Strive Rehab
Phone
0499 919 285Website
https://www.striverehab.com.au/Background and training
Dr Sonia McMullen, PT, DPT
(Doctor of Physical Therapy, USA)
Rehabilitation Physiotherapist, Owner and Founder of Strive Rehab
Pilates Instructor, Polestar® Pilates, Comprehensive Studio/Rehab (2022)
Doctor of Physiotherapy, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL USA (2007)
“I rely on my clinical skills and the expertise. I have the confidence to know where to look for the root cause of dysfunction, what questions to ask, and the ability to identify specific intervention for meaningful change.”
Sonia holds a DPT (Doctorate of Physical Therapy) from the esteemed rehabilitation-focused physiotherapy program at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Her physiotherapy approach is based on the Motor Control Framework which enables her to diagnose and treat movement dysfunction. This knowledge of movement biomechanics, combined with the skills and knowledge gained in assessing and treating movement dysfunction as a physiotherapist for over 16 years, sets her apart.
Sonia is also a Pilates Instructor, and incorporates Pilates Rehab into her physiotherapy programs. She studied with the internationally-recognised Polestar® Pilates, completing the Studio/Rehab Comprehensive Pilates Instructor Program in 2022. Sonia appreciates how much Pilates Rehab can help people attain and maintain health. As it is a safe, gentle, naturally progressive technique, Pilates exercises can be modified and tailored in a huge variety of ways to gradually build you back up to health.
Sonia strives to support you through your rehabilitation and recovery by:
- Providing a skilled assessment to inform a uniquely designed rehabilitation program
- Listening to you to determine what unique goals you’d like to achieve in order to live life well.
- Designing a clear program toward achieving your goals, all the while checking in with you to see if it meets your needs
- Optimising functional ability and mobility through skilled treatment techniques
- Improving biomechanics of movement to reduce pain and prevent injury
- Guiding you through a gentle, safe, graded rehabilitation program. Years of experience gives her the ability to know when to progress and push forward, and when to ease back
- Creating a safe, supportive, encouraging, warm, and enjoyable environment in which to recover
- Communicating transparently regarding expectations of recovery
- Increasing your confidence in functional mobility
- Reducing your fear of re-injury or setbacks
- Building your knowledge to guide you toward independent self-management
- Appreciating you as a whole person – your health, lifestyle, concerns and personal motivations – beyond just improving alignment, mobility and strength
- Determining your ideal learning style and tailoring ways to get you back to doing what you love with thoughtfulness and empathy
- Treating in a multi-disciplinary way, connecting you to allied health and medical practitioners that may be able to help you through your journey
Sonia is passionate about helping you recover and regain health and wellness. She has extensive experience in the field of rehabilitation treating a wide variety of conditions, and expertise in managing neurological, recovery post amputation and prosthetic training, musculoskeletal, and vestibular conditions.
She has a special interest in helping her clients achieve health and wellness after an injury, trauma, or hospitalisation. She has a particular interest in supporting women back to health, for example optimising wellness though the life stages (e.g. pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, postpartum, maintaining health into age) and providing education on managing autoimmune conditions.
Sonia has completed significant post-graduate physiotherapy study and has learned the value of a holistic approach to wellness. She is experienced in managing the following:
· Neurological Conditions
· Prosthetic Training & Post Amputation Rehab
· Women’s Health through the Life Stages
· Vertigo, Dizziness, & Balance Disorders
· Gait Analysis & Gait Re-training
· Musculoskeletal Injuries
· Surgical & Trauma Rehab
· Chronic & Complex conditions
Originally from the USA, Sonia has resided in Wagga Wagga since 2011, and lives with her husband and three young children. Prior to founding Strive Rehab in Wagga Wagga, she was a senior rehabilitation physiotherapist in both the USA and Australia and was a physiotherapy student educator for over a decade. Sonia is registered with Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. She is a proud member of the Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA), the APA’s Neurology specialty group, an advisor to the Agency for Clinical Innovation network’s “Care for the Person Following Amputation” (2023), and is a physio coach for the Ossur Amputee Mobility Clinics (2024).
More information
Find out more about the services offered:
Rehabilitation Physiotherapist