KRIS RAI
Clinical Director & Co-founder
Throughout the last 19 years, Kris’ journey as an Osteopath, naturopath, teacher and student has seen him work with many teachers from West to East, explore different cultures and study an array of scientific approaches and movement arts. As this journey unfolded, it became Kris’s deep rooted ambition to build a space that encourages individual self-sustainability, and to create a culture that teaches individuals and health professionals from all walks of life and backgrounds the deep knowledge of human structure, form and wider ecology.
Spending many years researching the anthropological roots of human existence, it is these principles that form the foundation of Kris’s approach. Combined with his osteopathic practice and other treatment modalities, Kris uses an array of evidence-based scientific strategies, movement forms and philosophical principles to teach his patients and students how to develop greater movement intelligence, build structural resilience and improve athletic performance.
PaVLINA RAI
Movement Coach & Founding team member
For more than 15 years, Pavlina has been studying, understanding and exploring movement. Pavlina’s path to understanding human form has taken many turns into many depths, beginning with stage performance, choreography and the creative understanding of human expression, moving onto pilates, functional strength training and developing her movement practices.
A journey of competing and discovering different movement forms has allowed Pavlina to build a fluid and dynamic approach to movement and strength training. Pavlina has combined the art of artIstic expression with a scientific understanding of the human body to develop a creative and performance based approach to movement for her clients and students.
PAUL MORANA
Clinical Director & Co-founder
Paul’s understanding of human movement and body awareness has been developed over 15 years of industry experience and his own background in competitive sports.
After studying and working as a personal trainer and strength coach, Paul returned to university to study Sports Rehabilitation. This gave him the opportunity to advance his skills and work alongside different health professionals, gaining a more in depth understanding of the human body.
Paul has a vast range of experience when it comes to dealing with injury and exercise treatments. Utilising his experiences and teachings, Paul uses his sports physiotherapy practice to understand the origins of pain, focusing on movement strategies to develop patients’ awareness of their own bodies, prevent injuries and maximise sports performance.
Trude Stjernen
Physiotherapist
Trude Stjernen is a physiotherapist from Norway. She graduated from Oslo Metropolitan University in 2008, and since then worked in multidisciplinary clinics first in Norway and then in Dubai after moving there in 2014. Her main knowledge and experience is within musculoskeletal issues, with a wide variety of cases, anything from acute injuries to more long term pains.
Trude strongly believes in movement as medicine and this is an important factor in her treatments alongside manual work. She is also passionate about helping people suffering from long term pain gaining back confidence in their bodies and returning to movements and activities they have been avoiding due to pain. She believes in adjusting or changing up training or activities rather than stopping movement.
Trude has a personal interest in training and staying active, and she also has done courses to enhance her knowledge when it comes to exercises and training. She completed a course in strength training/coaching and also uses her own experience with training when dealing with different clients.
Zain Panjwani
Osteopath
Osteopath, Naturopath & Lifestyle Medicine practitioner Zainali has been practicing for over 9 years. His interest and love for sports initially took him into elite athletics dealing with some of the UK’s top 100m Sprinters & Long Jumpers. He founded his own clinic in the UK where he treated a variety of people from sports to chronic pain and autoimmune conditions.
The knowledge he has built up has allowed him to assess and treat according to your functional goals and abilities, utilising active movement therapy. 3D movement assessments and functional exercises. Zainali is an accredited Golf Performance Specialist from the Gray Institute (USA). This unique approach has enabled him to assist golfers in their mobility and stability as it relates to golf biomechanics.
Most recently, he has embarked on the Institute of Functional Medicine programme beginning with the AFMCP course. This avenue has broadened his understanding of the integrated systems of our human body. It has deepened his Osteopathic treatment to be able to address chronic disease and pain using nutrition and lifestyle changes. Zainali continues to learn, teach and educate himself in order to better serve others.
Catherine Moss
Chiropractor
Catherine graduated with her Masters in Chiropractic from the world renowned Anglo European College of Chiropractic in Bournemouth, England in 2017. In 2020 she set up her own clinic in the UK, built on the ethos of kindness and focussing on educating her patients to be kinder to their bodies through the natural techniques of Chiropractic. She has come to join Joint Space in Dubai to work as part of a multidisciplinary team with a likeminded ethos.
Catherine has a particular interest in Chiropractic care for babies, children and pregnant women however uses an array of techniques to help all ages become better versions of themselves. She uses techniques such as diversified manipulation, dry needling and soft tissue work including her qualification in using IASTM tools and believes in tailoring a unique treatment plan to each individual patient.
Catherine enjoys running and keeping fit. She has completed 7 half marathons, a marathon and has entered into more races here in the UAE to continue challenging herself. She has a passion to help her patients achieve their fitness goals too.
Yorke Petty
Physiotherapist
Yorke’s passion for sport & movement has influenced her career path as a Physiotherapist and Pilates instructor. Gaining her Physiotherapy degree in Durban, South Africa, Yorke has directed her focus into sports and orthopaedics and completed a post graduate diploma in Orthopaedic Manipulative Therapy. With her love for movement, she pursued training in Pilates becoming a certified comprehensive Pilates instructor.
Yorke has worked with a range of people from elite athletes including Olympians, the South African Men’s Indoor Hockey Team, to weekend warriors and anyone in pain wanting to improve their quality of life.
Yorke is a keen sports person herself, growing up in competitive hockey and swimming circles. She now enjoys an active lifestyle including running, gym, golf and Pilates. Her aim for her patients is to treat them holistically through movement, rehabilitation and education for long term benefit and lifestyle change, rather than short term symptom relief.
Rima Bassam
Physiotherapist
With a passion for understanding the human body, movement, and knowing how to deal with pain and dysfunction, Rima had sought various qualifications and skills throughout her 11 years of practice.
She has worked with different types of conditions and environments, ranging from sports, yoga, post op, chronic pain, and elderly. Given her previous practices of sports and martial arts like BJJ, and her current yoga practice, this has given a better knowledge of body function and mechanics of injuries. Rima has a special interest in the body’s fascial system, and is currently specializing in Stecco Fascial Manipulation, which provides a global approach in assessing and treating the body – ‘Manus sapiens, potens est’ – A knowledgeable hand is a powerful one.
Dr. Zain Ladha
Doctor of Natruopathy
Dr Zain Ladha is a Canadian board-certified Naturopathic Doctor and Clinical Hypnotherapist. With over 10 years of experience in integrative and functional medicine, herbal medicine, nutritional counseling, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and acupuncture, Dr. Zain’s approach combines ancient/traditional healing with evidence-informed strategies for optimal health.
She specializes in treating pediatric and adult patients, with a focused interest in digestion, allergies, hormonal health, and mental well-being.
Russell Hill
Osteopath
Russell qualified from The British School of Osteopathy in 1998 with a BSc (Hons) degree and is registered with the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC) in the UK. After gaining his initial experience working in clinics around London, he opened his own clinic in Kensington High Street. During this period, he also worked in London’s leading shoulder clinic and specialised in treating frozen shoulder.
Russell moved to Dubai in 2004 and has built a very good reputation as an effective and honest practitioner. Russell treats a wide variety of patients from new-born babies to the elderly, the less active to professional athletes and all the variations in-between, keeping his professional life extremely varied and interesting. Russell uses a variety of techniques from gentle cranio-sacral to a very direct structural approach in his practice, which are altered and adapted appropriately to suit the individual. Russell treats babies and toddlers suffering from colic, sleeping disorders and reflux and pre & postnatal mothers.
Rommel Antonio
Physiotherapist
Rommel is a physiotherapist specialising in manual therapy, corrective exercise, dry needling and joint manipulation. Rommel graduated as a physiotherapist in 1997, and has been working as a physiotherapist in Dubai for 18 years. Rommel has a keen interest in sports injuries, treating conditions such as knee pain, back pain and shoulder pain, and also works with general issues such as posture, desk based workers and everything in between.
Rommel has worked with Gulf United Football Club, in the first division of the UAE domestic football league and works with the UAE padel tennis national team.
