Consultancy & Training Team

Managing Director: Janette Gale, BA (Psych Hons), MCom, MAPS

Janette Gale is a practising Health Psychologist and founder of Health Change Australia (in association with Health Coaching Australia). She consults to government and industry on the implementation of health behaviour change processes into chronic condition prevention and self-management programs. She is an Australian leading authority on health coaching principles and professional practice and is the primary developer of the HCA Model of health behaviour change for chronic disease prevention and self-management.

Janette has extensive experience in using health coaching techniques in her work with individuals and groups to enhance their health and prevent or manage chronic health conditions. She has also designed and facilitated several innovative community-based, government & industry funded health promotion and education programs targeting lifestyle change for adults and families. Currently Janette is completing a doctoral thesis investigating issues around making lifestyle changes during pregnancy to avoid excessive gestational weight gain. She is an active member of the Australian Psychological Society College of Health Psychologists and was until recently a member of the NSW Health Chronic Disease Management Program Clinical Expert Reference Group.

Janette co-developed Australia's first health coaching professional development program for health professionals with Andrew Dawson at Deakin University, Victoria. She has previously lectured in Consumer Behavior, Marketing and Research Methods at the University of Sydney.

View a description and outcomes of the Kangaroo Valley Healthy Community Project funded by the Rural Chronic Disease Initiative, Department of Health and Ageing. Health Coaching Australia, in conjunction with the Kangaroo Valley Lions Club and the Shoalhaven City Council, received State and National level Heart Foundation Kellogg Local Government Awards in 2004 for this project, in the category of Project by a Community Organization.

Senior Training Facilitator: Rebecca McPhee, BNutr.Diet (Hons), APD

Rebecca McPhee is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Primary Facilitator for Health Change Australia, in association with Health Coaching Australia. She has been involved in a variety of innovative community based lifestyle programs targeting obesity and was formerly NSW Chairperson for Nutrition Australia. Rebecca has also worked in England as an Obesity Specialist Dietitian for the NHS and was the representative for the Obesity Strategy Committee for Westminster. Rebecca currently runs a successful dietetics private practice where she specialises in assisting patients to self-manage diabetes, weight issues and cardiovascular disease. She uses health coaching techniques within her practice to achieve tailor made lifestyle and dietetic solutions for individuals.

Senior Training Facilitator: Dr Vanessa Cook, BSc (Psych Hons), DPsych (Health), MAPS

Vanessa Cook is a Health Psychologist and a Primary Facilitator for Health Change Australia. She operates a successful practice in which she applies the HCA Model to facilitate change within a population experiencing or at risk of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other preventable health conditions. The HCA approach is used both as an integrated part of her personal training practice to enable clients to overcome barriers that prevent their goal attainment, and also as a stand-alone health psychology service to individuals from the wider community for chronic condition self-management and health behaviour change. Vanessa is currently involved with several research projects using and evaluating the HCA Model of Health Change.

Senior Training Facilitator: Caroline Bills, BAppSci (Physio), Grad Dip Manipulative Therapy, MPhysio (Research)

Caroline is a Manipulative Physiotherapist who consults in Occupational Health and works in a private practice in the Melbourne CBD. She is passionate about self-management and has extensive clinical experience in the treatment of musculoskeletal conditions and chronic pain. She also holds a Master's degree by research which investigated the use of a home gravity traction device and exercise in chronic low back pain. Since first attending HCA workshops Caroline has been integrating the HCA approach into her clinical practice. It is used to assist patients to identify and overcome barriers which may prevent them adhering to treatment recommendations.  

Training Facilitator: Angela Kinsella-Ritter, Speech Pathologist, MSc (Speech-Language Pathology) MAPS, CPSP

Angela Kinsella-Ritter is a speech pathologist who specialises in language and literacy and the impact it has on academic achievement. Her extensive experience has included senior roles in community health, disability services, clinical assessment publishing and private practice. She has worked with children of all ages and abilities, and is an award winning researcher. A consultant clinical educator in the field of speech and language, Angela is well-known throughout Australia and New Zealand for her work and has supported speech pathologists, psychologists, occupational therapists and teachers with training and professional development.

Angela implements Best Practice standards and the most current evidence-based research in her work. Since the completion of HCA core training, she has integrated the HCA approach into her clinical practice. It is used to assist parents in identifying and overcoming barriers which might prevent them from implementing the therapeutic intervention strategies recommended for their children, which has had positive treatment and carry over effects.

Training Facilitator: Margaret Barrett, B.H.M.S (Ex. Phys)., B.Soc Wk., Dip.Ed

Margaret Barrett is an Exercise Physiologist who operates her own practice as a Health and Wellness Consultant, working mainly with mining companies.  Margaret is passionate about enhancing the quality of life of individuals as they approach middle age and later, and for those on mine sites to achieve a balanced lifestyle right from managers to those at the 'coal face' plus their wives and children. Margaret conducts groups, works with individuals and at public speaking engagement stresses that ‘prevention is better than cure’. She utilises the HCA approach which greatly enhances her success rate with all aspects of health behaviour change from smoking to weight loss. Margaret 'lives and breathes' health and wellbeing.

Training Facilitator: Alison Ford, B.Phty (QLD), Clinical Pilates Instructor, Author

Alison Ford is a Physiotherapist and Clinical Pilates Instructor with 33 years working in Australia and in the United Kingdom, with a special interest in exercise prescription for rehabilitation from spinal injury as well as for improving the overall health of the mature adult. She is passionate about helping people to take ownership of their health outcomes to the extent that she has devoted her working life to it. 

She is the author of various books and DVDs under the banner of Actively Ageing, a program which she has written and developed into a very successful nationwide physiotherapy course structure with the purpose of improving the health outcomes of the over 50's in the community.

Since her introduction to the HCA approach in 2009, she has instigated its use in the Actively Ageing program whereby she has made it mandatory for her Physiotherapists throughout Australia to attend the training within 12 months of joining her program, to learn how to use the approach to optimise the benefits of the Actively Ageing course material to the client.

Training Facilitator: Hayley Morey, BA OT

Hayley Morey is an Occupational Therapist with ten years experience working in Australia and the United Kingdom, specialising in neurological rehabilitation and community-based rehabilitation.  She has spent the past three years focused on self management and health behaviour change in a Melbourne-based community health service, facilitating clients to make positive long term change to reduce the risk and impact of diabetes, obesity, cardio-vascular disease and other preventable health conditions.

Hayley is trained in the Stanford Model and is licensed to use the Flinders Model of Chronic Condition Self Management and is passionate about seeing her clients achieve health empowerment and independence.

Since her first introductory workshop with HCA in 2007, she has been using the HCA Model with great results in her practice, assisting clients to identify and overcome barriers to change and improve their attitude to their health and well being.  She is excited to be a part of the HCA team so she can share what she knows - that the HCA Model works!

HCA Head Office Team

Director: Graham Gale

Graham has had a long career in marketing, primarily in the area of Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Pharmaceuticals, both in Australasia and Asia.

After graduating from the University of Sydney, Graham worked for a number of multinational firms (including Nestle, Unilever & Novartis) in marketing & market research roles. He spent 15 years with the Reckitt & Colman group (now Reckitt Benckiser) in Australasia and Asia Pacific, before leaving in 1999 (as Asia Pacific Marketing Director). Between 1993 and 1999, Graham served at Board level on the major organisations representing the over the counter and prescription medicines industries in Australia, where he was active in developing and modifying the marketing Codes of Conduct for those industries.

Graham is currently Chairman, Promotional Monitoring Panel for ASMI (the industry body representing the self medication industry). Since 2001 he has taught post graduate Marketing courses at the University of Sydney. He is also a consultant to both private industry and government.

Business Manager: Kerry Chick, MDip ACIM

Kerry is the Business Manager at Health Change Australia/Health Coaching Australia. She is responsible for the running of the HCA office, scheduling of workshops, coordinating HCA staff and overseeing the promotion of upcoming events and workshops. Kerry has previously worked in a number of large media organisations in both the UK and Australia and is an accredited member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Client Services Manager: Bettina St John

As Client Services Manager, Bettina is responsible for workshop administration, client liaison and account management. She co-ordinates HCA workshops which are run for a variety of Community Health organisations, Divisions of General Practice and other public and private health organisations. Bettina was previously a management consultant with PwC (Pricewaterhouse Coopers) in Sydney where she assisted many organisations to successfully implement change.

Independent Registrations / Resources Production Coordinator: Darren Fagan

Darren Fagan is the Independent Registrations as well as the Resources Production Coordinator for HCA. His role includes the coordination of all administration for HCA workshops open to individual clinicians in the major capital cities. Darren is also responsible for HCA product orders. Darren has previously worked at a high quality print organisation in Sydney as a Division Manager of Traditional and Digital pre-press.