Dr Shelley Barlow is a pain physiotherapist (Titled APA) who works at Ballina Community Health, both in outpatients and in the community. She has a small private pain practice specialising in Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT). Shelley works on the Faculty of Brisbane Gestalt Therapy (GTB) as an academic [literature review 4 th year].

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“I believe that working with people experiencing trauma and chronic pain is both a challenge and an opportunity for growth. Growth that is personal and professional”

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I have been working on the North Coast in this field for over 30 years. I am a NZ trained physio and have a Masters in Gestalt Therapy and a PhD. My PhD was looking at “the lived experiences of Physiotherapists in their clinical encounters with people with chronic pain: A phenomenological enquiry”. This I finished in 2022 a month before my house was inundated by the flood.

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I am interested in the subjectivity of the clinician/ health practitioner as they navigate the clinical encounter. I am wondering how we engage with people in pain and at the same time take care of ‘us’ as we honour our experience as it emerges in the “in between space”. I am also exploring the role of how … ‘pain in the body can also be transformed and held in the collective field as transformation of distress to calm, which can occur with carefully meeting the ‘other’ with care and support’. This sounds very esoteric and I am fascinated in discussing this with you. 

Oh, and I also spend time walking around our maybe not so beautiful town and do as much yoga as I can.