NZRP
Registered Hand Therapist (HTNZ)
MHSc (Hons)
PGD (Hand & Upper Limb)
My family immigrated from The Netherlands when I was 4 years old, and settled on Auckland’s North Shore where I grew up.
I qualified as a Physiotherapist in 1991 from AUT, and later went back to do a Post Graduate diploma in Hand & Upper Limb Therapy in 1999, and complete a Master of Health Science in 2004.
I was introduced to acute post-op hand injuries while working on the Burns & Plastics wards at Middlemore Hospital, moving into the role of section Physiotherapist of the Hand Therapy unit in 1994. I have been a fully registered Hand Therapist since 2000.
Learning my hand therapy skills in a hospital environment gave me a broad base of knowledge ranging from burns and scar management, wound care and complex hand injury management. Hospitals are also training institutions, giving me the opportunity to get involved in teaching dozens of therapists who spent time in the unit gaining skills in this fascinating specialised field of rehabilitation of the hand and upper limb.
As well as Middlemore Hospital, I also spent time working in the hand therapy units at both Whangarei and Waikato Hospitals.
After working in a private Hand Therapy practice in Perth WA for 18 months, I returned to NZ to open my own private clinic close to my home in Takapuna.
For the past 12 years I have been a sole practitioner running my clinic – Takapuna Hand Therapy - from a character villa in Belmont, mostly servicing the Peninsula between Devonport and Takapuna.
Sadly, the villa was sold to developers, and I closed my practice in March 2021, joining the team at O Hands on Shakespeare Road in Milford. It is good to be working alongside other hand therapists and getting involved in teaching and training again.
Many of my patients from Takapuna Hand Therapy have either “followed” me or “found” me in Milford. I am passionate about hand therapy and I hope to be able to continue offering my patients the expertise I have gained in this field over the past 25 plus years.View details »
