A HANDS-ON PATHWAY FOR OTs AND OT STUDENTS
You didn't lose your passion for OT. You reached the edge of what you were trained to do.
Soft Tissue OT Foundations gives you the hands-on skills and clinical reasoning to work with the tissues behind your clients' pain and function, and to build a career that feels like yours again.
Perth workshop: 27, 28 & 29 November 2026
Bio Health Therapies Clinic, 86 Valcan Rd, Orange Grove, Perth.
SOUND FAMILIAR?
You went into OT to help people.
And somewhere along the way, it started to feel like you were doing less and less of that.
The caseload is relentless. The paperwork eats the hours. You reach for the same tools you’ve always had, and watch people come back six weeks later, still not quite where they hoped to be. You can feel something is missing, but no one ever showed you what.
So you start to wonder if it’s you. If you’re just tired. If maybe this is as good as the work gets.
It’s not you, and it’s not as good as it gets. What you’re feeling is the edge of your training.
OT degrees cover an enormous breadth of practice, and hands-on soft tissue work rarely gets the depth it needs. That’s not a gap in you. It’s a gap in the profession, and it has a name: the STOT Awareness & Access Gap.
Soft Tissue Occupational Therapy adds a powerful hands-on layer to everything OT already does well. Most of us were never told it exists, let alone shown how to do it properly. That’s the gap this course closes.
WHAT IS THIS
Soft Tissue OT Foundations
Building Core Skills for Clinical Confidence
A complete training course that takes you from "I've heard of soft tissue work" to confident, hands-on skill across the whole body, with the clinical reasoning to back it up. You learn the theory online, in your own time. Then you get your hands on real bodies with me, in a small group, until the skills are in your hands and not just your head.
It's the first three steps of The STOT Pathway: Prepare, Practise and Build.
WHAT YOU’LL WALK AWAY WITH
Skills you can use on Monday morning
Confident, skilled hands
Wearne Depth-Directed Release (WDDR™) across the whole body, from the lower back to the jaw, practised region by region until it feels natural.
Anatomy you can find by touch
Bones, joints, ligaments and muscles you can locate on a real person, not just name for an exam.
Whole-person clinical reasoning
The Three-Lens Framework (Structure, Function, System) to connect what you feel in the tissue with what your clients want to do.
A complete treatment approach
How to bring the regions together into whole-person treatment sessions, safely and with good practitioner ergonomics.
12 months of support behind you
A clinical library with assessment, common conditions, treatment flow charts and videos, to come back to as you start seeing clients.
A Certificate of Completion, and a community
Plus the option to keep growing with mentorship and support inside The STOT Collective.
STEP 1 · PREPARE
Learn at your own pace, online
Short, clear lessons that fit around a full caseload, most between 5 and 15 minutes. You'll start with the Foundations module (what STOT is, the holistic approach, pain, inflammation, the spine and nervous system, and the musculoskeletal system), then the Ready for Hands-On module, with a self-palpation checklist and guided audio. Day 1, 2 and 3 prep packs then take you through the bones, joints, ligaments and muscles you'll work with each day, with a quiz pack for each.
By the time you arrive in person, you already speak the language.
STEP 2 · PRACTISE
3 days in person, small group, max 12 · 9am-5pm
This is where it becomes yours. You'll learn Wearne Depth-Directed Release (WDDR™): placement, depth, feel, rhythm, therapeutic touch, and how to protect your own body while you work.
- Day 1: lumbar spine, hip and pelvis, knee, ankle and foot
- Day 2: thoracic spine, shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand
- Day 3: neck and an introduction to the jaw, then you stop thinking in separate body parts and start treating the whole person
So you don't go cold: once you've had a chance to practise, we get back together online for an hour to clear up anything still fuzzy and show you where to go next.
Perth workshop: 27, 28 & 29 November 2026
Bio Health Therapies Clinic, 86 Valcan Rd, Orange Grove, Perth.
STEP 3 · BUILD
12 months in the STOT clinical library
After the workshop, the full clinical library opens for 12 months: nerves, blood vessels and lymphatics for every region, clinical assessment, and common clinical conditions, with quizzes, clinical checksheets and case studies, plus treatment flow charts, treatment videos and practitioner ergonomics. It's there as you start seeing your own clients, so the knowledge has somewhere to stick.
AND WHEN YOU'RE READY · GROW
Graduates can join The STOT Collective, our ongoing membership with live monthly sessions, mentorship, guidance on the clinical process from first assessment through to maintenance, and a community of OTs doing the same work.
YOUR INVESTMENT
Choose your payment option
Both options include online preparation, three hands-on workshop days, an online follow-up, 12 months in the STOT clinical library and a Certificate of Completion.
Perth: 27, 28 & 29 November 2026 · 9am–5pm
86 Valcan Rd, Orange Grove.
PAY IN FULL
$4,997 AUD
One payment
Pay in full today.
The complete Soft Tissue OT Foundations pathway.
THREE PAYMENTS
$2,500 AUD
Upfront, then two monthly payments
Payment plan.
The complete Soft Tissue OT Foundations pathway.
WHY I CREATED THIS
I'm Nicola, and I've stood where you're standing.
I'm an Occupational Therapist, the same as you, and I've been one for more than twenty years. I have a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, a Master of Occupational Therapy, and training in bioregulatory medicine. In 2009 I co-founded Max Health Therapies, now Bio Health Therapies, a clinic that has grown almost entirely by word of mouth.
Early on, I could see clients who weren't progressing with the tools I'd been given, and I knew there had to be more. I was blessed to find Laurie Farrow, who taught me closely, often one-on-one, over three years. Since then I've spent my career refining that way of working with soft tissue, and it has changed what I can offer the people in front of me.
Then I realised how few OTs ever get that chance. There was no clear pathway to learn it, and that didn't feel good enough, not for OTs looking for more from their work, and not for the clients who could benefit.
So I started teaching it in 2010, built my first formal course in 2018, and have now rebuilt it from the ground up. This is the cleanest, most complete and most practical version yet. From my clinic to yours.
Learning with Nicola
“This soft tissue course has been wonderful. It’s been a pleasure learning from you, Nicola.”
Maria. A.
Occupational Therapist, 2022
“amazing course, loved every session, can’t wait to pursue a career in this area”
Aaron. B
OT Student, Curtin University, 2022
AN HONEST FIT CHECK
I’d rather be honest with you now, so you can choose the right path for you.
THIS IS FOR YOU IF...
- You're an AHPRA-registered OT, or a 3rd or 4th year OT student, who wants real, hands-on clinical skills
- You’ve seen clients plateau and you know there’s more you could be offering them
- You’re looking for a more hands-on, fulfilling direction in your OT work
- You want a distinct, hands-on skill set that sets your practice apart, not just another certificate
- You're thinking about starting or growing your own private clinic
- You're willing to do the in-person work, because hands-on skill is learned with your hands
THIS IS NOT FOR YOU IF...
- You’re from another discipline. This pathway is built specifically for Occupational Therapists (though our upcoming Biopuncture course is open to health professionals)
- You want a quick online tick-box you can finish without ever touching a client
- You're after a magic fix with no practice on your part. Real skills take reps
- The idea of treating the whole person and thinking differently about pain doesn't excite you at all
HONEST ANSWERS
The things you're already thinking.
What does the $4,997 Foundations course fee include?
How much time does Soft Tissue OT Foundations take?
Is Soft Tissue OT actually legitimate?
What if I'm not confident with my hands?
I'm a student. Is this too advanced for me?
What happens after the course? Am I on my own again?
YOUR MOVE
You can keep doing the work the way you always have. Or you can learn to treat what you've been walking past this whole time.
The skills are learnable. The pathway is built. The only thing left is deciding you're ready.
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