Develop Therapy Team

Directors

Alison Copley and Sonya Murchland are registered occupational therapists with broad experience in working with children and young adults with developmental delays, disorders, and disabilities both in Adelaide, country areas of South Australia and internationally. They have worked as team members of Child Development Units and have provided assessment and intervention to children of all ages and their families from hospital inpatient, outpatient, and community-based services.

Registered Occupational Therapists

Phil Maxwell

Phil is an experienced therapist working extensively with young people and adults with disability. He has particular skills in equipment provision in community settings.
Kat Barrett

Kat is an experienced occupational therapist working in the community with adults. She brings to the service an excellence in support for Adults with Disability and Equipment Prescription and specialising in complex home modifications.
Kate Halstead-Lyle

Kate has worked previously in state-based therapy for people with a disability and now works with children and young people to help learn skills for life
Janice Van Riessen

Over her career, Janice has worked with children and adult clients in the community and has experience with assistive technology and home modifications.
Eleanor Beinke

Eleanor loves to support children and young adults to build their skills at home, in the classroom and in the community.
Apo Kikianis

Apo works with children, young and older adults. He loves outdoor and nature play, as well as supporting individuals to living with mental health conditions
Heidi Hutchesson

Heidi is skilled in equipment prescription and adaptation and loves to work with adults and young people to support skills for life.
Lucy Triggs

Lucy has experience in both rehabilitation and supporting those in the community. Working now with Develop, she supports children, young people and adults with daily living tasks and working towards their goals.
Rebecca Barnard

Rebecca is passionate about supporting children and young people to develop their skills and reach their goals
Judy Chancellor

Judy has extensive experience working with families to support the development of infants, pre-school and school aged children. Judy is a certified Marte Meo Practitioner, an approach to support the development of children’s social, emotional and play skills.
Shenae Filer

Shenae has experience in working with children and families in community settings. She has a particular passion for technology based supports with children during therapy.
Alison Firth

Alison has worked extensively with infants, children, and adolescents with physical disabilities, autism and developmental delays.
Emma Gillespie

Emma has experience working in community and health settings, with an interest in supporting children and young people with everyday activities.
Rachel Higgins

Rachel has worked extensively with children and adolescents with autism, physical and global delay in the home and in educational settings.
Kathryn Mahadeva

Kathryn has extensive experience supporting families and working with children who have physical, global delays and autism.
Sarah McCarthy

Currently on leave

Sarah has extensive experience working with children and their families to achieve functional outcomes. She has a particular interest in working in schools to support learning.
Emma Oertel

Emma is on maternity leave
Alana Koegler

Alana is experienced with working with children and young people with disability. She has particularly interested in equipment prescription and home modification.
Courtney Hamden

Courtney is skilled at supporting children and their development at home and in school settings
Rowena Petticrew

Rowena is experienced in working with children and families who face challenges and disabilities. She is particularly interested in supporting feeding and meal times and is qualified in SOS Feeding.
Annie O'Connell

Annie is an occupational therapist with a specialisation in sleep. She supports our staff with her experience and runs training programs for allied health
Ann Underwood

Ann has extensive experience working with children and adolescents with autism, neurological disorders, physical and global delays.

Registered Physiotherapists

Jordan Ignatavicius

Jordan is a physiotherapist who works well to support children to move and coordinate using play based approaches.
Emily Norton

Emily is skilled at supporting children's physical and developmental needs within the home and school.

Registered Registered Podiatrist

Dr. Helen Banwell

Helen is an experienced podiatrist and researcher who works with children, young people, and adults in order to assess, diagnose and treat foot and lower limb problems.
Rani Dars

Rani works in our podiatry team alongside Helen to support health feet development. Rani works also has a keen interest in research and clinical biomechanics.

Assistants

Ashlyn Johnson

Therapy Assistant

Ashlyn is a physiotherapy student and swimming instructor, who works with children who require physical based programs.
Rylee Shepherd

Therapy Assistant

Rylee is a therapy assistant who works well with supporting children in schools and in the community
Sophie Hill

Sophie is one of our amazing therapy assistants who works in our aqua therapy program as well as offering clinic support.

Administration Team

Jo Angelos

Administration Officer
Jenny Slack

Administration Officer
Karen Fowler

Administration Officer
Rhonda Murchland

Rhonda has worked as a Librarian in public, academic, special and school library sectors. She has a passion for finding the right resources to assist children to play and learn and to support therapists to achieve their desired outcomes.
John Scrymgour

Finance Officer
Amy Finlay

Research and Director's Assistant
Robin Vanstone

Business Advisor

Robin provides consultative advice on business strategy, planning, and operational approaches.
Tanja Cavanagh

Practice Assistant