Mental health and psychological injury
Exercise physiology for psychological injury
Where physical recovery and psychological recovery are the same job, not two referrals.
Why this matters commercially
In Queensland, a mental injury claim costs substantially more than a physical one, takes more than twice as long to resolve, and returns to work at a markedly lower rate. WorkCover has responded by increasing early intervention funding for mental injury.
Most physical claims pick up a psychological component somewhere along the way. By the time it is formally recognised, the claim is usually already in the expensive version of itself.
What we actually do
Graded exposure for fear avoidance. Behaviour change and habit formation rather than motivation. Work on sleep, energy, confidence and self-efficacy alongside strength and capacity.
Practice is trauma-informed, which for us means psychological safety, client choice and client control are built into how a program is prescribed. Nothing is pushed onto anyone and nothing happens that has not been agreed.
Groundwork, our named program
Groundwork is our twelve week program combining supervised exercise physiology with a daily behaviour app, developed in partnership with the University of the Sunshine Coast. It opens to referrals in October 2026 and we are taking expressions of interest now.
Where the expertise comes from
Our director delivers a day program and an inpatient program at Pine Rivers Private Hospital, and collaborates with the University of the Sunshine Coast on exercise and wellbeing research including a wellbeing app currently in development.
That hospital and research grounding is unusual for a community exercise physiology practice, and it is the reason we take psychological injury as core work rather than an add-on.
Common questions
- Is this a replacement for psychology?
- No. We work alongside psychologists, psychiatrists and GPs, and we coordinate with them rather than duplicating their work.
- Which funding covers it?
- WorkCover and CTP where psychological injury is part of the claim, DVA for veterans, NDIS where relevant, and privately.
- What does trauma-informed actually mean here?
- Psychological safety, client choice and client control are built into how programs are prescribed, not added as a label.
What you get when you refer
- Contact within one business day
- We call the referrer, not just the client.
- First appointment within five business days
- Across South East Queensland. Cairns and Far North Queensland by arrangement.
- Initial report within five business days of assessment
- Function and capacity, not attendance.
- Written updates every fortnight
- Without you having to ask for them.
- Case conference attendance on request
- In person, by phone or by video.
- Direct access to the treating clinician
- You get their mobile. Not a reception queue.
Have a client who needs exercise physiology?
Send the referral, or call and talk it through first. Both work.