![[Annette Tonkin] - Tekmatix Website](https://assets.cdn.filesafe.space/YwBoSBds2e2fV0DTgMML/media/6a7e8ca899074f5ef62ea353.png)
For allied health clinic owners
Your clinicians know their craft. Coaching helps them master the conversations around it.
Small group coaching for up to four clinicians from your clinic. Six fortnightly sessions, built entirely around the real patients and real conversations your team finds hardest. No curriculum. No role-play scripts. Their actual caseload, worked on together.
Over 30 years of clinical practice and clinic ownership · Trusted by practice owners across Australia · Coaching, courses and workshops delivered to clinics from Brisbane to Perth
Small Group Coaching for Clinic Teams, run by Annette Tonkin, is a six-session fortnightly coaching programme for up to four allied health clinicians focused on the real patient conversations that drive follow-through and retention (2026).
The Problem You Can See In Your Diary
You can see it in the numbers before anyone says a word.
Patients who self-discharge at session three or four, once the acute pain settles and before the real work is done
Cancellations that leave white space in the diary while wages stay fixed
A capable clinician who avoids the conversation about ongoing care, so the care plan quietly dies
Juniors who know the clinical answer but lose the room when a patient pushes back
Professional development your team enjoyed on Saturday and forgot by Monday
None of this is a clinical skills problem. Your team treats well. It is a conversation problem, and it shows up as leakage: in your PVA, in your rebooking rate, and in clinicians who slowly stop backing themselves.
Why Coaching, Not Another Workshop
Workshops have their place. I run them, and clinics get real value from them.
But a workshop teaches to the middle of the room. What changes a clinician is different: it is the moment someone helps them look at their patient, their wording, their sticking point, and find a better way through it. That is coaching, and it is why I keep it deliberately small.
In a group of four, nobody hides. Every clinician brings the conversations they are actually struggling with, and we work them together. One person's hard case becomes everyone's learning. Over six sessions, the changes compound, because each fortnight they practise in the clinic and bring back what happened.
How It Works
Small Group Coaching for your clinic team
Up to four clinicians from your clinic, so everyone works on their own cases every session
Six sessions, fortnightly - around twelve weeks, long enough for habits to form and results to show
Live on Zoom, with in-person possible where geography suits
Dates arranged around your clinic's diary - mornings before patients, lunchtimes, whatever fits
The agenda comes from your team, not from me: the patients they are losing, the conversations they dread, the objections they can't get past
A wrap-up conversation with you at the end, so you hear what shifted and where to take it next
Investment: A$2,200 including GST for the group. One fee for the group, not per clinician.
What Your Team Works On
Every group is different, because every caseload is different. Recent groups have worked on:
Patients who say "I'll see how I go" and never rebook
Explaining ongoing care without sounding like selling
The patient who wants passive treatment and resists the active plan
Handling "it's too expensive" without discounting or defensiveness
Delivering findings candidly while keeping the patient engaged
The confidence to close a session with a clear plan instead of a vague "see you next time"
Your clinicians bring the cases. I bring three decades of working out what actually moves people to follow through.
Who This Is For (And Who It Isn't)
This is for your clinic if:
You have two to four clinicians whose clinical skills outrun their conversational confidence
Your PVA or rebooking numbers tell you good treatment is leaking out the front door
You want development that shows up in the treatment room, not just a certificate
You are willing to give your team an hour a fortnight to work on it properly
You have clinicians who are clinically strong but whose confidence has not yet caught up with their skill.
This is probably not for you if:
You are looking for a sales script for your staff
You want a one-off session to tick a PD box - a workshop suits that better
Your team is not open to looking candidly at their own conversations yet
What Owners Notice
By the end of six sessions, this is what the work supports your team to do: hold the difficult conversations instead of avoiding them. Present care plans with quiet confidence. Meet resistance with curiosity instead of retreat. And stay engaged with the patients who used to drift away.
You notice it where it matters: patients completing their plans, a steadier diary, and clinicians who back themselves in the room.
What Clinic Owners Say About Working With Me
“The coaching has been a genuine investment in our team, and they know it. It complements their clinical skills rather than sitting apart from them.
One of our clinicians has lifted his PVA to close to 8, above clinical average, and says he's happier at work than he's ever been. Two others have just recorded their best PVA months so far.
Even if staff satisfaction were the only benefit, it would be well worth it.”
Nigel Smith
Headache, Neck Jaw Clinic
"Her training has assisted my staff and I to define a patient's real reason for seeking treatment sooner... It has also given my team far more confidence in handling difficult conversations both at the front desk and in the treatment room.
Our treatment/client ratio has improved from a practice average of 1–3 per patient to 7–10, and both the therapists and patients are happy."
Chris Fawcett
Practice owner, Brisbane
About Annette
I spent more than 30 years in clinical practice and clinic ownership before turning full-time to the thing I kept seeing decide outcomes: the conversation. Clinicians are trained to treat the body, but rarely trained to connect with the mind - and it is the connection that determines whether your care plans get finished or abandoned.
I now work with clinics across Australia on communication, patient engagement and mentoring. Coaching is the part of my work I value most, because it is where I watch capable clinicians become confident ones.
If that is what you want for your team, let's talk.
Investment And Availability
A$2,200 including GST for the group. Six sessions, up to four clinicians, dates set around your diary, and a wrap-up conversation with you at the end.
For context: one patient who completes an eight-session care plan instead of drifting off at session three is worth several hundred dollars to your clinic. This works on every clinician's whole caseload.
I coach a small number of groups at any one time, alongside my courses and workshops, and dates are set individually with each clinic. The conversation costs nothing and will tell us both whether this is the right fit.
Questions Owners Ask
Do you follow a set programme?
No. The sessions are built around your team's actual cases and conversations. That is the point of coaching rather than training: it meets your clinicians exactly where they are.
We only have two clinicians. Is that enough?
Yes. Up to four is the ceiling, not the requirement. Two works well.
Can I sit in?
That's your call, and worth discussing on our first conversation. Some owners join; others prefer the team to have the space to be candid, and take the wrap-up conversation at the end instead.
Are sessions recorded?
No. The value is in the live working of real cases, and clinicians speak more openly when nothing is recorded.
When can we start?
Dates are set with each clinic individually. On our call we will look at your diary and mine and find the fortnightly rhythm that fits.
What happens after the six sessions?
Most teams want to keep the work going. Everyone who has coached or trained with me can join my monthly call, where clinicians bring whatever they are finding hard that month, live or by email beforehand. Ask me about it when we speak.
Can different clinics share a group?
This page is for single-clinic groups, where the team shares context and cases. If you are an individual clinician interested in group coaching, contact me and I will let you know what is coming or you might be interested in one-on-one coaching.
Final Word
Your team already knows what to do clinically. The clinics that thrive are the ones whose clinicians can also carry the conversation: the buy-in, the objection, the plan the patient actually follows.
Six sessions. Four clinicians. Their real cases. Book the conversation and we will work out whether it fits your clinic.
PS - If you are not sure whether coaching or a workshop is the better starting point for your team, book the call anyway. It is 20 minutes, and I will tell you plainly which I would choose in your position, even if the answer is the cheaper one.
Annette
Driving adherence and clinical outcomes
Get In Touch
Location: 26 Akala Street , Flaxton Queensland 4560
Phone: 0417 817 388
Email: [email protected]