Helen Rowe is an Occupational Therapist and Rehabilitation Counsellor who has over 20 years’ experience working with people whose lives have been affected by disability or injury. She predominantly works with and has particular skills and experience in assisting people with Chronic (persistent) Pain to find as many means as possible to manage pain and to grow through the pain into a life that has value for them.
Helping participants navigate their way back to a productive and healthy Lifestyle led Helen to develop an appreciation for the complex nature of persistent pain and the benefit of individualised, multi modal treatment approaches.
During this time she became keenly interested in assisting people to identify vocational aspirations and engage meaningfully in the workforce and so her parallel career as a rehabilitation counsellor evolved.
Helen’s search for a deeper understanding of the array of management approaches for persistent pain and an opportunity to focus clinical skills led her to the Multidisciplinary Pain Centre at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital where she served as a senior Occupational Therapist for over a decade.
It was here that she worked closely with colleagues who have inspired and mentored her such as Professors Jenny Strong and Tess Cramond, both passionate advocates of the role of Occupational Therapy in pain management. She considers herself fortunate to have been introduced to the work of Lorimer Moseley during his time at RBWH. Similar to previous work experience, she valued the multidisciplinary environment and the opportunity to learn from both her patients and the multidisciplinary professional team. At the Professor Tess Cramond Multidisciplinary Pain Centre, Helen practised in both inpatient and outpatient settings developing and running group and individual treatment programs, especially focusing on mind body techniques such as relaxation and mindfulness. During this time, Helen also undertook private practice providing occupational therapy, rehabilitation and clinical counselling and clinical hypnosis services specialising in pain management.