Lavanya Sundararajan is a highly experienced, hardworking and a very passionate Physiotherapist, with well over 15 years of Physiotherapy experience in Australia; this is in addition to having an experience working in India (Physiotherapist and Team Leader, Spastic Society of India) and Singapore (Level 2 Paediatric Physiotherapist, National University Hospital) prior to commencing her Physiotherapy career in Australia.

Lavanya gained her initial Physiotherapy qualification (Bachelor of Physiotherapy) from Dr MGR University, India. She also completed Post Graduate Diploma in Special Education from Rehabilitation Council of India. Later, Lavanya decided to move to Australia to fulfil her professional and career aspirations and pursued Master of Physiotherapy in Paediatrics from University of Melbourne, one of the esteemed Universities in Australia. 

Since completion of her Australian Physiotherapy Council Assessment process in 2005, Lavanya worked across a number of Public Health Services in Victoria – this includes Royal Melbourne Hospital (Melbourne Health), The Alfred Health, Monash Health and Peninsula Health. She predominantly worked in acute settings such as General Medical Wards, General Surgical Wards, Cardio-thoracic Wards and Intensive Care Unit, both as a weekday and weekend Physiotherapist. Most recently she was working with Peninsula Health, as a Grade 3 (Senior Clinician) Physiotherapist and Team Leader, Falls Prevention Service, until early 2019 before going on an extended Maternity leave. She is due to return to her role in 2021. 

Lavanya’s specialist interest is in Cardio-respiratory Physiotherapy and  Gerontological Physiotherapy. These are the clinical areas in which she has worked in most part of her career in Australia so far. Her greatest skills and attitudes are effective communication, having an ability to show empathy and treat people with respect. 

In addition to her clinical experience, Lavanya has significant experience with clinical teaching and supervision of Physiotherapy students, Allied Health Assistants and Grade 1 & Grade 2 Physiotherapists. She worked across a number of projects, quality improvement activities and in leadership roles in her career and always advocated for patient centred and evidence based care. 

She is not only a passionate clinician and leader, but also a passionate mentor and volunteer. Lavanya is one of the founding members of AAPTA Inc. and has been involved in many AAPTA activities since its inception. Lavanya has been offering coaching, mentoring and feedback services to overseas Physiotherapists since 2008 and has delivered a number of mock exams and study days in Cardio-respiratory clinical area. Offering a clear, concise and specific feedback and giving away simple but very important teaching points during her sessions, is one of her strengths as a mentor. Lavanya also served across a number of leadership roles in AAPTA Inc, including as an inaugural Vice-President of AAPTA. 

AAPTA team is very fortunate to have a person like Lavanya in the team, without whom AAPTA would not have been serving so many overseas Physiotherapists over all these years