A child is unique, not just as an individual, but as they grow. Skeletal growth of a child changes at a phenomenal rate from infancy, childhood and into adolescence. Due to these rapid changes many children may experience growing pains and discomfort; some of these issues will resolve with time and others may require exercises or activity modification to ensure the child can return to play and sport as quickly as possible.
At Auckland Physiotherapy, our Paediatric Physiotherapist Michelle Rellis, has been lucky to work with children and their families for over 10 years. She has expertise and experience working with children of all ages through their growth and development but has a special interest in adolescent Health. Michelle completed her Masters at the University College of London in 2021 in Advanced Physiotherapy; paediatrics with a thesis project focused on the management of hip injuries in the active adolescent.
It is vital that we protect and support our children and equip them with the opportunities to succeed in their growth potential. Growth can be compromised by many factors from birth through to a sporting injury. Paediatric physios are equipped with the skills to assess, diagnose and manage childhood musculoskeletal development of all ages.
This includes:
•soft tissue injury
•sports injury
•joint pain
•developmental concerns or conditions
•post op orthopaedic rehabilitation
•graded return to sport and activity
•normal variants
If you are concerned about any aspect of your child’s growth, development or have had an injury then please get in touch.
We are passionate about the appropriate and effective management of sporting children & adolescents. It is vital we continue to support growth with extreme levels of activity. This includes adequate pre and post warm up and cool down with flexibility and graded return to support this ensuring children reach their optimum potential.
Children’s therapy is a specialist role and requires a high skill set to understand and recognise childhood growth. We're so lucky to have Michelle who is the only physiotherapist in New Zealand with a Masters degree in Musculoskeletal Paediatric Physiotherapy. Let’s get it right and help your child be the best they can be!
Michelle Rellis calls on an impressive and wide-ranging background of experience in the sports and health industry to deliver the highest level of treatment and care to her patients.
Drawing on fifteen years of knowledge as a musculoskeletal clinician across multiple countries, with numerous sporting organizations including gymnastics, snow sports, football, rugby and water sports! She is currently the lead physiotherapist for the New Zealand Olympic Surfing team. Having been to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games, Michelle was selected once again to support the team preparing for the Paris 2024 Olympic games.
She is particularly passionate about maximizing human performance – whether that is for your sport, your hobbies or even balancing a busy modern lifestyle. Michelle uses an integrated approach with patients that includes targeted manual techniques, movement, strength exercises, breathwork, recovery and biomechanical ‘fine tuning’ to help each patient reach their personal goals.
Michelle also has a special interest in treating our younger patients. Once a gymnastics coach herself, she has an in-depth understanding of human movement at all ages. She completed her Masters at the University College London in 2021 in Advanced Physiotherapy; paediatrics with a thesis project focused on the management of hip injuries in the active adolescent.
