ABOUT BIO HEALTH EDUCATION
Hands-on skills. Clinical rigour. Taught by someone who still treats.
I'm Nicola Wearne, Occupational Therapist, clinic co-founder, and creator of The STOT Pathway and Wearne Depth-Directed Release (WDDR™). This is the story behind the course.
MY STORY
Twenty years of hands-on practice, distilled into a pathway for OTs.
I didn't set out to build a course. I set out to solve a problem I kept seeing in my own profession: brilliant OTs graduating without the hands-on skills to treat the bodies in front of them.
I was blessed to be taught closely, often one-on-one, over three years by Laurie Farrow. Over more than two decades of clinical practice, I've built on that foundation, developing a soft tissue approach grounded in occupational therapy principles: careful assessment, skilled hands-on treatment, and a focus on what each client needs to get back to the life they want.
I started teaching it to other OTs in 2010, often one-on-one, and formalised it into my first course in 2018. Those were the skills that transformed my own practice and gave me a viable pathway into private practice. Now I've rebuilt everything from the ground up as The STOT Pathway: comprehensive, complete and easier to learn.
Today, I still treat at Bio Health Therapies in Orange Grove, in Perth's hills, and through Bio Health Education I teach the next generation of OTs to work with their hands, think clinically, and build careers on their own terms. From my clinic to yours.
WHAT I STAND FOR
Clinical. Organic. Alive.
Clinical
Clinical rigour first
Every technique is grounded in anatomy, evidence-informed reasoning and two decades of real caseloads. No fluff, no guesswork.
Organic
Hands-on, always
The body isn't mechanical, and neither is the way I teach. Skills develop through guided, hands-on practice, region by region, until they feel natural in your hands.
Alive
Support beyond the certificate
Learning doesn't end when the course does. The STOT Collective keeps your skills, confidence and practice growing with live sessions and a community of OTs doing the same work.
THE JOURNEY SO FAR
Two decades of practice,
one growing movement
2004 · Qualifies as an OT
After a psychology degree and work in disability assessment, Nicola completes her Master of Occupational Therapy.
2004-2005 · Orthopaedics in London
A year on the orthopaedic wards at the Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead.
2006-2008 · Learning from Laurie Farrow
Home in Australia, three years of close, often one-on-one, training in soft tissue work with Laurie Farrow.
2009 · The clinic opens
Nicola co-founds Max Health Therapies in Perth, a clinic that grows almost entirely by word of mouth.
2010 · Teaching begins
Nicola starts teaching Soft Tissue OT to other OTs, often one-on-one.
2018 · The first STOT course
Nicola formalises her approach into her first structured course for OTs and OT students.
2024 · OTs travel from across Australia
OTs begin flying in from other states to train with Nicola in Perth.
2026 · A new chapter
Max Health Therapies becomes Bio Health Therapies, with a new home in Orange Grove, Perth. The course is rebuilt from the ground up as The STOT Pathway, and Bio Health Education is born.
BIO HEALTH THERAPIES
Everything I teach, I still use in my own clinic.
Bio Health Education is the teaching arm of Bio Health Therapies, the clinic I co-founded, now in Orange Grove, Perth. The techniques you'll learn aren't theoretical. They're the same ones I use with real clients, every week.
When you train with me, you're learning from a practitioner who still puts hands on clients, still refines her methods, and still runs the business side of private practice. That's what makes this more than a course.
Visit Bio Health Therapies
Ready to add hands-on skills to everything your OT degree gave you?
Soft Tissue OT Foundations blends self-paced online learning with 3 intensive hands-on days in Perth, in small groups of no more than 12.
© 2026 Bio Health Education
