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Multidisciplinary Pain Management Program

Thriving Beyond Pain is a multidisciplinary chronic pain management program in Cairns, delivered by an interdisciplinary team of physiotherapists, occupational therapists, exercise physiologists and psychologists.designed for individuals with disabling persistent pain that significantly impacts their lifestyle and occupations.

The program supports adults living with chronic or persistent pain to better understand their pain, improve function and build confidence in returning to the activities that matter to them.

The Impact of Thriving Beyond Pain

Demonstrated return to work outcomes and clinically significant improvements in:

  • Catastrophising
  • Depression, Anxiety, and stress symptoms
  • Functional capacity
  • Kinesiophobia
  • Pain intensity
  • Pain literacy
  • Pain-related disability
  • Self-efficacy
  • Severity of insomnia symptoms
  • Time spent being physically active
  • Outcome Measures

Program Goals and Objectives

By engaging in the educational workshops, implementing learned practical tools & techniques, and continuing to apply resource materials from the program, upon completion of the program, the Participant will experience:

  • Increased practical understanding of modern pain science and the complex biopsychosocial processes contributing to their own pain experience to inform their increased independence and active engagement in adaptive pain management strategies
  • Increased independence in self-directed engagement in goal-setting, pacing, and graded exposure in all meaningful activities and occupations for ongoing improvements in functional capacity and quality of life
  • Increased emotional regulation skills and resilience resulting in improved mood and reduced fear, stress, and anxiety
  • Increased pain literacy, self-efficacy, and confidence in movement for return to meaningful daily activities and occupations
  • Increased adoption and maintenance of healthy lifestyle choices including improved sleep hygiene and nutrition
  • Reduced unhelpful beliefs and behaviours contributing to ongoing pain, mood disturbance, and disability
  • Improved relationships and communication skills
  • Reduced reliance on passive therapies, medications, and health professionals
  • Referral to appropriate service for further individualised care, if indicated

Table of Contents

Benefits of Thriving Beyond Pain

  • Return-to-Work: Liaison, communication, and collaboration with rehabilitation professionals to support functional restoration, engagement in suitable duties, and increased productivity within the workplace.
  • Interdisciplinary Pain Team: Our team consists of allied health professionals in the fields of Exercise Physiology, Occupational Therapy, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy and Psychology, all informed with the latest pain neuroscience literature. This ensures that participants receive a well-rounded and up-to-date treatment plan
  • Conservative Care: Coordinated and delivered exclusively by allied health professionals, providing evidence-based active interventions, focusing on education, movement, and self-management rather than medical or surgical interventions
  • Personalised Care: Each participant will first undergo comprehensive individual assessments with our Interdisciplinary Pain Team members, to ensure they are streamlined into a program that meets their specific needs and goals, ensuring the best possible outcomes
  • Collaborative Case Discussions and Coordinated Care: Ongoing roundtable meetings to discuss each participant’s care, promoting clarity on their goals, progress, and collective interdisciplinary contribution toward their ongoing progression in the program
  • Cost-effectiveness: Delivered in a small group format, reducing overall treatment costs while maintaining access to expert interdisciplinary insights and peer learning and support from individuals with a lived experience of pain
  • Telehealth Opportunities: With the benefits of technology, Thriving Beyond Pain has successfully been delivered for remote Telehealth participants, ensuring that location is not a barrier to participation!
  • Follow up: Regular review points following completion of the program for encouragement, support, and accountability in maintenance of new skills, knowledge, and behaviours
  • Sustainable Outcomes: Emphasis on education and self-management reduces dependence on ongoing therapy and helps maintain progress beyond the program
  • Reduced Downstream Health Costs: By equipping workers with self-management skills and improving functional capacity, the program helps reduce ongoing costs associated with extended sick leave, repeated investigations, passive therapies, and medication overuse.

Program Format

  • Twice weekly sessions over a period of 5 weeks.
  • Combination of land-based educational and exercise
    sessions, and hydrotherapy.
  • Group-based and interactive, up to eight participants.
  • We offer a variety of program options which will be
    discussed during intake assessments.
  • Telehealth available for remote participants.

Indications for Referral

  • Pain exceeding expected recovery time.
  • Pain unresponsive to medical or surgical treatment.
  • No further medical or surgical treatment required.
  • Increased reliance on medication or substances.
  • High risk of transition from acute to persistent pain.
  • Excessive dependency on healthcare professionals.

What is special about our Thriving Beyond Pain Care Team?

Each member of our team has gone above and beyond their core training to become experts in pain care:

  • David Dall’Alba (Exercise Physiologist) holds a Master of Science in Medicine (Pain Management) and a Professional Certificate in Pain Sciences. He’s also trained in Graded Motor Imagery (GMI), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) — powerful tools to support recovery.

  • Jordan Bonner (Physiotherapist) has completed a Professional Certificate in Pain Sciences, equipping him with the knowledge and skills to design safe, effective educational and movement programs tailored to people living with chronic pain.

  • Lucy Ruttiman (Occupational Therapist) is certified in Pain Reprocessing Therapy, a cutting-edge approach to treating chronic pain at its roots, is trained in Graded Motor Imagery (GMI), an evidence-based, graded, brain training program that accesses the virtual body in the brain, and is trained in CBT for Insomnia (CBT-I), helping those whose sleep is affected by pain.

  • Shanelle Poppi (Psychologist) brings a trauma-informed, compassionate approach to pain care as a certified clinical trauma professional and is also trained in CBT for Insomnia (CBTi). Shanelle integrates multiple evidence-based therapies — including CBT, ACT, Internal Family Systems, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) — to support emotional wellbeing and build a safe foundation for healing. Whether you’re navigating the emotional toll of pain, trauma, burnout, or life transitions, Shanelle is there to support both your pain and your possibility. Shanelle also has done further learning in Pain Reprocessing Therapy.

For more information regarding our Pain Care Team, please see their bios here.

What Makes Thriving Beyond Pain Different?

Thriving Beyond Pain isn’t just another pain management program — it’s a life-changing experience designed to empower people with the knowledge, skills, and support to reclaim their lives from persistent pain via conservative therapies.

Whole-person, Interdisciplinary Care

Our program brings together a team of physiotherapists, occupational therapists, exercise physiologists, and psychologists. We don’t just treat pain — we understand it from every angle: physical, emotional, cognitive, and social.

Conservative Care

Coordinated and delivered exclusively by allied health professionals, providing evidence-based active interventions, focusing on education, movement, and self-management rather than medical or surgical interventions

Lived Experience at the Heart

Thriving Beyond Pain is co-designed with people who have lived experience of chronic pain. Their insights shape how we deliver care that is empathetic, relatable, and genuinely helpful.

Education That Empowers

We replace fear, frustration, and confusion with understanding. Participants learn how pain works, why it persists, and what they can do to influence it — using the latest in pain science, not outdated myths.

Connection, Not Isolation

Living with pain can be lonely. Our group format fosters connection, shared stories, and mutual encouragement — because healing happens in community, not in isolation.

Psychologically Safe & Supportive

We prioritise emotional safety and wellbeing. The program is designed to be trauma-aware, inclusive, and adaptable to individual needs, with structured screening and support built in.

Flexible & Accessible

Whether you’re in Cairns or a remote community in Australia, our hybrid model (in-person + telehealth) ensures that geographical location is no barrier to accessing high-quality care.

Outcomes That Matter

Participants consistently report improved confidence, movement, mood, and quality of life. Because when people understand their pain — they begin to reclaim it.

Referral Pathways

 Thriving Beyond Pain can be funded privately or via a wide range of Australian compensable schemes/pathways including:

Through these compensable schemes, the Thriving Lives Co. Pain Care Team are able to support individuals to empower humans in pain to live a life they love!

For any enquiries, please contact the Thriving Lives Co. clinic on 07 4065 8000, via our chatbox, or via email to [email protected].

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What is special about Thriving Lives Co. clinicians?

We are a neurodiversity affirming and trauma informed service that utilise a compassionate, person-centered approach to our work, which means the care provided will be sensitive to the individual needs of the person, their relationships, environment, and occupation to support each individual to access resources and possibilities within and around themselves to help them thrive in their lives, performance, and participation in meaningful occupation.

  • We are all about empowering our clients to support them to be as independent in their personalised therapy as possible based on their needs and preferences. So, we work with everyone in our client’s lives to help support their development, autonomy, and independence.
  • We genuinely care about our clients and will commit the time required to truly understand our client’s needs to be able to deliver the most effective holistic, evidence-based healthcare for each individual.
  • We love what we do, which means when we are with our clients, we are having fun and doing everything in our power to help make it as fun and enjoyable as possible for everyone.
  • We appreciate that even though we are experts of human anatomy and physiology, our clients are the experts of their own health and life experiences, so we aim to speak less and listen more
  • We are humble and brave, so if we aren’t the right person to help or we don’t know how to help, we will refer our client to someone who can, or do more research and/or training to be able to help next time.
  • We are constantly reviewing the latest research to maintain our commitment to evidence-based practice to give ourselves and our clients the confidence that their healthcare is based upon the most reliable and valid information available to deliver the best care possible.
  • We all share a growth mindset so we love seeking out and receiving feedback and we take every opportunity we can to learn from our mistakes to become the best therapists that we can be.
  • We are constantly striving for excellence in the way we do things as a healthcare team, this is why we are always innovating and adapting to suit the needs of our clients and our community.
  • We really value teamwork and collaboration, and we are lucky enough to be able to work closely with a wide variety of skilled and experienced allied health professionals in our team to give our clients a broad interdisciplinary perspective and approach in their therapy.
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Governance and Scope of Practice

Exercise Physiology

All of our Exercise Physiologists achieve and maintain accreditation with their governing accreditation body, Exercise and Sports Science Australia (ESSA) via an ongoing commitment to evidence-based practice, continuous quality improvement, and professional development by meeting benchmarks established by the National Alliance of Self-Regulating Health Professions (NASRH).

For more information regarding the scope of practice of an Exercise Physiologist please see the Accredited Exercise Physiologist Scope of Practice document which can be downloaded via the Exercise and Sports Science Australia (ESSA) website here.

Occupational Therapy

All of our Occupational Therapists achieve and maintain registration with their regulatory authority, The Occupational Therapy Board of Australia, which is part of, and works in partnership with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) to ensure that Australia’s registered health practitioners are suitably trained, qualified, and safe to practice.

For more information regarding the scope of practice of an Occupational Therapist please see the Occupational Therapy Scope of Practice by Occupational Therapy Australia (OTA), the professional association for Occupational Therapists in Australia.

Physiotherapy

All of our Physiotherapists achieve and maintain registration with their regulatory authority, The Physiotherapy Board of Australia, which is part of, and works in partnership with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) to ensure that Australia’s registered health practitioners are suitably trained, qualified and safe to practice.

For more information regarding the scope of practice of a Physiotherapist please see the Physiotherapy Scope of Practice by the Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA), the peak representative body of Physiotherapy in Australia.

Psychology

All of our Psychologists achieve and maintain registration with their regulatory authority, the Psychology Board of Australia (PsyBA), which is part of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) to ensure that Australia’s registered health practitioners are suitably trained, qualified and safe to practice.

For more information regarding the scope of practice of a Psychologist please visit the Psychology Board of Australia website.

What Sets Us Apart

  • We value our client’s insights:
    We spend the time required to truly listen and understand
  • Mobile Service:
    We remove barriers in accessing quality healthcare to flexibly support our clients wherever they desire
  • Interdisciplinary Collaborative Approach: All the allied health services you need under one roof
  • Commitment to evidence-based care:
    We will always be guided by the latest research for the highest level of care