• Catherine Stephens

    Catherine Stephens is a Physiotherapist who owned and operated Northern Beaches Physiotherapy and Sports Injury Centre in Dee Why on Sydney’s Northern Beaches for 30 years. Four years ago, Catherine started Northern Beaches Bone Health Centre to treat osteoporosis as a drug free alternative.

    Catherine has been instructing Clinical Exercise Classes based on Pilates principles for 20 years and through that experience recognised that stability, flexibility and balance do not combat the drop in bone density seen in postmenopausal women and others with a genetic predisposition to the progressive disease.

    With 36 years’ experience and continuous ongoing education in treating musculoskeletal disorders, Catherine has applied her extensive knowledge to create the program at Northern Beaches Bone Health Centre. Some Pilates principles are employed for core stability along with sports medicine fundamentals in injury prevention and the improvement in general flexibility required to safely take load. Catherine prides herself on her commitment to caring for patients as a whole person not just a problem, and has developed the program with the whole patient, their lifestyle, and limitations in mind.

  • Jashan Gill

    Jashan is a Canadian born, Australian trained Physiotherapist with a personal history of weights and resistance training. He has been a valued member of the Northern Beaches Bone Health Center for the last two years. Originally from Toronto, Canada he began his university education at the University of Toronto and received my Bachelor of Exercise Science in 2017. I then ventured to Australia and received my Doctor of Physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne in 2020. Since then, I have settled in the Sydney sunshine and am also working as a community physiotherapist providing valuable in-home care. My professional interests include working with the more mature clientele and treating chronic pain and osteoarthritis. The Osteoporosis program compliments this passion and the results we see have impressed me too. I enjoy staying active with my interest in a multitude of sports such as basketball, ice hockey and skiing.

    With my professional experience in acute, community and private practice settings, I have gained a true appreciation for client-centred treatment with empathy, empowerment and trust at its core. I am committed to delivering the highest-quality of care to our clients and am excited to use my skills in the Osteoporosis Program.

Catherines Journey in Physio

Catherines interest in the human body and how it works began when she was just a little girl. Her grandmother had been qualified as a Massage Therapist treating amputees returning from the WW1 in 1917. That  profession developed into what is now Physiotherapy. Interestingly Catherine did not know this until she graduated from Physiotherapy herself in 1986 at which time her Nana gave her the roll of documents showing her qualifications. This same Nana had taught Catherine about muscles and bones and stretching and massage and wound care.  Catherine was encouraged to have good posture and it was explained how important that was to good body function.

Catherine has a brother who suffered a severe spinal injury at the age of 18 when she was only 13. Philip has been a quadriplegic for 44 years and has had an amazing life considering his disability. Catherine was ever present for his 6 months of rehab at Royal North Shore Hospital and witnessed the wonders of Physio in that setting and that may have paved the way for her passion in Physio. She has encouraged him to maintain his health, strength and flexibility as much as possible and he is still remarkably healthy and enjoys life and travelling all over the world.

Catherine went on to be the Physio for the Australian Wheelchair Sports Team for a couple of years before she started her own Physio practice in 1991.  After many years of sports coverage including Cricket, Netball, Soccer and 25 years with Warringah rugby club, Catherine recognised the importance of preventative Musculoskeletal care and 20 years ago began running Clinical Exercise classes base on the principles of Pilates employing Core stability and spinal flexibility.

More recently as she and her friends aged she realised that Osteoporosis is not prevented or reversed by most common exercise like tennis, swimming, walking or gym classes etc. The evidence for then program came in the form of the “Liftmore Trial” published by Griffith University which proved that weightlifting and heavy load reversed Osteoporosis without drugs. 

 Catherine has been running the program at Dee Why for 4 years and has seen her clients bone density improve if they comply to the twice weekly supervised program. Using her knowledge of movement , injury prevention and treatment she has developed a program where Balance for falls prevention and core strength for injury prevention are combined with a very gradual increase in loading to see strength and subsequent bone density improve.  Saftey and confidence are her main aims for the participants .