About

Clinician and Research Physiotherapist with a special interest in hand and upper limb musculoskeletal pain.

Dr Sonia Ranelli has 30 years experience as a clinical physiotherapist in the area of musculoskeletal pain, acute and chronic, and with a special interest in hand and upper limb musculoskeletal pain disorders, injuries and the management of the patient with Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome, CRPS. She has worked in Perth and in Oxford, UK, in the hospital system, in general private practice and now as an Advanced Clinical Practice Physiotherapist at the Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH) and in the Emergency Department at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (SCGH).
She has competent and expert clinical skills in the management of the patient with musculoskeletal pain, and uses contemporary pain science to inform
clinical reasoning knowledge and skills to ensure patient-centred goals and outcomes are realised. She liaises with physiotherapists in the community, locally and regionally, to co-share management of patients referred to the clinic.

She has had a tenured teaching and research academic position within Physiotherapy at the School of Allied Health, Curtin University, for over 20 years, in musculoskeletal physiotherapy and pain, across the undergraduate and postgraduate programs and continues lecturing as a sessional academic.

Her doctoral research established her reputation in the health and well-being of young musicians locally, nationally and internationally, providing world-first data in this group of musicians. She started her research career in this very important area and her unique combination of research and clinical expertise has placed her in a strong position to continue and embrace opportunities for translational research in the area of hand and upper limb musculoskeletal problems more broadly.