Maria obtained her Physiotherapy degree with first class honours from the University of Queensland in 2013.

She began her physiotherapy career in the public system, and has experience rehabilitating cardiorespiratory, orthopaedic, neurological, critical care, and geriatric conditions. She then specialised in musculoskeletal and sports injuries within the outpatients department, mentoring younger staff and supervising physiotherapy students.

Maria also led a team in creating a knee osteoarthritis mobile app and a lower back pain educational website, and spearheaded community and intra-hospital rehabilitation outreach events.

Since leaving the public sector, Maria has worked in physiotherapy clinics in Singapore, Newcastle, and Brisbane, treating musculoskeletal and neurological conditions across the lifespan, from sporting injuries to post-surgical rehabilitation, as well as participants under the NDIS.

Maria has a special interest in dance injury prevention, rehabilitation, and optimising performance, having trained in classical ballet, Chinese dance, jazz, tap and contemporary genres. She worked with established professional contemporary and ballet companies including Les Misérables (Australia), Singapore Dance Theatre, and T.H.E dance company, before finding a passion for the pre- and adolescent dance population.

She has since worked closely with dance students from various studios including the National College of Dance, Queensland Ballet Academy, and Kick Dance. Maria has also presented her research findings on the anthropometry of ballet dancers at the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science conference in Switzerland.

Maria first developed curiosity for hypermobility while studying in Physiotherapy school. Her ex-ballet classmates who were then training to be professional dancers were reporting patella and shoulder dislocations, and she got busy practising strapping their joints up. A further appreciation of the complex, multifaceted nature of hypermobile-related conditions led her to present a professional development lecture to the hospital’s physiotherapy department to improve awareness, faster diagnosis, and better treatment for hypermobile clients.

Maria enjoys learning from peers and mentors, and believes that life-long continual development is absolutely essential for being a good physiotherapist! She has visited and observed head physiotherapists at the Australian Ballet school, Queensland Ballet, New Zealand Ballet school, and Western Australia Ballet, and taken courses in foot and ankle injuries with Susan Mayes of the Australian Ballet.

Maria’s curiosity about hypermobility has only deepened over time — in fact, it was at a hypermobility management course for children that she unintentionally first met Sharon. She continues to invest heavily in professional development across hypermobility and Ehlers-Danlos syndromes, dance medicine, manual therapy and rehabilitation, including:

Ehlers-Danlos syndromes and hypermobility

• EDS ECHO Summit Series: Allergy & Immunology Complications
• EDS ECHO Allied Health Professional, Module 4 — Knee (Assessment and Management); Ankle and Foot (Assessment and Management)
• EDS ECHO Paediatrics Australia — Introduction to Hypermobility in Younger Children; Differential Diagnosis in Younger Children (rare Ehlers-Danlos syndromes and other conditions)
• Kidz Clinic (Natalie Bennett-Bremner) — Physiotherapy Management of Hypermobility Disorders and Gait Abnormalities in Children, and indications for flexible dynamic bracing garments in dysfunctional gait patterns

Dance and performing arts medicine

• Harkness Center for Dance Injuries, NYU Langone — Principles of Dance Medicine

Physiotherapy & Rehabilitation

• Trish Wisbey-Roth (APA) — Hip differential diagnosis and prescriptive exercise
• Shoulder rehabilitation (Ann Cools)
• Gripit ‘TRIO’ taping course
• Coaching for Peak Performance
• Mark Comerford — Thoracic Outlet: Beyond the MET (manual therapy, muscle optimisation and functional integration)
• Clinical reasoning in sports musculoskeletal physical therapy workshop
• Clinical Reasoning Approach to Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy
• Clinical Reasoning in Manual Therapy: A Perfect Fit (Prof Darren Rivett)

Dry needling

• AAP Education Dry Needling, Levels 1–3

Ongoing professional development

• APA College Knowledge Exchange (ongoing CPD)

Conferences attended

• EDS Global Learning Conference 2022
• EDS Paediatrics and Adolescents Summit 2022
• POTS Conference 2022
• PAMAthon 2023 (Performing Arts Medicine Association)

Special interests and skills:

• Hypermobility related conditions in the pre-adolescent and adolescent age groups
• Musculoskeletal conditions of the hip and foot
• Clinical Pilates (individual or small group supervised sessions)
• Dry needling
• Dance conditioning and rehabilitation

Please contact us to make an appointment with Maria Yee.