In April 2015, we opened the doors to our first clinic under The Healthy Body Company brand. We had two treatment beds, a few bits of equipment, and a very large, very empty space.
We (Jude) were delivering about 30 consultations a week and were absolutely thrilled with ourselves.
The launch was a blur of speeches, finger food, and frayed nerves. My kids were there. My parents came. Friends—old and new—turned up, as did our landlord, some people from the developer (and landlord who was supportive all the way) and local council reps. I was so nervous about speaking that I changed my outfit (it didn’t help), and our physios turned into waiters for the day.
It looked smooth from the outside.
Lovely people and not much else at our launch.
What most people didn’t know is that my son was very unwell. So while it was a milestone for the business, it was also a very difficult time for our family. Looking back at the photos is still a bit of an emotional mixed bag.
Trish and Jude at the opening of Jordan Springs.
The place was bare. Genuinely echo-y. We only had the budget for two therapy beds and some basic equipment. But we had energy and a vague plan, and Jude made it work!
Steve Cunningham found the site (he’s good at sniffing out a location) and sketched out the original floor plan. Jude Holroyd, our business partner and co-founder, was calm, optimistic, and—importantly—not me. That helped. And Kathryn Charlton, the calm to my chaos and my empathy checker (IYKYK), we could not have done this without her.
Then Nathan Duguid came on board. He was a young physio who showed up to his interview so confidently that I felt like I was the one being assessed. He’s been with us over seven years now and has filled every corner of the clinic with equipment. The place no longer echoes, and he’s even adopted my email sign-off, which I find both flattering and slightly suspicious.
Now our clinic at Jordan Springs delivers over 300 consultations a week, has six amazing full-time physios (Jude, Isaac Serhan, Nathan, Sarah Morley, Tina Chen and Shaun Miller) and we also run group exercise classes for older adults and people living with diabetes. It’s a full, busy, functional space. We have strong relationships with the community and other health professionals here which supports excellent outcomes for our clients.
We’ve had some fantastic people work with us over the years—some who’ve moved on, others who’ve stayed and grown with us. We’ve deliberately and determinedly built the kind of workplace where people learn, contribute, get challenged, and hopefully don’t dread Mondays. That wasn’t accidental.
We’ve always tried to support the people around us—not just with physio, but by showing up where it counts.
We’ve partnered with or sponsored: Brothers Penrith Junior Rugby League Club, TESGO, Cranebrook Little Athletics, Softball NSW, Touch Football, all the way from grassroots to national level
And we’ve been involved in events like the Penrith Lakes Marathon. There’s something uniquely satisfying about seeing your logo on a shirt or banner. It never gets old.
Penrith Lakes Marathon crew 2015
In 2023, we were finalists in the Australian Small Business Champion Awards. We were quietly confident (read: cocky), so a big group of us headed to The Star in Sydney to celebrate.
Our “winning” team at the Australian Small Business Champion Awards in 2023.
We did not win.
However, thanks to Jude’s uninvited moment on stage and some strategic photography, plenty of people think we won—and we haven’t gone out of our way to correct them.
We did go on to win the Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards in 2024 and made sure that the trophy did a road show as Trish went to that event with one of her boys as her date.
Winner! Australian Women’s Small Business Awards 2024
Our trophy doing a roadshow.
Through all the change, some things have stayed consistent. We show up. We take care of people. We believe in doing good work. And we laugh—sometimes at ourselves, sometimes at each other.
Running a clinic is not always glamorous. There are moments of stress, mess, and long days. The COVID period is one we would all rather forget. But there are also big wins, quiet thank-yous, and the satisfaction of seeing someone walk out feeling better than when they walked in. Though for me, the biggest thing is having a team of motivated, highly skilled physio’s who are able to achieve and work at their professional best.
So what now? More of the same, hopefully—with a few new things thrown in.
Thanks to everyone who’s been part of our journey so far. Whether you’ve worked with us, referred patients or your friends and family to us, sent us encouragement, or just put up with us—you’ve helped us get here.
Here’s to the next ten.
– Trisha
