Meet Carlton Osteopath – Dr Nicola Stevens
Nicola is a new Osteopath here at Melbourne Osteohealth. She started working with us here in Carlton back in February after graduating from Victoria University’s Osteopathy program last year. Nic completed a Bachelor of Exercise Science and Human Movement before her own Osteopath encouraged her to study Osteopathy. She has since completed a Bachelor of Clinical Science and a Master of Health Science, majoring in Osteopathy.
Throughout Nicola’s final year of University, she travelled to the UK on a clinical exchange where she worked across many specialty clinics within the University College of Osteopathy, including, Geriatrics, Children’s, Expectant Mothers and patients with HIV.
Carlton Osteopath – Dr Nicola Stevens
When she’s not at MOH, Nicola is usually around the corner at Carlton’s Ikon park playing for the Carlton Football Club in the AFLW. In 2017 Nicola won Collingwood Football Club’s best-and-fairest and made history by becoming the first ever player to be traded in AFLW history.
We’re super excited to have Nicola join the Melbourne Osteohealth team because she’s an awesome Osteopath and an all-round superstar! Nic wears many hats and this year she was extremely busy during the off-season, completing a national tour for Dementia Australia – ‘Small actions. Big difference’. As part of this tour, she travelled to Hobart, Canberra and the Northern Territory, giving talks to help people gain a greater understanding and awareness of dementia.
Raising awareness for the Dementia Australia is a cause very close to Nic’s heart, after her mum Ann was diagnosed with early onset dementia in 2010. Nicola was completing her VCE at the time. During every football game she plays, Nicola wears a trademark white ribbon in hair, so her mum can easily spot her on the field… makes it a little easier for us to follow her too!
Through her ambassadorial role with Dementia Australia, Nicola was invited by the Governor of Victoria to a reception for Victorian Youth Leaders at Government House. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were present at the event and mingled with the guests – including shaking the hand of one very excited Nicola.
A life live to the full, with lots of travel, adventure and competitive sport have provided Nicola with a deep understanding and appreciation of the human body and its function. As and osteopath she takes great satisfaction in sharing this knowledge and empowering others to take charge of their own journey. Her practice as an osteopath is really defined by this desire to understand and empower others. Nic aims to provide every patient with the tools they need to take control of their pain or injury and provide a safe platform for her patients to return to full function, sooner.
Studying Exercise Science and playing elite football gives Nicola a real, lived understanding of the importance of movement, osteopathic treatment and injury rehabilitation in sports performance.
She really appreciates that no two conditions are the same in different people and enjoys the challenge of working with patients to find the root cause of their specific problem and its contributing factors. She treats many conditions, however lower back pain and pelvic pain, and sports related injuries are key areas of interest for her.
This interest in sports injuries and sports injury prevention drove Nic to develop and recently launch a free amateur sporting club program to help educate the grassroots sporting community on how to better care for their club members.
Nicola is registered as an osteopath with the Australian Health Practitioners Registration Authority (AHPRA), Medicare, TAC and the Victorian Workcover Authority. She is a full member of Osteopathy Australia.
Nicola is available at Melbourne Osteohealth Carlton on Tuesdays and Thursdays and has a number of out of hours appointments available.
