopathies and posture as well as mind-body connection for stress related tension headaches, neck pain and TMD.”

As a myotherapist, Julia hopes to empower patients to live an active and healthy life knowing that injuries can be overcome and aches and pains are part of the journey.

Julia was attracted to the multimodal aspect of CSSM where each practitioner can learn from other modalities to ensure the best outcome for each patient.

“I like CSSM’s philosophy including best practice, patient education and exercise as an integral part of treatment.”

When she’s not working, Julia enjoys going for multiple day hikes, camping, and going to the beach as well as reading fiction, putting on incense and listening to records, or walking her dog Zephyr.

Studying dancing led to Tahlia Austin’s interest in Osteopathy. “The aches and pains that often led to dancers either pushing their bodies to the extreme or sitting out of dance practice drew me to learn more about the complexities of the human body and pursue my passion of helping people overcome their injuries.”

Tahlia has an holistic approach to treatment, treating the body as a whole and working alongside her patients to achieve optimal health outcomes. “To put it simply, I love Osteopathy because I love helping people achieve both their health and personal goals!”

Throughout her career, Tahlia has worked in a variety of settings including VAFA Premier League football teams, which has given her exposure to a wide variety of acute sporting injuries and from that, the ability to accurately diagnosis and apply effective evidence-based care. “I enjoyed sharing my knowledge on rehabilitation advice and working closely with athletes to get them back onto the field.”

While Tahlia enjoys treating patients from all ages and walks of life, she has developed a passion for working with pain – both acute and chronic. In particular; low back, neck pain and sports related injuries.

“I love working at CSSM as we have built a great team environment, and all strive to provide the best service of care for all our patients.”

Away from the clinic, you’ll find Tahlia outdoors with friends, most likely walking a few laps around the Tan over the weekend. You’ll also find her fuelling her Italian food addiction by going to restaurants around Richmond and South Yarra.

Practice Principal & Senior Osteopath

Travis is an Osteopath and the founder of CSSM.

Travis chose osteopathy because he has always liked the hands-on approach to treatment. “That, together with the high level of study and knowledge in areas such as anatomy and movement, which is inherent within the osteopathy program, really excited me.  I had already done four years of study in health before commencing osteopathy and I had the opportunity to do other things.  But I chose to pursue osteopathy, and another five years of study because of the ability of the skills I learnt to help people in a meaningful way.”

Travis enjoys treating most injuries of the “active” person.  “One of the biggest areas of interest is treating teenagers.  There is a perception that kids and teenagers are just little adults – this is a massive misconception. Growing athletes have a unique set of needs.  We are seeing a lot of kids and teens suffering significant injuries from a young age.”  Recent studies have shown that in Australia, the highest increase in knee reconstruction surgery has occurred in teenagers between the ages of 12 and 16. “The impact of that on their future is scary.”

After working at a few other clinics, Travis found that health care suffered from a lack of direction and, CSSM was born. “Osteopathy was a relatively small profession with just a few hundred of us in Australia.  I saw the opportunity to bring osteo to the masses.”

Ever since, Travis has been keen to make osteopathy accessible as a health service that can deliver a patient focussed approach to care, giving meaningful evidence-based treatment and management to patients.

“We started as a one man show, and have grown to a team of over 20.  As part of this growth and expansion we have added a team of other modalities such as physio, podiatry, myotherapy and Pilates to the clinic – a centre of excellence for the management of musculoskeletal injury.”

Travis describes CSSM as an extension of his family. “I am just as passionate about our team and the community we treat as I am about few other things.  Doing what we do and doing it well, is my biggest objective.”

The CSSM philosophy is to provide a level of care that exceeds the norm and ensures the best outcome for patients.  “Our standard appointment is what most other clinics call an extended appointment. It is a source of amusement to us when we see other clinics promote their guarantees of extended care.  From our perspective, you do not need to guarantee it, if it is what is ingrained in you.”

Just as families continue to grow, Travis hopes CSSM will too and continue to serve the community. “As a larger clinic, we are able to offer more specialised services to our patients, such as our running gait analysis and pre-pointe assessments.  We hope to continue to grow this suite of programs (golfers and cyclists stay tuned).  From there, we also hope to spread our reach to other locations when the opportunity presents itself.”

When he’s not working within the Practice, Travis looks forward to catching up on some much needed sleep. “CSSM is all-consuming but nothing is more important than watching my kids do their thing and celebrating their achievements. If I get the time, I do enjoy hitting the trails with some mountain biking and trail running through the Dandenong’s. I love the solitude of being out there working up a sweat, lost in my own thoughts.”

CSSM Physiotherapist Corey Farrell has always been interested in how the body works, sport and strength training. Physio was the perfect fit. 

“It’s also a great combination of problem solving and working with people.” 

Corey has an intense pashion for physiotherapy.  When not working at CSSM Corey can be found providing match day support for the West Coast Eagles AFL and AFLW teams.  

“I love the challenge of appropriately reintegrating people back into sport as fast as possible while minimising the risk of re-injury.” 

Spending a lot of time strength training in the gym, COrey enjoys helping others who have any niggles or injuries to modify their program to keep them moving. 

“I enjoy empowering people with the information and the tools they need to manage their own health and get back to the things they love to do.” 

Away from the clinic, Corey enjoys music – as well as reading and strength training. 

Physiotherapist

Dance Program Coordinator

Myotherapy Team Lead

17 years of dance training, 12 years of tennis and 7 years of competitive rock climbing fueled Kelsey’s interest in sport and associated injuries. “I’d always been interested in health and fitness and Physiotherapy was a great transition from Personal training into the treatment and rehabilitation of a lot of the issues I saw in the gym. It came with a stronger understanding of the human body.”

While sport is her passion, Kelsey believes that creating solid foundations of strength and rehabilitation are key components in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, whether you work in an office or as an elite athlete. “Having participated in a fair few sports over the years it’s given me a better understanding of the demands the body can be put through, the movements required to succeed and the difficult task of taking time away from the sport you love when injured.”

Kelsey employs a hands-on approach when treating muscular pains and joint dysfunction, complementing treatment outcomes with modalities such as cupping, dry needling, trigger point therapy, and taping. “Shoulder joint issues really fascinate me because they can be unpredictable and complex. I really enjoy the process of breaking down why the injury has occurred in the first place and rehabilitating the joint structures.”

Away from work, Kelsey is an avid participator in rock climbing and has competed in both state and national events. “I can also be a great couch potato when I need some down time and enjoy meeting up with friends.”