MEET THE CREW: Maree
Meet Maree
"Maree is a genuine soul. She is down to earth, approachable, and knowledgeable."
Coming from a large family who take “work hard, play hard” to the next level, I had a lot of trips with injured family members to hospitals, physiotherapists, and chiropractors. It is always distressing to see a loved one in pain and I was intrigued by the amazing medical staff who knew how to help. I hoped to one day learn these skills and join the ranks of my heroes. Unfortunately I discovered that I pass out at the sight of blood! Not a useful trait for my aspirations.
So I sidelined the idea, and chased other passions - music, and outdoors, until I took an opportunity to buy a small business in transport, I loved the fast paced environment, and being lucky enough to catch sunrise daily. During a particularly stressful period at work (I was handling 6 tons of freight per day, 6 days a week) I put my back out, in denial I tried to tough it out and continued to work for two months until it deteriorated to the point where I couldn’t walk, and had to resort to a warped penguin shuffle, so elegant.
I finally dragged myself off to a physical therapist who had me walking pain free after 3 sessions, and best of all showed me maintenance strategies to prevent relapse. I was absolutely fascinated by the process of rehabilitation, injury prevention, and the fact that even small changes in movement patterns have massive consequences. That was it, I was changing careers.
Massage therapy stood out from other physical therapy modalities in the area of injury prevention, and holistic health care. It allowed for the influence of mental, spiritual, and social factors on health with the positivity of looking to increase wellbeing, and achieve goals, rather defining success as not being ill.
This led to studying at the New Zealand College of Massage, (which is one of the few places globally to offer a degree in this field), I loved every minute learning about the fascinating design of the human body, and found that learning never stops! There is a fine line between peak performance and injury, I relish being part of team ONI helping our clients navigate this.
- Maree Sandbrook, Manual Therapist