The Empowered Kids Team

Meet our friendly team of mobile occupational therapists working with children, families and schools in the Gold Coast and Northern NSW area.

Bonnie Lee B.HSc(OT)

Director / Occupational Therapist

Bonnie completed her Bachelor of Occupational Therapy in New Zealand and has 15 years of experience working with children. She specialises in paediatrics and has an interest in; Sensory Processing, Anxiety, Social Skills and Autism (ASD), Executive Function Disorders, Developmental Delays, Dyspraxia/Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) and Learning Difficulties.

Bonnie is passionate about identifying the underlying factors that frequently influence a child’s development, performance, and behaviour at home and at school. She believes in supporting children in developing their skills, increasing their self-confidence and encouraging a positive attitude and growth mindset towards future learning and life skills.

Bonnie enjoys being outdoors and is passionate about travelling. Although Bonnie now considers the Gold Coast home, she loves returning to New Zealand to visit family and friends.

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Kristy Harris B.Occ.Thy.

Director / Occupational Therapist

Kristy has a strong interest in helping children to overcome the challenges impacting their participation in important daily activities such as learning, playing, and social interactions. This includes children experiencing difficulties with executive function skills, emotional regulation, social skills, and general academic pursuits.

Kristy believes that the pathway to a fulfilling future begins in childhood with a positive educational experience, which all children deserve. This includes building strong foundations to learning, developing friendships, and having fun!

Kristy is actively engaged with Southern Cross University where she supervises occupational therapy students and contributes to the Occupational Therapy program. She is also a member of OT Australia and an associate member of Indigenous Allied Health Australia.

Being married with 3 young girls, like many parents Kristy’s spare time is spent doing homework, cleaning, and making school lunches. However, when she’s not working, she is a proud Manly Sea Eagles supporter (don’t hold it against her), and enjoys going home to the country to spend time with extended family. Kristy feels privileged to be welcomed into the lives of the families she works with, and feels truly blessed to have a career that she loves!

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Emma Hoare B.Occ.Thy (Hons)

Occupational Therapist

Emma completed her Bachelor of Occupational Therapy at Southern Cross University on the Gold Coast. Emma has always been passionate about paediatrics and as an occupational therapist believes all children should have the opportunity to reach their fullest potential and lead happy and fulfilling lives.

Emma is passionate about addressing feeding issues, developmental coordination disorder, social skill development, growth mindset, confidence and executive functioning skills and strategies. She enjoys working collaboratively with families, educators and other health providers to achieve optimal outcomes for children, families and schools.

Emma has had a special interest in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) for many years. This interest continued throughout her studies and as a result she formed her honours thesis research on the ‘Professional development needs of early childhood educators to provide an inclusive classroom for children with ASD’.  From this research, she developed a free online resource for early childhood educators with information about ASD and strategies that can be implemented in the classroom to support inclusive education.

Emma loves spending time with her partner, family, friends and two silky terriers, spoiling her three nieces, keeping active, playing netball and swimming in the ocean.

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Sara Hansen

Admin Support

Sara is the ‘Chief of Admin’ with Empowered Kids, and is an integral part of the team! She brings a wealth of experience to her role including a Bachelor of Education Early Childhood with a minor in Human Resource Planning, and a Diploma in Children’s Writing.

She has extensive administrative experience and is passionate about supporting the Empowered Kids team to provide the very best services to our clients. In addition to her administrative support to families and therapists, Sara has a keen interest in developing resources to support children in their play, engagement and their emotional intelligence.

When not supporting the Empowered Kids team, Sara is a pop culture enthusiast with a fondness for movies and superheroes. She loves early morning walks around the beautiful beaches of the southern Gold Coast, and being a little bit silly with her partner and ten amazing nieces and nephews.

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Rachel McCulloch B.Occ.Thy

Occupational Therapist

Rachel completed her Occupational Therapy degree at the University of Queensland in Brisbane. Rachel has always loved working with kids and during her studies she worked at the Screech Theatre in Brisbane to support children and teenagers to grow in their confidence and embrace their differences.

Rachel has a special interest in feeding therapy, early childhood development, pretend play development and emotional regulation. Rachel has training in DIR floortime therapy and has also enjoyed a recent course by Karen Stagnitti on developing pretend play skills in children. Rachel is passionate about building confidence in children and using their strengths to help them grow and flourish.

On the weekend, Rachel loves spending time with her husband Jordan (who is also an OT!). She also enjoys arts and crafts, playing guitar and gardening. 

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Harry Curr B.Occ.Thy

Occupational Therapist

Harry completed his Bachelor of Occupational Therapy at Griffith University on the Gold Coast. He has a strong passion for working with children and uses the strengths of his calming demeanour in his approach to practice. Being a member of Occupational Therapy Australia, Harry prides himself on providing evidence based practice, along with a client and family centred approach to reach the goals of each child.

He has worked with both individuals and groups of various ages in private clinics, schools, and community-based settings and enjoys working collaboratively with other health professionals, and places a strong focus on supporting parents, carers and educators to continue strategies outside of therapy sessions. Prior to embarking on his career as a Paediatric Occupational Therapist, Harry worked as a Junior tennis coach and Disability support worker which has helped him to develop his fun and active therapy approach, supports his understanding of behavioural and learning challenges, and drives his strengths based approach to therapy.

Harry loves the outdoors and enjoys keeping active by regularly engaging in hot yoga, tennis and golf. He is driven to support children to develop confidence and enjoyment in their everyday lives!

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Jacinta Greenup (B.Occ.Thy)

Occupational Therapist

Jacinta completed her Bachelor of Occupational Therapy at Southern Cross University on the Gold Coast and has always had a strong interest in improving an individuals quality of life. Jacinta is driven to make a difference to the children and families she works with, always striving to achieve their individual and unique goals. Jacinta believes in supporting children to develop their skills, increase their self-confidence, emphasise each child’s strengths, and focuses on celebrating every success no matter how small. She is passionate about supporting children and families to develop strategies which will enable each child to achieve fulfilling lives.

Jacinta has a special interest in early childhood development, dyspraxia/ developmental coordination disorder, sensory processing, ASD and anxiety. Her background in sport and as a disability support worker has enabled her to develop a fun approach to therapy. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with friends and family, keeping active, surfing, swimming in the ocean and boxing.

Sam Kemp (B.Occ.Thy)

Occupational Therapist

Sam completed her Bachelor of Occupational Therapy at Southern Cross University on the Gold Coast. Sam has an interest in Sensory Processing, Social Skills, learning difficulties and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Sam has worked in a range of areas, though supporting children and their families has always been a particular area of interest. Sam has a special interest in supporting children to improve their school readiness and school skills and has worked with a variety of children in a tutoring capacity for many years now; this experience contributed towards Sam wanting to study Occupational Therapy.

Sam has training in DIR Floortime therapy and Challenging Behaviour in Classic Autism. Sam is passionate about increasing children’s confidence, building motivation and supporting them to achieve their goals.

Sam enjoys spending time with her husband and family, camping, going to concerts and watching the NRL and F1.

Contact Us Today for More Information

Bonnie and Kristy would love to hear from you.