The Loon About
Hi, I'm Maddie.
I grew up in Toronto, and spent a lot of my time driving north to the Kawartha Lakes. The city taught me how to move fast. The lakes taught me everything else.
Sport is how I learned both. I played varsity volleyball at Nipissing University in North Bay, after growing up trying to play every sport I could. I started weightlifting at thirteen; it began as something my family did together, and it's still one of the ways I feel closest to them. Now most of my training revolves around speed and explosiveness, with some marathon running in the mix — and I still play as much volleyball as I can.
That's where the name comes from. A loon spends most of its life on the surface, calm and unbothered — and then it dives. It goes deep, stays under longer than seems possible, and comes back up with exactly what it was looking for.
That's the work.
What I believe
Pain is rarely the whole story. It tells you where, not why. Getting to the why means diving deeper — past the obvious answer to whatever is actually driving it.
An injury is a starting point, not a setback. I learned that from my own — an injury nobody could quite explain, and a practitioner who went the extra mile to find the root of it. That was the moment I knew what I wanted to do.
How you move matters. Where a stride loads, where a rotation really comes from, what a joint is compensating for. Small things compound — over a season, and over a lifetime.
Not every athlete competes. Some of the people I work with are training for something. Most are just living — a long day on their feet, keeping up with their kids, wanting to still be hiking at seventy. Your body is being asked to do something either way, and that deserves the same attention I'd give a season.
Experience
Fascial Stretch Therapy. FST is hands-on, table-based assisted stretching that works with your connective tissue and joints rather than forcing them into position. It's gentle, you stay clothed, and it's often the piece that finally lets something move.
Osteopathic Studies — Fourth Year at the Sutherland-Chan School of Osteopathy. Manual assessment and technique, visceral work, and whole-body systems thinking — how a restriction in one area quietly shows up somewhere else entirely. I'm a student, not an osteopath, and I'd rather say that plainly. It's still the lens I bring to every session. Mastering it will be a lifelong journey — and the change I've already seen in my clients is what tells me how powerful it is.
Craniosacral Therapy. Light, precise hands-on work with the membranes and fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. The contact is gentle and highly intentional — following what the tissue is actually doing and giving the nervous system the conditions to release patterns it's been holding onto, sometimes for years.
Coaching and Strength Work. Built from a lifetime of my own training and from the people I work with now: university athletes, everyday athletes, and people rebuilding after an injury or surgery.
Athletic Therapy Assistant — Three Years, with a university varsity team and in a private clinic. That's where I learned how bodies behave under real load, and what things look like in the first moments after something goes wrong. It's also where I found my passion for helping people live pain-free.
Come as you are
Whether you're chasing something specific or just want to move better than you do right now, that's what I'm here for.
Hands-on sessions happen in my home studio in Touraine, Gatineau, just off Avenue Gatineau. It's a quiet, private space rather than a busy clinic, and I'll send you the address and everything you need to know once you've booked.
Strength and conditioning coaching runs online, with onboarding either in person or over video, so distance isn't a barrier for that side of things.
If you're curious what a session actually looks like, have a look at my services — that's where I walk through what each one involves.
Book a session when you're ready, and feel free to send me a message with any questions you may have.