Our unique approach to health and wellness came from our personal experiences with our own health challenges, researching the latest science and protocols, and learning to sequence interventions and information in a way that simplifies what you need to do to realise your health goals. We are an integrated team of natural health care professionals, including chiropractic kinesiologists, acupuncturists and health coaches. We believe that great health begins with preconception care and ends when you let go of your body. We are here to support you and your family through the challenges of life as we all navigate a world that is changing rapidly.. We understand that healing requires energy and the fast-paced lifestyle of today can often lead to burnout.
That’s why we are the most experienced users of energy medicine in Australia. Our protocols incorporate laser therapy, iMRS PEMF Therapy, Brainwave Entrainment therapy, infrared sauna, and Exercise with Oxygen Therapy (EWOT) to accelerate the body’s natural healing process. As a team, we start each day by meditating and focusing our intent on the underlying intelligence of life that creates the healing in every individual. Our goal is to inspire and share greater health, love, happiness, and conscious awareness.
We are an integrated group of natural health care professionals, including integrative chiropractors, kinesiologists, acupuncturists, nutritionist and energy therapists.
Matthew is the founder, director and principal clinician at Optimum Health Essentials, an integrative natural health clinic that has been established on the Northern Beaches of Sydney for over 20 years. Matthew is a keynote speaker, personal health coach and mindset consultant, founder and facilitator of Optimum Health Essentials Detox Retreats in Byron Bay, and has been on the Mindd Foundation Practitioner Advisory Board since 2008, and has presented at multiple Mindd conferences.
Matthew specialises in Chiropractic, Applied Kinesiology, Neuro Emotional Technique, Neurolinguistic Programming (Master Practitioner), Positive Psychology, Peak Performance, Functional Biochemistry and Breath Work. He has worked in Europe and Australia and studied Vedic philosophy and meditation in Australia and India.
At 24 years old Matthew was diagnosed with an aggressive inflammatory arthritis that threatened his career and freedom to pursue the life of adventure he was planning on. Conventional medicine offered at best pain relief, but it quickly became apparent that the prescribed medications damaged the gut significantly, had many other side effects, and seemed to perpetuate the condition.
Thankfully through a program of diet modification, fasting, mind/body work, energy medicine and meditation, Matthew regained his health and vitality and now lives his life following his passions and supporting others to do the same.
Matthew’s approach is a truly integrative one that assesses physical, biochemical, emotional and ultimately spiritual elements of the human condition.
B.ChiroSci.M.Chiropractic
Shannon has always had a passion for holistic health, wellbeing and fitness. She graduated from Macquarie University in 2004 with two degrees, a Bachelor of Chiropractic Science and a Master of Chiropractic.
Shannon has a keen interest in working with individuals and families to restore, enhance and maintain optimal health. To do this she employs natural and gentle techniques such as Applied Kinesiology, Neuroemotional Technique and Advanced Biochemistry to address the structural, emotional, and nutritional requirements of the body.
Shannon regularly attends postgraduate studies to keep up to date with the latest research. This also helps Shannon provide her clients with the highest standard of health care.
Bryony decided to study chiropractic science after her own experiences with chiropractic care,
kinesiology and other manual therapies offered her an understanding of the human body as being her greatest teacher.
She is passionate about sharing this awareness with others in such a way that supports them in realising their own most complete expression of health. The practice of yoga has been a constant along her journey, offering an appreciation for the subtle continuum of the self beyond the physical and emotional body.
She has undertaken training in a variety of modalities including dry needling, Craniosacral therapy, Neuro Emotional technique, and more recently, a Sattva Yoga teacher training.
Bryony believes that treating the body holistically and identifying the underlying cause of your health concerns, will assist you in reaching your health and lifestyle goals. She seeks to bring this philosophy into the consult room, supporting you in the discovery of your own inner teacher.
Bryony is continually improving her knowledge base and skills and loves working alongside the other practitioners at Optimum Health Essentials to provide you with the best care.
When she is not working, she loves spending time in nature, being with friends and family and creating in the kitchen.
Jade has completed a Master of Chiropractic degree at Macquarie University as well as Applied Kinesiology and Neuro-emotional technique courses.
Growing up surrounded by integrative health practitioners is where Jade’s love for integrative health began. Jade has been drawing on the wisdom of mentors in the health field over the years and through her own health journey has developed a passion for holistic healing and empowering others to achieve optimum health.
Helen is a highly experienced and qualified practitioner with many years of practical application. She has used acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine to enhance health and wellbeing for more than 30 years. Helen also has over 25 years of experience in Cranio-sacral therapy. She gained her qualifications and experience in Australia, China, and the U.S.
With a thorough understanding of the meridians in the body, this knowledge subsequently influenced her practice towards more subtle energy work which she studied extensively in the U.S.
Helen’s broad interest in health and wellbeing has led to further studies in nutrition, women’s health, and cosmetic acupuncture. She has an integrated approach to clinical practice with an emphasis on lifestyle education. She has taught classes in meditation, women’s wellness, hands-on healing, cranio-sacral therapy, and Qi Gong.
She is passionate about helping people achieve greater balance by connecting them more fully to their own energy.
Jeanette is a speaker, educator, and Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach. She has a passion for helping people heal naturally and live life optimally.
Using functional pathology, such as Food Inflammation Testing, Jeanette takes the guess work out of dietary change and helps you find the right diet to achieve the outcomes you want.
Whether healing your gut, overcoming, or managing a chronic health condition, reducing inflammation or achieving your ideal weight, Jeanette will support you with making the dietary transition simple and clear, giving you the guidance, support, skills and knowledge, you need to facilitate lasting change.
Jeanette has a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology along with more recent studies in Functional Medicine Health Coaching, and her current studies in Nutrition. Jeanette Combines functional nutrition, positive psychology, and mind body medicine, because your challenges are not just in your gut, they are in your beliefs, habits, and subsequent behaviours. Once new habits are created then the rest is easy.
After struggling with her own health challenges, Jeanette started her health journey with Optimum Health Essentials 15 years ago as a patient and discovered that true health is about getting to the root cause of the problem. Her programs and signature system gives you the tools and support to take back your health, with a completely personalised wellness plan and symptom-prevention road map.
Julie-Anne is an integral part of the team here at Optimum Health Essentials. Having spent many years working in leadership and administration roles in large corporations, she is inspired to use her skills in a business where the core purpose is to inspire greater health, love, happiness and conscious awareness. She is passionate about the services offered, having been a client here herself for many years, she attributes her own personal growth to the wisdom and offerings of our practitioners.
Arts (Syd), majoring in Psychology
Certificate of Nutrition, Nature Care Collage
Certified Bicom Bioresonance Therapist
Low Level Laser Therapist
Reiki Master
Hilary has followed holistic health care principles and nutrition for most of her adult life. She feels blessed to be able to combine her passion of integrative health and wellness with the opportunity daily to make a difference in people’s lives.
Like most working mums, Hilary leads a very busy life and believes that daily Vedic meditation has played a key role in helping her maintain equilibrium and balance. She loves spending time nurturing her garden, and being out in nature, either by the beach or in the country. She also loves spending time and having fun with her 2 amazing children, who continue to inspire and educate her daily.
Hilary’s passion in alternative health comes from self-healing over several years and having the privilege of being part of an integrative healthcare team sampling world class treatment for over a decade.
At Optimum Health Essentials, we take a holistic approach to health, going beyond symptoms to isolate the root cause of the imbalance in your body and provide solutions that will help you achieve both your short- and long-term goals.
Whether you have an annoying niggle of pain or a more chronic condition, our holistic approach helps you find the underlying cause and get back to doing what you love.
Healing the body is about understanding how all the parts fit together.
“Everything is connected to everything” and although some symptoms can look the same, underlying causes can vary dramatically. Headaches, back pain, shoulder pain, irritable bowel syndrome, even allergies can all have physical, emotional, nutritional and/or toxicity as underlying causes.
“Life is like a photograph; we develop from the negatives.
“Hurt is a state, and it is interpreted through your stage or level of consciousness. As you evolve, your relationship to your wounds naturally shifts. More than any other single barometer, what you do with your hurt reveals to you and others your genuine level of consciousness.”
Marc Gafni – Your Unique Self
Your level of consciousness is the set of implicit organising principles that create your world view. At early developmental stages your consciousness is powerfully influenced by your conscious and unconscious wounds. The unresolved feelings from these wounds become the default settings with which we react to life e.g. fear, guilt, anger or pride. When we heal our wounds, and they no longer define us, we tend to respond to life with confidence and kindness.
We are less motivated by or egoic needs for recognition, power, competition and pleasure and are more connected to our Soul Self, which is inspired by the quality of our relationships, communal and world needs.
At the higher levels we can feel connection to the underlying field of intelligence working through you in the process of evolution, utilising your unique gifts and perspectives. A great resource for understanding these concepts is:
Letting Go by David Hawkins.
Optimising your mind is a lot more than just mindfulness, breathing techniques or taking medication to suppress unwanted feelings. These all have a place, but a skilled practitioner understands that similar states and symptoms can require very different approaches.
Our practitioners are trained to understand that in dealing with a person’s state of mind they may need to:
We often deal with the build-up of emotions and feelings that happen because people often haven’t been given the opportunity to release their emotions as it wasn’t safe to do so, their wasn’t enough time, there wasn’t anyone there for them who understood their experience, or they were taught to “get on with it”.
It takes a lot of energy to manage all these unresolved thoughts and feelings. Many people think that they “have moved on” but what we now understand is that “the body keeps the score”. Subsequently many symptoms and diseases have underlying emotional causes.
Great resources to understand this include:
Using the tool of muscle testing as a biofeedback tool, and utilising a technique called Neuroemotional Technique, we can efficiently ascertain the emotion and the body sensations of unprocessed trauma being held in the body. The energy of this trauma can then be released and is often processed with a wave of tears, sweating, heat, changes in breathing and with words that have often never been expressed. This process doesn’t require in depth analysis as NET is not a “talk through” therapy but a somatic approach to healing unresolved trauma. Our clients may need to explore and understand their thoughts and feelings further and for this we refer to psychologists or other mental health professionals.
Secondly, we offer health and life coaching which will often involve muscle testing as this can be used to locate limiting beliefs and “emotionally congruency” with statements. E.g. If a client says a statement “I’m ok being healthy” but tests weak to this statement, they may be in a psychological reversal. This means that their unconscious nervous system ie their limbic or reptilian brain would prefer to be unwell as it supports an underlying need eg as a child their mother only gave them undivided attention when they were sick so they have learnt to be sick in order to get the undivided attention or love from others. This approach can be utilised for health, relationship, career or financial mindset coaching and is very helpful when clients feel “stuck” in repeating cycles or are in a transition and need to reduce stress to think creatively.
We believe in a family system approach to being healthy. Each generation in a family influences the other in more ways than we can imagine. We commonly see three generations of a family in our office and it’s amazing how healing an emotional trauma in one generation can influence the behaviour and emotional state of another.
Healing and health optimisation works best when everyone is on the same page and health and vitality is an important goal for everyone.
Kids are always modelling what their parents do and what they choose to invest their time and energy in. Keeping your family healthy can be fun and incredibly informative. Kids love to work through their issues and express what’s going on for themselves. Having a safe place to do that and feeling empowered with their health creates healthier kids with purpose and passion who take more responsibility for their own health over time. Family healthcare begins prenatally and ends when your soul leaves your body. It’s about keeping your system in balance and evolving to grow through the life stressors that change with every stage and life transition.
We love sharing our retreats with parents and children and this experience can be incredibly healing and life enriching. Specifically for children we address alignment and postural issues, delayed development, fine and gross motor problems, anxiety, concentration, behavioural issues, digestive function and poor immunity.
Our approach incorporates gentle chiropractic techniques, cranio-pelvic balancing, retained neonatal reflex integration, dietary and nutritional support, and Neuroemotional Technique.
Optimising movement, diet, detoxification and mindset creates the physiological conditions for increased healthspan (i.e. how long you stay in great health in your life). No one wants to spend the last 30% of their life suffering, but unfortunately this is an all-too-common occurrence. In fact according to the ABS, 58.7% of people between 15-44yo have at least one chronic health condition.
These statistics have been getting worse every decade. We need to all start taking a much greater responsibility for our health, our food production and the health of our planet.
We support regenerative farming, organic and local food systems, ethically produced meats and a greater accountability for toxic and largely unregulated industries involved with personal care products, plastics and pharmaceuticals.
Our integrative Mind-Body Approach is trusted by High-Level Athletes, Performance Artists, and Business Executives to Overcome Physical and Mental Blocks, Optimise Nutrition and utilise Biohacks, for increased energy, optimal well-being and goal realisation.
However you don’t already have to be a high achiever. Peak performance starts from wherever you are to support you to where you want to be.
Need your team more work fit, harmonious and motivated?
We offer bespoke programs including education, personalised health care plans, stress reduction techniques and team building processes and retreats. To support you to create a high performing, healthy and harmonious team.
Your health, the health of your family, or the health of the people in your business are your most valuable assets…
We’re here to help you achieve your health goals
