Michelle Maunder OT

27/04/2026

Last week I joined Camp Jabiru for an intense, immersive and deeply meaningful experience, one that I will reflect on, and cherish forever.

It was one of those experiences that’s hard to put into words, but try to conjure:

🍀 nearly 100 kids ‘having the best week of their life’ at a huge outdoor adventure centre. Think - scaling rock walls, walking in the tree tops, ricocheting through the air on the giant swings, building rafts and setting sail, singing and dancing around the campfire each night. So much opportunity for fun and challenge!

🍀 over 100 OT’s and OT students from across Australia and USA co-creating the Jabiru ethos for each and every child:
🌟 I have been seen
🌟 My voice matters
🌟 I belong

🍀 observing OT’s with immense experience providing therapy dawn to dusk. And when kids were finally asleep, engaging in deep clinical reasoning and reflection using the SpIRIT and STEPPSI tools well into the night.

🍀 kids and adults alike, feeling the sun on our skin by day, warmth of the campfire by night; hearing laughter and song; seeing smiles, tears, frustration, vulnerability and bravery.

🍀 honking my horn farewelling friends new and old, smiling from ear to ear, and feeling immense joy at having contributed as best I could to creating an experience kids and OT’s will never forget.

No photos of the kids to share but you can imagine how they are feeling when the adults are having this much fun!

20/02/2026

DIFFERENCE MAKERS ||

A family I've had the great honour of working with for several years gave me a precious gift for Christmas and the words inscribed have stayed with me for months.

I'm so honoured as it captures the essence of what we try to do as OT's - make a positive difference in the lives of the children, families and educators we work with.

It also prompted me to reflect on all the other difference makers in the world - OT colleagues and mentors, other neuro affirming allied health clinicians, parents and carers, educators - all the 'good eggs' sharing positivity and joy as they facilitate change. We see you and thank you! 🤍

20/02/2026

DIFFERENCE MAKERS ||

A family I've had the great honour of working with for several years gave me a precious gift for Christmas and the words inscribed have stayed with me for months.

I'm so honoured as it captures the essence of what we try to do as OT's - make a positive difference in the lives of the children, families and educators we work with.

It also prompted me to reflect on all the other difference makers in the world - OT colleagues and mentors, other neuro affirming allied health clinicians, parents and carers, educators - all the 'good eggs' sharing positivity and joy as they facilitate change. We see you and thank you! 🤍

06/02/2026

Tracy, Cory and I share another one of our fascinating clinical tri-alogues this week. As usual we never really know what we’re going to talk about or where the conversation might go. We’re usually as surprised as you 😂 What we do know is that our clinical discussions and reflection on our paed OT practice is one of our great loves.

You can listen to Episode 33 of Spirited Conversations - Engaging and Elevating Pediatric OT on all podcast platforms. Love you here what resonated or rubbed you.

Happy days!
Michelle

Another episode of Spirited Conversations is out now - and .stackhouse dive deep into the clinical reasoning behind a case study, connecting meaningful goals and activities to praxis capacities.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts!

03/02/2026

ANSON ST SCHOOL ‘awkward’ staff photo day 😂😂

You know you’re in the right place when photo day looks like this - fun loving, open hearted, clever and creative.

Anson St School spirit A++

19/12/2025

MENTORING PAEDIATRIC OT’s

It’s been one of the highlights of my jam packed year to connect with so many clever Paediatric OT’s, to expand our clinical knowledge and fine tune our clinical reasoning skills.

My lucky last session was with Chelsea, GumCreek OT, who I was lucky to meet I person at the Attachment Matters workshop Sarah and I hosted last month.

If one of your goals for 2026 is to expand and refine your clinical practice in ways you can’t imagine - I have one regular mentoring appointment available on Fridays. Drop me an email to learn more: michelle@seedpaediatricservices.com

17/12/2025

LEARNING WITH US ||

I just arrived home from a fabulous few days working with the amazing educators at Murrin Bridge. It was such a privilege to meet with them, see their phenomenal facilities, and observe them deliver a really strong pre school program. The kids are incredibly well prepared for school next year. Huge congratulations to them all.

It was their last day of work for the year, and my lucky last workshop, and we went out with a bang, what an absolute hoot! Thanks for hosting me :)

24/11/2025

KIM BARTHEL delivered ATTACHMENT MATTERS Workshop
in Sydney last Thursday and Friday and it was a extraordinary learning experience!

Sincere thanks to Kim and Bob for trusting us to host you in Sydney, it was an absolute honour 🤍🤍

Thank you to each and every person who joined us and co-created this phenomenal experience. It's a pleasure to connect and learn alongside such dedicated people 🤍🤍

Thank you Tanya Northey for all your help over the two days and also your team at for your help with our website and marketing 🤍🤍

Thank you Tiara, Mie and Joshua and Novotel Parramatta for your exemplary service 🤍🤍

With much gratitude,

Sarah and Michelle

17/10/2025

LEARN WITH US ||

This time last week Michelle was at Trundle Children's Centre wrapping up a full day workshop about child development, regulation - dysregulation and behaviours that can result from moments of dysregulation, attachment theory and sensory integration.

30 experienced and eager early childhood educators came from far and wide to learn together, share ideas and to brainstorm new strategies to take back to their centre. The wealth of experience, passion and compassion in the room blew was extraordinary. It was also a reminder that the further west we go, the greater the gap in access to services and much still needs to be done to ensure equity of access in rural and remote regions.

Huge thank you to all the staff at Trundle for hosting such a fabulous day. It was such a blast to be back home and to see what a phenomenal job the community has done converting the Bowling Club into a beautiful and homey children’s centre. Thank you also for baking all the divine slices, biscuits and cakes for our morning and afternoon tea, what a treat, truly fit for the Queen.

13/10/2025

LEARN WITH US ||

Last week Michelle met with the fun, dynamic and dedicated educators at Molong Early Learning Centre for a jam packed day of learning.
It’s always a pleasure sharing concepts and practical strategies that support child development with educators in our community.

We love when the information leads to lots of A-ha moments and rich discussion amongst the team. We also love when people find the information relatable and applicable to themselves and their own family, as much as it is for the children they support.

Thanks for inviting me to your fabulous, thriving centre Molong!

If you’d like to hear new information, different perspectives and practical strategies at your next staff development day, we’d love to hear from you. Let’s co‑design a workshop together.

Email:
🌱 Sarah@seedpaediatricservices.com
🌱 Michelle@seedpaediatricservices.com

27/09/2025

PAEDIATRIC OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY ||

Last week I, Michelle, travelled to Ubud Bali joining 30 other OTs for a week of immersive learning about the SPiRIT Clinical Reasoning Tool and engaging with the beautiful children who attend the community established school .volunteering - Yayasan Widya Guna
The experience absolutely blew my mind, heart and spirit. It was simultaneously gloriously rewarding and challenging, inspiring and uncomfortable, heart warming and sad, and like all extraordinary experiences will take some time to process and integrate.
I'm eternally grateful and inspired by my dear friend and brilliant, compassionate and gracious leader from Developmental FX - The Developmental & Fragile X Resource Centre who took us on the incredible journey, meeting us all where we were at, holding us when we wobbled and reminding us to be kind to ourselves as we learn.
Huge thanks to Linda and Hannah for dreaming up the idea and bringing it to fruition, and Ange for being our right hand woman.
Massive thanks to all the phenomenally clever and generous OT's who I had the pleasure of learning from and treating with, especially Hannah Melinda and Sara.
It was an absolute honour and I cannot wait to do it again in February.

12/09/2025

LEARN WITH US ||

I’m thrilled to be heading home to Trundle on the 10th October to spend a day with the early childhood educators at We will learn about child development, behaviours of concern, underlying reasons for dysregulation including sensory processing or emotional or social skills, and evidenced based ways to support children.

As always, the Trundle community ethos is: everyone is welcome, the more the merrier.

Contact Sarah Kilby, Director for more information on 6892 1022 or Director@trundlecc.com.au

See you in Trundle on the 10th,
Michelle