Rolfing Melbourne / About nick
Nicholas Barbousas
Certified Advanced Rolfer with more than 30 years of clinical experience. Educator, mentor and founder of PostureGeek, practising in Clifton Hill.
Monday · Tuesday · Friday
As a practitioner
More than 30 years of clinical practice
Nick qualified in Rolfing Structural Integration in 1996 and is a Certified Advanced Rolfer. Soft-tissue therapy, myofascial release, postural assessment and movement education have been part of his clinical and teaching work ever since.
Rolfing remains central to his practice because it treats the body as something shaped over time, by history, activity and environment. The painful area is rarely the whole story.
Who comes to see him
People come with long-standing back, neck and shoulder complaints, with pain that has moved or returned after settling, and with the sense that their body has organised itself around an old injury or the way they spend their days. Others arrive with no particular complaint, wanting to move more easily than they do.
What holds his interest
The relationships that develop across the body, and the environments and activities that help shape them. A desk, a vehicle, the tools of a trade, an old injury, a sport played since childhood. Over time, the body adapts to what is repeatedly asked of it.
Those adaptations can provide useful clues, but they are not conclusions. What Nick sees in posture or movement becomes a set of possibilities to explore and test.
What that means in the room
Where the work goes is guided by the pattern you present with on the day, rather than by a routine applied to everyone. The area that hurts matters, and it may be one part of a broader pattern.
Nick will explain what he is seeing and why it may be relevant as the session progresses. The response to the work is then re-checked, not assumed.
If another practitioner or approach would serve you better, he will say so.
as an educator
27 years teaching practitioners
Alongside his clinical practice, Nick has taught and mentored manual and movement therapists for 27 years, working with them on myofascial technique, structural assessment, posture and clinical reasoning.
He was the inaugural convenor and co-developer of the Myofascial Release Program within the osteopathy degrees at Western Sydney University.
That work continues today through professional education, courses and mentoring.
Why this matters to you
Experienced practitioners question what they are taught. Ideas have to be explained and tested before they are accepted.
The same habit carries into the treatment room. Nick will explain his thinking in plain language, and you are always welcome to ask why.
as a contributor
PostureGeek
PostureGeek.com is his educational resource on posture, movement and structural patterns, written for anyone curious about their own body.
For practitioners
Professional education
Manual therapists and movement professionals looking for structural assessment training, clinical reasoning courses or mentoring will find that work at PostureGeek Learning.
Book a session with Nick
Sessions are available Monday, Tuesday and Friday at the Clifton Hill clinic.
Book a sessionNew here? Read what Rolfing is or what happens in a first session.