Top to toe care: Meet the two businesses putting your best foot (and body) forward

Posted on 24 March, 2023

It’s not often that your health professional is also a sporting star, but at Canberra Physio Clinic, it’s part and parcel of the experience. Not that you’d know it from Ellie Brush’s sunny and humble attitude.

Making her professional soccer debut in 2008 for Canberra United, Ellie’s career spanned more than 15 years, including three seasons at Sydney FC and four seasons playing AFL for the GWS Giants as well as playing soccer internationally and for the Matildas. Last year, Ellie came full circle, playing her final season for Canberra United before announcing her retirement earlier this month.

Off the pitch, Ellie can be found in her other role of physiotherapist at Canberra Physio Clinic, a family-run full-service physiotherapy clinic, which she explains represents another full circle moment.

“I actually studied at Charles Sturt University with [Clinic Director] Andrew Thompson—he studied podiatry and I studied physio. We were actually housemates for a time,” she says. “When he realised I was coming back to play for Canberra United he reached out to see if I wanted to come on board as a physio. It was a perfect fit.”

Luckily, you don’t need an epic injury brought on by a penalty shootout to see Ellie. As she explains, Canberra Physio Clinic sees clients from a diverse range of backgrounds, and everyone is welcome.

“I’m not a titled Sports Physiotherapist but my background with sports and my history of being injured was what led me to study physio in the first place. When I was getting more serious about training, around 13 years old, I picked up my first injuries and often it’s not until you see what you can be that you realise what job you’d like to go into.”

“In terms of the clinic, we treat everyone from older Canberrans to office workers and, of course, people who play local sport as well as representative players. Geriatric physio is an area I’m keen on too, to help improve the lives of our older folk.”

Ellie Brush.

That being said, Ellie admits her professional sporting career has given her a unique perspective when it comes to understanding her clients’ feelings about their injuries and recovery periods. An athlete from childhood, Ellie had her fair share of injuries, including rupturing her ACL twice in a row, which saw her take two years of recovery.

“I started playing soccer when I was five and I’ve played every sport under the sun. I’ve played cricket, AFL, I used to dance…I was always a very active, sporty kid,” she explains, adding that when it comes to injured clients, Ellie is able to empathise because “I feel like I’ve been there…I’ve probably had the experience of being in their shoes myself with most of the injuries I treat.”

“I know the low points you get to when you have a bad injuries and are told it’ll told it’ll affect everything, not just your sport. But I can also then try to help them realise that our bodies are very resilient and can recover from just about anything.”

This care is further supported Canberra Physio Clinic’s sister business The Walking Clinic, which focuses on podiatry. At Canberra Physio Clinic’s Belconnen location, the two clinics share a reception and common spaces, which Ellie says creates a broader team to consult on a client’s needs.

“It’s great having the podiatry clinic here because we often share patients,” adds Ellie. “Being able to bounce off each other and discuss patients across both clinics has been a real eye opener. I’ve learned a lot.”

For Podiatrist Victoria Thompson (pictured top left), who has been with The Walking Clinic for almost six years, the ability to share patients has been a game-changer.

“It’s fantastic for our patients to have a multi-disciplinary approach to their health. With podiatry, we mostly look at bio-mechanical ways to help people, so our treatment is different to a physio’s.”

“Generally, our patients are coming in with pain that has onset through a variety of factors, so having this combination of treatments gives people an optimum outcome. They know they’re not going to get a contradictory opinion.”

Despite the popularity of physiotherapy and the clinic’s own success, with clinics across Kingston and Belconnen, Ellie says there are still some myths to bust around physio, including that some people think they need a referral from a GP when it comes to making a physio appointment (not the case) and that you need to be injured to see a physio.

“Some people don’t come to a physio until they’re really hurting, but prevention and early intervention are key. We can do a lot more if people come in at an early point to prevent an injury getting worse. It’s like a mechanic—it’s good to have a check in and a service and it’s the same thing as your body.”

“Office workers can come in to talk about working from home to pre-empt repetitive stress injuries and kids who are taking up a sport or stepping into a higher grade can come and see us in pre-season to do a screening of where they might have deficits that we could work out, to mean that they might prevent injury down the track.”

Victoria also sees similar challenges when it comes to the public’s approach to podiatry.

“We’re a somewhat unknown allied health profession—a lot of people know about physiotherapy, but podiatry is still untapped by a lot of people. Generally, people think they need to have a problem to come and see us, but as I say to patients all the time, the only prerequisite you need to have to come and see us is to have feet.”

“We’re so fortunate to have preventative health measures as part of our allied health services so coming in and having your feet or footwear checked can make sure any issues can be addressed before they become problems.”