About Riccardo

My philosophy

I believe the way someone is treated matters. I spent years working in hospitality, and my Italian roots taught me the value of warmth, respect and basic humanity. I try to treat people as I’d want to be treated. You arrive with a history and a life beyond whatever needs attention today. Physical concerns don’t always sit neatly apart from emotional, mental or spiritual ones.

I see the body as adaptable. When one movement becomes difficult, we often find another way to get through the day. That can be remarkably useful. It also means the place that hurts may be only one part of the story. I want to understand what your body has learned to do before exploring what else might be possible.

I’ve spent much of my working life looking and observing: how do people move and behave as they do? Observation has many facets. It means learning to see what people are doing, how they’re moving, how they’re acting and how they’re shaping themselves.

I pay attention to what the body isn’t doing because you cannot change something you are unaware of. What can you feel moving? What seems difficult to access? What do you think you’re doing, and what is actually happening? That awareness is a starting point for working with your own body.

There are so many joints, so many possible combinations of movement, and so many factors that change how we move. To think we can alter the nervous system to conform to what we would like is a difficult proposition. I can guide you and help you explore what’s possible, but I cannot make the change for you. You are the one who has to feel it, learn it and make it your own.

Learning is fundamental to my wellbeing. It keeps me curious about people and willing to question my own assumptions.

The people who shaped my thinking

Clients have perhaps had the biggest impact on how I practise. They bring me experiences and questions that I don’t always understand at first. That makes me want to keep learning, look more closely and reconsider what I thought I knew.

Jeffrey Yuen had the deepest influence on how I think about health. He introduced me to a different perspective: understanding the person as an interconnected whole. Through Chinese medicine, he taught me to look beyond symptoms and ask how someone arrived at this point. What has supported their health? What has changed? What have they had to adapt to? Whatever method I use in treatment, the underlying understanding of health needs to remain consistent. He also taught me to see food medicine as a foundation of health and wellbeing. You are what you eat and how you move. Both are part of how I understand health.

Gary Ward changed how I understand anatomy and movement. He taught me to look at walking as a sequence: what happens when, what each part of the body needs to do, and how one movement changes what is possible elsewhere. I spent ten years learning from Gary and working with his Anatomy in Motion model. His work had a profound effect on how I understood my own body as well as the people I work with. I eventually became the first Anatomy in Motion instructor in Australia and mentored other therapists.

Chris Sritharan changed how I observe. He taught me to notice small clues, explore the relationships between movements and stay curious when a body does something unexpected. How to notice what isn’t immediately obvious. Gary gave me a deeper understanding of what could happen in a movement; Chris helped me look more closely at what was happening in front of me. Together, they changed what biomechanics meant to me and made it something I could use in practice. From Chris, I learnt that teaching someone to find space within themselves allows the greatest growth in the simplest ways.

Many others have contributed to that understanding. Peter Connelly deepened my knowledge of the talus and feet. Kathy Dooley’s Immaculate Dissection brought anatomy to life. Caroline Stone’s teaching on osteopathic thinking and human biology shaped my cranial work. The Hesch Method gave me another way to explore and feel joint movement. Diane Jacobs’s DermoNeuroModulation changed how I think about the role of skin.

Each influence added something; none gave me a reason to stop asking questions.

Professional background

I hold a Bachelor of Health Science in Acupuncture and am an AHPRA-registered Chinese Medicine Practitioner. I’m also an active member of ATMS. My work and continuing education have included massage, Upledger cranial therapy, personal training, sports training, strength and conditioning, nasal release technique, functional anatomy and movement rehabilitation.

I’ve taught movement classes, created online movement education and taught healthcare practitioners through my Functional Foot Mechanics and Functional Limb Mechanics workshops. Teaching has made me examine my thinking as closely as my practice. Despite the qualifications, workshops and years of experience, I still consider myself a student of human movement.

Treat the individual, not the disease, as the disease does not exist without the individual.