“To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.”
Sharnie is the director of Akesó and a highly qualified integrative health professional.
She graduated with a double degree with Masters of Osteopathy in Melbourne 2008 and subcontracted her services to multiple health practices in country NSW, Victoria, and the ACT before opening her own interdisciplinary practice in Brisbane in 2012. Affectionally known as The BFC, it was a clinic determined to break the mould in healthcare, focusing on patient-centred care by bridging the gaps between allied health and physicians. She worked alongside leading fertility, gynaecologist, obstetricians, midwives, lactation consultants, functional dentists, women’s health physiotherapists and exercise physiologists. She now brings her expertise, passion and determination for better healthcare to the Alpine and Indigo shires of North East Victoria.
In 2012 she completed postgraduate paediatric studies in Melbourne and in 2013 she successfully became an internationally qualified lactation consultant (IBCLC). Sharnie wrote and delivered for many years the paediatric unit to 5th year osteopathic students at Southern Cross University, where she also provided private clinical tuition to postgraduate students. Sharnie became the inaugural National Chair to the Paediatric Clinical Practice Group for Osteopathy Australia in 2012, directing the research and education of paediatric osteopathy. She also helped to instigate the inaugural Women's Health Clinical Practice Group for Osteopathy Australia in 2016.
In 2017 she and her husband Troy welcomed into their world their first son River Hendrik, and 13 months later welcomed their second son Wildé Phoenix. Due to the proximity of their sons births, Troy and Sharnie decided to relocate closer to home in Victoria’s North East in 2018.
After stepping away from practice to prioritise her family in recent years, Sharnie now returns to consult in Beechworth. Despite graduating as an osteopath, and working for 11 years as a registered osteopath, Sharnie is no longer an AHPRA registered osteopath. Instead, she combines her vast knowledge and experience, identifying instead as an integrative health professional. Some changes to third party claiming may now occur.
Whilst she loves to help the whole family, her skill-set pertains to paediatrics where she provides a professional yet playful approach, valuing the parenting role and actively involves parents in their child’s therapeutic provision wherever possible.
In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, "life is always a learning experience." Sharnie is currently studying Ayurvedic Medicine.
Where indicated, she will aim to work alongside your physician, specialists and other allied health practitioners throughout the Alpine, Indigo, Wangaratta and Wodonga shires to provide a holistic approach to meeting you and your family’s healthcare needs.